Luv'N Lambert Life

Math Rider {Crew Review}

April 23, 2013 by Dana

The Intelligent Math Facts Game

Have fun and build confidence!

We had so much fun with Math Rider last year that we decided to review it again this year! Math Rider is a fun, interactive math facts game created for kids of all ages and stages learning important basic math skills. Math Rider is a game that children will want to play again and again all the while learning in the process.

Math Rider teaches the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Children create a character who will be riding Shadow the Horse across the Land of Ray. The Land of Ray is a beautifully designed matte-painted fantasy land that children will greatly enjoy.

As children work through their quest they will find magical flowers, gems for elves and they even rescue a princess all while working on their math skills. There are four quests from easy to master to complete. Rewards change throughout the quests as children unlock and complete their missions.

Math Rider allows for more than one child to use the system learning needed facts. This worked well for us since we have three children learning at different levels currently. My oldest daughter truly enjoys this program while she’s working on her math facts simply because there is a horse involved. She is my animal lover. My son loves the simplicity and ease of the program. Because of it’s easy to use programming, I plan to start my 5 year old on it very soon.

Math Rider sells for $47 and includes free software updates for life. A free 7 day full-version trial is available on the website for immediate use.

photo DisclaimerGraphic1_zpsf612f371.gif

*Additional photos used were from my review of this product last year: https://www.luvnlambertlife.com/2012/02/tos-review-math-rider.html

VeggieTales’ The Little House That Stood {Review}

April 23, 2013 by Dana

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders

A Lesson in Making Good Choices

VeggieTales is a family favorite around our house. We are long time collectors of this wonderful Christian series of videos created for young children. Their hilarious antics get us every time, while teaching a valuable lesson in the video. The Little House That Stood didn’t disappoint in continuing that comedy pleasing tradition.

The Little House That Stood teaches the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders by relating the lesson to the Three Little Pigs story that most children know by heart. This story teaches children how to make good choices. It teaches them that when they follow God’s paths chosen for them, they can withstand anything.

An added bonus is the story “The Good Egg of Gooseville” which tells the classic story of Humpty Dumpty and how he cracked his shell. A new silly song is also introduced in this video called Happy Tooth Day. Many more additional features are also included for viewers to enjoy.

We really love this video, as we love all VeggieTales movies. The catchy tunes have been sung around our house for weeks and all of my children from youngest to oldest enjoy watching it.

You can purchase your copy online or in store today for around $14.99. You can find additional activities and a discussion guide on the website to extend your enjoyment of this wonderful children’s video. Don’t forget to like VeggieTales on Facebook and follow on Twitter!

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in 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.”

Expectations of Home {Thoughts From Me}

April 20, 2013 by Dana

I have to admit I was raised by a perfectionist. My Mother was and still is an amazing woman but she expected her house to be almost “perfect”. I grew up having to follow her strict rules of “put it back in it’s place” and “do it my way”.

Those of you who know me probably know that I was my Momma’s problem child and biggest challenge. We have butted heads many times over the years. She wants a home that showcases her favorite possessions and looks like a magazine cover. I want a home that is functional and lived in. I have a hard time getting her to comprehend the difference.

To me, it’s important that everything have it’s place but that everything in my home is functional and is used for a purpose. As a homeschooler, I need my space organized for that “classroom” aspect of our days. As a Mom, I need it to be functional for four fast growing kids who are home every single day.

Now, what my Mother thinks should not effect how my home is run in a normal family but in my family it does. Since she lives directly behind us and her job is to help me with my children daily, she is often in and out of my home. She straightens, directs children, helps with meal prep, puts things away as needed, give baths. Basically, she is an extension of myself and it’s a wonderful thing until you realize just how opposite we are in our expectations.

There are days when I get so fed up with choosing a place for things to go and organizing my home it to fit my family to then find it reorganized or out of place because Mom felt it belonged elsewhere, that I find myself doing nothing in my home except the essentials. With a family of essentially eight and two dogs, this doesn’t work well for me. It leaves my home in a bigger mess than I started out with.

As a Mom of a smaller large family, I can tell you that missing one day of tasks, chores, and household duties leaves us in a much bigger mess than we began with. Things quickly get out of hand and then it can take days to get caught back up, leaving future plans amiss in the process. So I strive to do my best not to let us get behind.

