The Seven C’s ~ A Poem by Liam

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

SEVEN C’S by LIAM

We must sail
the seven C’s.
Seven C’s
we must sail.
Seven C’s C every other C.

C1!
The C of certain T’s
C2!
The C of several U’s
C3!
The C of many B’s
C4!
The C of the doors

We have sailed
4 C’s, and
3 C’s must
we sail.

We must sail
the seven C’s.
Seven C’s
we must sail.
Seven C’s C every other C.

C5!
The C of jolly G’s
C6!
The C of TNT

We have sailed
6 C’s, and
1 C must
we sail.

But C-seven
is always very rough
Even in the
calmest of waves,
No ship has gone
there and returned
Many have tried
to sail there,
But they did not
even get past C4.
So the C’s that
we have seeked
May have been hard,
but we have survived!

So on to the seventh
of the seven C’s
Everyone will cheer
right now, as none
have gotten here
So to C7 here
we go, ho!

C7!
The C of no return

And we saw a
tidal wave
Rushing strait
towards us.
And it crashed into
the courageous men

But we survived -
The tsunami was a test
A test of courage of
which we had shone
All of them who even
got here, the tidal
wave drowned them
They were afraid -
the one problem
of which we
did not carry

We sailed back to the shore,
And fame was our prize
There was now one
who had ever survived
And along our trip we
gained adventure

So I’d say it was good!

We must sail
the seven C’s
Seven C’s
we have sailed
the seven C’s
Seven C’s see every
person of our ship
who have gained
fame and glory!

Ooka Island ~ A Review

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

A couple of years ago, I had the chance to review Ooka Island and I was happy to get the opportunity to do so again via Mosaic Reviews. My daughter had loved the program when she was younger and I now had a little one that was getting to be old enough to try it out for himself.

Set up was even easier this time as we were supplied a memory stick with the program included on it. All we had to do was plug in the USB and drag the files into our App folder. A username and password was supplied and we were all set to go! Not much had changed on the website. The theme song was as catchy as ever as it plays through my head as I write this review!

We did run in to some issues this time around as my daughter is getting a little bit too old for this program. While she isn’t a fluent reader, yet, she is more advanced than the early levels of this program. My son, who has just turned 3, is very much ready to learn some basic phonics, but he mouse control wasn’t all that accurate so it was frustrating to him. In the end, I had him tell his older sister what to do and they were able to make it work that way. It was a good exercise in cooperation for them and for that reason, it would have been valuable.

The clicker The pointer.

This worked better in the earlier days as my son could get up and point to the things on the screen, but for the last 3 weeks he’s been unable to do so as he fractured his tibia. Just out of his cast, we was still unable to sit on his knees to play for this picture.

However, there are a lot of redeeming characteristics to the actual program itself and I think that is a good program for your early readers that are just beginning to use the computer. The activities are well structured and educational and the free play can be fun, but it well regulated so that your child has to do a fair bit of learning each time before they can play with their rescued characters. Letter and sound recognition is the basis of the game and children have the chance to read short stories and answer comprehension questions. I think this is ideal for early readers, but may be a bit tedious for children that already have good letter/sound recognition. When my daughter was just learning she enjoyed this program, but this time around she found that it did not progress fast enough for her.

There were a few technical issues that we were faced with, but nothing that restarting the program couldn’t fix, so all in all I would be happy to recommend this program for early readers. The Ooka Method is quite sound and kids will play along without realizing that they are learning as they rescue the Ooka Elves from the mean Fligs that wouldn’t teach them to read. I do find that it is priced at the higher end of what I would be willing to pay for what you get, but at the same time, it is a program that is quite engaging and may be worth the price even if you decide to pay for it on a month to month basis of 12.95$ or an annual price of 124.95$. I encourage you to take some time to look at the website and decide for yourself.

Spanish For You – A Review

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Hola!