My children have daily chores, like laundry and dishes, that they complete to help out. If the routine is kept fairly well missing one day doesn’t hurt but it does mean double the work for the next day. Missing more than one day leaves us struggling to catch it all back up so I can tell you that doesn’t happen often.

I don’t currently use a schedule but it’s something I really do need to implement in our home. I probably need to create several lists too but this idea is a new one for me so it’s something I’m learning as I go along. Since my Mother and I are basically total opposites in home management, her ideas don’t necessarily work for me, so suggestions from her aren’t always helpful.

I really feel for you Momma’s that have a bigger family than I do! You are a true inspiration. I often take ideas and suggestions from you to fit into our own home. So if any of you are reading this, please do share in a comment some things that you do to make your homes more manageable for the rest of us who struggle with this daily.

I know I’m on my way in this home organization process but some days it feels that goal is so far away from me – lightyears to be exact. I want a home that is suitable and happy. One day I hope that I will get there.

Knowledge Quest: Timeline Builder app {Crew Review}

April 19, 2013 by Dana

The creative team at Knowledge Quest has done it again. Well-known for their creative black line master maps and timelines, Knowledge Quest is continuing to invent products that are easy for any homeschooling family to use. The Knowledge Quest Timeline Builder App for iPad is no different.

This app allows the user to create a full timeline to use with any history program. You can create a sample timeline using a specific time span, adding to it as needed or removing things that aren’t needed. The user can also create a new timeline with the specifics needed at the time.

Sample timelines come with facts from the time period already introduced. The most important characters of the time period are covered, complete with photos for the user to learn with. This can be added to as needed or removed from as needed. Images can also be uploaded or found and added from various places online.

New timelines are completely blank, much as they would be when creating your own timeline with weekly and daily lessons. Images can also be added by uploading or by finding them various places online. The time period can be set and adjusted as needed with the user able to choose from BCE, BC, AD, and CE periods in time. Any start or end date can be chosen per timeline.

A name can be specified along with a full description of the timeline you create for any timeline created. The user can also choose a background to further customize the timeline being created. And timelines can be switched between simply by clicking on the tabs shown on the app.

Inside the timeline, the user can choose to show the images or hide them as needed. Zooming in and out to specific periods is also available. You can edit the timeline at any point in time so change background color and specific years needed, as well as era.

Creating a New Event is easy. Simply click “New Event” at the top of the timeline. Create an event by entering the event name, description, start and end dates. Then import an image from the iPad image library or pasteboard. You can delete images in this option too.

Searching Wikipedia is also an option here. Clicking this option takes you to Wikipedia to the specifics of the event in question where you can find details, images and learn more about the events. This allows the student to find more specific information about the event at hand.

Once the timeline is created, you can then share it. You can save the timeline or event images to photos, send the timeline or events by email and save the event descriptions and timeline event images to a folder for sharing in iTunes. This allows you access to the timeline in other places than just the app and also allows printing of the timeline specifics as needed. This also allows you to store the information for future use without needing to keep the timeline on the iPad permanently. When the timeline is no longer needed you can simply use the delete timeline option to remove it from the app.

I have personally been using Knowledge Quest products in our homeschooling for quite some time now. We began with their old printed black line maps and now use the available apps and digital programming in various ways in our homeschooling. Timeline Builder is a great addition to our family of products and is definitely something I plan to continue to use in our homeschooling. We used it with our current history lessons, adding various persons and places that we have learned about over the past few weeks. The great thing is that it doesn’t matter what period of history we are in, we can simply go to our timeline and add. Once the event or person is input into the timeline app, they show up in the appropriate place on the timeline. If I make a mistake, then it’s simple and easy to edit at any point in time.

Knowledge Quest Timeline Builder app is available for iPad through iTunes for $6.99 and is worth every cent. Stop by Knowledge Quest to purchase your Timeline Builder today!

Click the image below to read more reviews of Knowledge Quest products!!

Leadership Garden Legacy {Crew Review}

April 17, 2013 by Dana

Leadership Garden Legacy is a fully enriching curriculum created to empower children with Leadership skills. This extensive program grows a leader within the student by developing respect, cooperation, team work and more. Leadership Garden Legacy builds self-esteem and character within.

For this review, I was given the following:

The Leadership Garden Guidebook – $18.95

U.N.I.Q.U.E.: Growing the Leader Within in Paperback – $18.95

U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Growing My Leadership Garden – $18.95

My Leadership Garden Journal and U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids: Growing My Leadership Garden Activity Guide – $8.95 for the pair.