This is how I am greeted each morning since we’ve had the opportunity to review the Spanish for You curriculum as part of Mosaic Reviews. We were sent the e-book version of the Estac iones (All about the weather) package for grades 3-8, which retails for 64.95$US. This complete curriculum came with a workbook, an e-book of flashcards/worksheets, audio files of the lessons recorded by the creator of the program, and an audio recording of native speakers reading the vocabulary. We also received lesson plans for each week. It looked easy to use and I was excited to print off the first few lessons to try.

Unfortunately, my students, ages 7 and 9, were not as eager about the program as I was. It may very well be because we’ve started so many language curricula over the years and have never kept up with them. We’ve tried French, Gaelic, Latin and other Spanish courses and the children have not become at all fluent in either of the languages. A new Spanish program was met with some groans. Frustration set in nearly immediately when we listened to the audio files because the narrator does not leave space for you to repeat the vocabulary words after her. I wasn’t always quick enough to stop the audio so they could repeat the words and they did not like that I had to keep going back. Using the other materials was easy and the kids enjoyed colouring and using the flashcards.

We stuck with the curriculum though our review period and have completed nearly 3 weeks. We had to break each lesson down into two weeks as we found that there were so many new vocabulary word that we needed more time with them. All in all, I enjoyed the program even if my children did not find it particularly appealing. I found that the program was well organized if you printed just what you needed for a week or two at a time. I’ve heard that they’ve made it even easier since we were given the material for review so it should be very straight forward now! I appreciated that they include both a native speaker and an English person with the audio files. Any programs we’re tried previously have had either one or the other and it is really nice to hear both! I also love that it jumps right in to Spanish that you can use and verb tenses and whatnot are thrown in as needed. There is nothing more tedious than conjugating verbs and having sentences that the children can learn and use immediately is a huge plus!

The only real downfall I see is that the vocabulary words are read straight through without space for the children to repeat them. It was frustrating for them and frustrating for me as well. There are times when I let the children do their lessons more or less independently with me nearby, but I was needed to pause the audio time and again. I strongly feel that if the audio was slowed down my children would have taken the initiative to turn it on from time to time throughout the day to practice. In addition, a few of the flashcards were a bit ambiguous, but that was no biggie for us and it didn’t affect our use of the curriculum.

All in all, I think this is a very good Spanish curriculum. While we will probably leave it for now, I hope to come back to it over the summer. I hope very much to see a Spanish friend of ours (who has promised us some lessons) and I’d love to show her this curriculum. I’d also love to surprise her with the children able to speak some Spanish with her. I do think that this program will provide us with what we need to really be able to converse in simple sentences (at least about the weather – a great Canadian pass time!)

For the price, I do not think you can go wrong if your children are really eager to learn Spanish. There are also options for purchasing just the grade level you need for 39.95$US and you can choose the Fiesta package instead of Estaciones. There are a couple trial options and free printable mini lessons so I encourage you to go to the website and check out the different options that are available.

Apologia’s Ultimate Homeschool Planners ~ A Review

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Screen Shot 2012-12-31 at 2.50.33 PM When I was a teenager I was always happy to go back to school at the end of the summer. I loved my teachers and I loved my classes, but what I really enjoyed was the fact that we were supplied a brand new agenda at the beginning of the year. Oh, how I loved my agenda/day planner. I didn’t always use it, I wasn’t that organized of a person even back then, but I love the look and feel of a new book that was all mine to write in. I’ve even held on to my agenda’s from the last couple years of high school! As you can imagine, I was especially thrilled when I was chosen to review The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia as part of the Mosaic Reviews Team. Not only would I review the Planner for parents, my son would get The Ultimate Daily Planner for Students. We were both really excited one bitterly, bitterly cold morning when we went to get the mail and saw the package from Apologia waiting for us.

When we opened the envelope, we were immediately thrilled that we’d braved the Canadian cold, despite the fact that it had made my three year old cry. I loved the colours of the planner. I loved the feel of the cover. I loved the smell of the planner. Oh yes, it was love at first sight and I hadn’t even open it up yet! My son immediately took his planner upstairs and disappeared. He was over the moon to have such a tool for himself and only for him to use. I’m going to let him start with his review of Ultimate Daily Planner for Students.

I’d rate this planner as a 9.5 out of 10. The daily planner helps me a lot. I like how it has a daily (weekly) section and a monthly section! It also is handy that you can put in your own starting date so if you get it on February 10th or something you can start it then and not have to worry about skipping a 12th of the year or so. I also like how it comes with a ruler, stickers and a glow in the dark spiral part! Only thing I would have liked added is a notes section. I can use the Saturday/Sunday section for notes, but an actual notes section would be quite a bit better. I also find it handy that you’ve added an “about me” section at the beginning of the book. Very good book. I’m glad we got it!

Liam – Age 9

I think you can say it was a big hit with him. He forgot to mention it here, but he was disappointed that much of the trivia was American. He loves trivia and as a Canadian we have not studied American presidents and the such much. Obviously, this would be a plus for our American friends, but some general trivia for students not in America would have been fun, too!

As a Mum, I am thrilled that this planner got him thinking ahead and writing.

I don’t keep notes for my children’s homeschooling once they are able to do it for themselves and we’ve been trying to get Liam to consistently write what he’s done/what he plans on doing in a binder, so we have a record, for the last year or two. This daily planner has inspired him to finally do so and he has only missed writing in it once or twice since the day we got it. As we are pretty much unschoolers/laid back eclectic folk, I didn’t use it to plan with him, but it could be used this way and works in conjunction with The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. I couldn’t be happier with this planner. High quality and easy to use with lots of little extras to help out and make it special (how awesome is it that the spiral glows in the dark?).

I was equally happy with The Ultimate Homeschool Planner. While we don’t plan out homeschooling days, I find that I have to be extra planned in my household duties. I never really know what the kids are going to need from me in their studies/days and it is too easy to let the house fall apart if you aren’t organized. I don’t do well with chaos around me so staying on top of things is important. Therefore, I am glad that there are various way to organize this planner (by student, by day, by subject). This is what I chose to do:

I divided my day into categories (writing, housemaking, meal planning, Morgaine (to track her schoolwork as she isn’t writing well, yet), and other) and then scheduled in my goals accordingly. This worked well for me and helped keep me on track. I could see how this would be practical when actively teaching several children at once, in which case you could divide the planner into child/day or child/subject categories. Debra Bell gives several different suggestions in the beginning pages of the planner on ways to organize it.There are pages to plan your yearly goals for your children (both character and academic), monthly plan pages, Bible study pages, and much more. This is a well rounded planner that works well in my family and I can see it be a real benefit if we were busier especially. We’ve recently moved and have found ourselves short on activities, but I still appreciated the planner to help organize things around the house.

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner sells for 28.00$ US and the Ultimate Daily Planner for Students sells for19.00$ US on the Apologia website. Check back in a few days, when you will be able to see more reviews from my Mosaic Reviews team and be sure to visit Apologia to see more about these planners and the other wonderful Christian curriculum and resources that they sell!

Let Them Program

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Liam, my nine year old son, has taken an interest in computer programming. In fact, it’s become more than an interest – it’s an obsession. There’s minecraft, of course, but that’s more an exercise in creativity than real programming. He’s interested in Python and Java Script. He’s been spending hours on the Khan Academy’s Computer Science website learning Python, then going over to Code Academy and learning Java Script. He’s been spending hours on these programs an, as a result, has not been focusing on other areas of study. It can’t be good, right?

WRONG!

Liam is learning all kinds of things, and is doing so in a way that is meaningful to him.

Liam is learning logic – Computer language is based in logic and you need to understand how it works. Liam was so interested in the logic that we was learning in his classes that when I was learning categorical logic in my Think Again: How to Argue and Reason class he crept downstairs one evening to tell me that he wanted me to teach him how to do that as well. So we spent the next couple of days making equations and filling out truth tables together. Yes, Liam, being Liam, as started talking in if/then statements all the time and that can be rather interesting, but that is alright!

Liam is learning math – Liam needs to use ratios and angles in his designs every day. Liam uses multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in ways that a meaningful to getting the end results in the projects that he is working on.

Liam is writing – to experts in the field and asking educated questions. He is answering other students questions. He is communicating with children his own age about his projects on Khan Academy, and collaborating with another person to create a 2D version on Minecraft using Python.

Liam is being creative – the ideas he comes up with are fascinating. He is building on other people’s ideas and coming up with his own. He makes up full adventure stories to animate. He’s finding ways that work to share his ideas with the world.

Liam is being methodical – he comes up with the problem he wants to solve. For example, he wanted a calculator that would automatically keep track of various characters hit points in Dungeons and Dragons. He said it sucked to have to calculate them every time. He also knew that certain characters use different weapons/defense/whatever (can you tell that I don’t play D&D?) and was able to take that into consideration with a start page where he program that information to come in automatically when you chose your race/class and set your other stats. He researched about the different characters before hand. He wrote all the information he needed on paper. Then was able to code it and ended up with a finished project.

Liam is learning problem solving and perseverance - When Liam doesn’t know what to do, he has learned not to give up (a problem we’ve had in various other areas this year). If he doesn’t understand the information from one source he looks it up in another, be it on Wikipedia or YouTube tutorials or somewhere else. And problem solving – let’s face it, half of coding is problem solving. One open bracket somewhere will throw off the whole thing. You need extraordinary patience and attention to detail to be able to spot these errors and I’m always amazed when Liam can read through it all and go “oh” and fix the issue.

So I say, let them program!

Here’s a pretty neat video that my husband sent me a couple days ago about Teaching Kids to Code that talks about a lot of the things that I mention above (I’d already ranted on facebook and come to conclusion that Liam had learned all the things above ^, but it felt nice to be backed up by the experts!

(Since seeing this video, Liam has now added Scratch to his list of programming sites that he is learning to use).

Weekly Update – February 15th, 2013

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

Well, the theme of the week was outdoor exploration. We took full advantage of the snow that was dumped on us over the weekend and I am glad that we did. I was surprised at how much my children actually enjoy winter when it isn’t minus a billion. During the first two weeks we were here, EVERY outing involved at least one child crying from the cold by the end. This week, I had a hard time getting them to come inside. Ruadhán especially loved it, and liked to dig and play “real life minecraft”. The big kids made forts, dug tunnels and threw snowballs. They also learned that snowball fights are a sure way to get someone upset so they probably aren’t a good idea. We’ve also taken a few strolls down the highway as a family. A Mama and her little chicks. The road is all but deserted so there’s not really too much risk to it. We got to see some logging trucks pulling off on the side today so the little one was especially thrilled.

I fell into a snowbank and got snow up my skirt trying to get this picture for you. I love that he is wearing a hat that I made that all my children have taken turns wearing over the last 7 years or so.

Liam is finally finishing up his unit on fractions in Math Mammoth. He has been working on it since early in the fall. Fractions are the first thing in math that Liam has ever had to give any thought to at all. Most often, in the the past, he taught ME tricks and patterns in math. Unfortunately, because fractions didn’t come as to him everything else, he assumed he was no longer good at math and gave up. He’s been plugging through since December so that he can get on to other subjects. If he shows interest in it, we’ll probaby start doing mental math again around the table. He used to pride himself on how easy he could get even complicated questions and it was clear, even yesterday, just playing Monopoly, that he’s lost that confidence.

Besides math, Liam has been working on developing a 2D version of Minecraft using Python. He has also spent sometime working on Game Maker on our little PC. He’d developing quite the knowledge base when it comes to various computer programming languages. His games also involve story lines and obstacles so it is decent all around educations. Liam has been reading the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony and I believe that he is on Book 30 since starting in December. I’d read them a number of years ago so could not remember them well and I just started the series over again myself and am a little shocked at the adult themes in the books. I think they are a little over my head but now I do know where certain questions he was asking me came from…hmmm. He loves that Xanth is a very literal world and works the same way as his brain does. He’s come up with a few play on words himself. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Blank-Its: Material that makes things go blank.

A character named D. Saster: Causes disasters wherever she goes.

Punpies: Puppies who are very good at making up puns.

Liam has also helped out a lot in the kitchen this week along with his little brother. We’ve done a fair bit of baking and he also helped me prepare a few suppers in additions to the breakfast he made us yesterday.

Morgaine has chosen to spend much of her time in her room drawing. She really has talent when she takes her time and I should share some of her work soon. She’s also spent a lot of time reading. So much so that I usually have to tell her to turn out the lights when I go to bed. She is having a harder time sleeping in now that she shares a room with her brother so she doesn’t get the time that she used to have in the evenings/night to work on her drawings and reading because she is too tired in the day with Liam being such an early bird. She has played school with Ruadhán many times this week and continues to be excellent with him. She is plugging along in her workbooks, having completed several this school year. She hasn’t shown a lot of interest in other subjects (history, geography, science). She tends to focus on the more creative subjects – art, sewing/knitting, and drama. She also spends are fair bit of the day just dancing around.

As for me, I’ve found this week really long and rather draining. The outside play has done me a world of good, but in the house, I’d rather hide in my bathtub than do hands on projects with the kids. I’ve found the cause of my tiredness so I hope that in the coming weeks I’ll get my energy back up. The warmer – I hope – days should help, too. I received my grade for my neuroscience class from Coursera – 97.3% and my first certificate of achievement. YAHOO! I’m also continuing to work on my Think Again: How to reason and Argue course. It is EXCELLENT and I wish everyone would take it. One of the teachers is a total delight and the other, while less entertaining really knows his stuff (and captivates Liam). The course is officially done, but I’ll have to work hard to meet the extended deadline for finishing the material. I had to take several breaks over the the 3 months the course has run and I find myself only about two thirds of the way done, with 2 our of 4 exams still to go. So you’ll know where I’ll be this week!

All in all, I’m beginning to get back into normal life and I think that the children are adjusting well, too. We will see what next week brings.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

My Goodness We Caved – And I Love It

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Mama Manuscripts

We spend a lot of time talking about marketing and consumerism in our house. My kids are used to my ranting about how one holiday ends and the very next day all the decor in the stores has changed over to the next holiday without delay. Trying to entice one to buy more, more, MORE. They know that we don’t do TV mainly because of the insane amount of ads that promise happines if you just buy this one new thing. (Morgaine walked into Walmart at three and said to me, “Live Happy. Buy More.” Needless to say, we didn’t get cable when we moved 4 years ago). Of all the consumerist holidays out there, the one that bugs me most is Valentine’s Day. Seriously, a day to buy chocolate and flowers just so you can let your loved one’s know that you love them. WHAT?!?!!?

Needless to day, I boycott the holiday and the children know not to expect anything. However, last night, thanks to Pinterest, I decided to make some cards. I’d seen a few different ones with cute play on words and Liam is VERY into that right now so I thought it would be fun. Morgaine came down and noticed what I was doing and I caught her in her room at 10pm doing some crafting of her own. Well, by the morning, everyone was busy with their let’s share the love ideas. Ruadhan went into the big kids’ room and came in and told me that he wanted to do something, too. His idea was too go downstairs and get carrots for everyone. So there were were munching away at 6:30 on our carrots.

Soon enough all the cards were done and Liam offered to go down stairs and make us breakfast. He is getting to be quite the little chef and his vegetarian omelet with salsa turned out really good.

We decided that we would take time this morning to play a board game because “it was a holiday after all”. So we learned some math while playing monopoly and did some baking this afternoon so we’d have a treat for after supper.

So we did the Valentine’s thing and I lived to tell the tail – but, I still have to say that I’m avoiding facebook for the most part today because all the ewwy gooey stuff over there is just over the top! So, nothing against all you out there that are enjoying your chocolate and looking at your flowers today, but I’m happy that our day enjoyed not spending a dime and just hanging out together, pretty much like every other day!

Weekly Update – February 8th, 2013

Posted on February 8, 2013 by mamamanuscripts

We’ve survived our first week alone – give or take a couple days.

This week was about learning to just relax in my skin a little. I took a bath in the middle of the day just because I could. Instead of stressing about getting the house all organized, I decided that my goal was to get it a little cleaner, more organized than the previous day. Taking it a little chunk at a time I’ll still be able to get it all organized by the time Mike arrives to stay and I might even be able to come up with a daily plan to keep up with certain areas. I’ve taken to going to be early and reading. It is nice and it is also something that I want to keep in the habit of doing.

Ruadhán is doing well. He is adjusting to the new place, but is still a little clingy. He doesn’t shut up (eek, can I say that about my child? Talks a lot doesn’t quite seem to cover the constant chatter). Here’s a little gem from last night:

Ruadhán yawns.

Me: You might be getting tired.

Ruadhán: I’m not tired. I’m just stretching my mouth so I can say real important big words.

Yep, you have to love him.

I’ve decided that for the rest of this year we’re going to keep a relaxed approach to homeschooling. Yes, it will be over a year where we’ve taken things slow, but there have been many changes and there’s a lot to be said for taking the time to adjust and explore your new area.

This week Liam pulled out an old science experiment book so we did an experiment on sound waves (which is what we’d been studying in our last science course until the book vanished into thin area). We also did this:

What is he doing?

Homemade ice cream, of course! It was good for a first attempt. It is too bad that so much leaked. I wonder if we can use a mason jar next time.

We have a few little friends sharing our home with us.

Do you think we’ll have hundreds come the spring?

I had Liam write a small research paper on ladybugs because he hasn’t looked anything up in an encyclopedia in months.

I asked Morgaine to write a creative story but then she wrote a factual text instead about when I found a fly in my coffee cup!

There are supposed to be images of these things, but I do not have a camera that is very dependable at the moment and I have no desire to fight with it for the next 45 minutes.

Morgaine was very proud to have read Pompeii: Buried Alive because it is a Step into Reading level 4 book. There are days when she easily reads and other days when she struggles through ever single word. She spent a lot of time dancing around and making up stories this week. She is AMAZING with her little brother, though her and Liam have their moments! She is prone to tantrums and this week has been pretty good over all. *fingers crossed*

Liam is fascinated with computer programing so we had him restart a computer programming course he start earlier this year, Code Academy. He has been focusing on JavaScript. He has been using Python on Khan Academy and has created a whole bunch of programs (some are his own and some are spin offs from other’s codes). He has been asking intelligent questions on the site and giving other programmers feedback that has been helpful. While I don’t have a clue what he is doing, he seems to know a lot. He and Morgaine have also been watching a lot of videos from MIT + K12. Lots of cool videos on a variety of topics. I’m actually not sure what we are going to do when we go to limited downloads. Videos will certainly be out and we do a whole chunk of our learning that way!

Well, that’s about it. I’m about to head odd to have a picnic (interior picnic, of course) with the kids and then hear out for a cold excursion to the mailbox. Have a lovely weekend!

We’re Moving….

Posted on January 9, 2013 by mamamanuscripts

and this time, for once, I’m not talking about the blog!

We’ve been having some issues with our neighbours and it has come to the point that we’ve decided that it is in out best interest to get out of here. When the police are advising you to get a landline in case you only have time to call 911 and to install shatter resistant glass on the windows, it is time to cut your losses and just leave. We love the community where we live and we will miss it a great deal, but after a whirl wind trip (involving moose, ice, and blowing snow…lots of it) we found ourselves a beautiful new place in the country.

Our soon to be new home. It has some lovely features that our current home does not have:

Bathtubs (three of them).

Closets (in EVERY room…including pantries in the THREE kitchens).

We feel that this house was just wanting for us. It did not show up on our search of REALLY cheap houses, but when we met with a realtor he pulled this one up for us. We’d gone to see a particularly sad looking little house with him, and we were back at good ol’ Tim Hortons. He said that in the price range we were looking at, we’d for sure to need to put a lot of work into a place and suggested that we look just above our price range (which was painfully low). We’d done this before and were prepared to work hard on our new home so weren’t really looking to go higher than the price we’d given him. Well, for 2000 dollars more he pulled up this listing and I was like, “well, that house is really pretty, isn’t it?”

The next morning another agent took us out to see the house and as we were driving down the highway Mike noticed a house in the distance and as a joke said, “Hey, how about something like that?” (we always point out house we can’t afford as we drive by…we like to dream big). But this time I was like, “Mike, that is the house.” He was shocked when the agent slowed down in front of it. He was convinced I was pulling he leg.

The house is gorgeous. What happened is that the owner took our a mortgage to do renovations to turn it into vacation rental properties, but was unable to rent it out as fully as he’d liked so he just gave up on paying the mortgage and the home was foreclosed. It had been taken care of (as he had a current license for parks and recreation as a vacation rental property). The mortgage had been insured so the bank got back it’s money and they just wanted the house GONE as they didn’t want to take care of it/heat it through a winter. Here’s a listing that was put out before the home was forclosed. We ended up paying much, much less for the place…NINETY THOUSAND dollars less. This house was indeed waiting for us. It didn’t show in our under 25 000 dollar listings and should have. The agent just happened upon it, when we’d told him that we were sure we’d gotten all the ones in our price range. Thank goodness he looked again! This house, while we are sad to be moving, feels “right”.

The children were very comfortable, both inside and outside the home. In other house we visited they were more likely to stick very close to us. Here they were picking out rooms and playing happily.

I fell in love with the upstairs “apartment” that I’ve already turned into an awesome homeschooling area for the kids. There’s a work area, a clean up area, a reading nook, bathroom, and enough bedrooms for all three kids and that’s just in on the upper floor. There’s room for Mike and I on the main floor and even a granny suite for guests (though my friend suggest I make it my “Katrina’s VIP executive suite” with no cat/child access!)

This move was quite sudden and unexpected so we will be crazily busy for the next little while, but I look forward to sharing a lot more when we get where we are going to!

I’m Getting Back to Reviewing with Mosaic Reviews!

Posted on December 31, 2012 by mamamanuscripts

There’s been something missing from my blog. Yes, something more than just posts (yikes, I have to do something about that!).

REVIEWS!

I’ll admit that I had big ideas for this blog after I stopped reviewing last year. I was going to make this blog the place for all us imperfect parents/homemakers/educators. Well, that didn’t happen because well, life happened instead. When I did sit down to write, I found myself wondering how to write a blog without reviews. For three years, reviewing had been part of my daily life and without it, I felt a little lost. People liked reading my reviews, and I enjoyed sharing my opinions. People didn’t really want to read about my dirty laundry pile or my struggles with my seven year old. Well, maybe some people did, but I didn’t post, because I’d lost my blogging identity.

Well, I’m happy to say that I’m back because I’ve been selected to review for Mosiac Reviews, a venture launched by two dear friends of mine. I promise that I will get back in the saddle and use this blog for its intended purpose (because 2013 is going to be a whole new adventure…stay tuned) but I’ll also be able to bring you information about all kinds of items that I’ll have the opportunity to try out. I’m not exactly sure of the timeline for things but I am looking forward to starting and sharing with all of you. You’ll be hearing more from me on twitter and my facebook page as well, so be sure to follow me there as well.

Here’s to new opportunities in 2013!

Mama Manuscripts

Balancing the Wild and Wonderful World of Parenting with a Passion for Writing

Category Archives: Homeschooling