MP3 Audio Downloads vary in price per book.

After reading through the program materials, we used the U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids program over the review period once a week. U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids tells the story of Hugh, a sweet little lost sheep who comes across the Leadership Farm out of the blue. Leda consoles Hugh and shows him how to be courageous, growing the leader within him. This journey with Hugh greets many characters and teaches lessons that help leadership grow.

This story book was absolutely adorable. The 125 page book is fully illustrated in color bringing the characters of Hugh, Leda and the Farm to life for the reader. My children and I found the story captivating and did not want to put it down. We honestly ended up reading more than the week lesson plans called for simply because we enjoyed the program so much.

A big bonus of the story and program is the MP3 Audio Downloads. These allowed my children to listen to the story on their own time, which they really enjoyed. It reinforced what we had already been reading, allowing them to repeat the lessons as much as they wished to hear them.

The U.N.I.Q.U.E. Kids’ Activity Guide is also fully in color. I chose not to do all of the suggested activities and I adapted those activities I did choose to use to fit us. For instance, the first activity is to plant a seed and watch it grow. I chose not to do this activity but we did label the plant parts and discuss them in relation to the things we learned through the story and book.

Another activity my older daughter enjoyed was using the accompanying journal as we worked through our lessons. She was able to write and draw out her thoughts and feelings through the suggestions on the journal pages. This was a huge plus for her, since she enjoys any lessons that she can be artistic while completing.

I believe my children actually learned to get along better with one another through using Leadership Garden Legacy and that was definitely a lesson they have recently needed. I find them working things out between one another daily, trying to get along instead of arguing as had become habit with them. I also benefited from the lessons, realizing that Momma needed to rethink how we work together daily so that we all get along better in our home. Leadership Garden Legacy was a great program for us to use and one we will definitely work through again and again, just to keep the things we learn fresh in our home.

Leadership Garden Legacy is available per item or in bundles for purchase.
Adult Empowerment Toolkit – $47.57
Family Empowerment Toolkit – $76.25

Kid’s Empowerment Toolkit – $33.17

Click image to read more reviews!!!

Salem Ridge Press: Sowing Beside All Waters {Crew Review}

April 12, 2013 by Dana

Salem Ridge Press is a publishing company that strives to bring quality historical literature into reproduction for future generations to use. Daniel Mills and his family strive to be a blessing to others by providing literature that fits Biblical qualifications. They do this through their work at Salem Ridge Press.

Salem Ridge Press provides reproductions of various works from past authors on many topics. You can find historical fictions in World History, Church History and American History. Adventures like George Alfred Henty: The Story of an Active Life and Yussef the Guide. There are also several young readers available from Salem Ridge Press.

You can search the website alphabetically, by time period and location, author or age range. Books are available covering from 1500 B.C. to 1793 A.D. sharing life stories from several countries and authors around the world. Each book is sure to bring History to life.

For this review, we were offered one of several books to choose from. I chose Sowing Beside All Waters: A Tale of the World in the Church by Emma Leslie. Emma Leslie is also known as Emma Dixon and is a well known author of Victorian children’s literature. She lived in Lewisham, Kent from 1837- 1909. Emma provided a strong Christian influence on her writing that is still profoundly relevant today. Her works covered many prevalent periods in church history.

Sowing Beside All Waters is set in the Roman Empire during 313 through 363 A.D. It covers the periods of Constantine, Athanasius, Augustine, and the Council of Nicea. Many other historical figures were also covered throughout the book such as Diocletian, Arius, Julian, and Saint Anthony the Great. This book begins with a brief synopsis of each of these plus many more in the section titled Historical Notes. A list of important dates as well as a map of the area at the time is also provided in the first pages of the book before beginning the actual story.

As you read through the book, the reader will find vocabulary provided complete with definitions at the bottom of each page. This allows the reader to learn the meaning of differing terms while reading through each chapter. Biblical verse reference is also provided as they are mentioned throughout the book at the bottom of the referenced page. Several images can be found throughout to help bring this story to life for the reader.

Sowing Beside All Waters tell the story of Quadratus and his family as they struggle to adjust to the changes brought forth after Emperor Constantine proclaims Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Each one chooses a differing path to follow but somehow they all prevail in remaining faithful to Christianity even through all the trials and challenges of the times.

I used this book personally as reading material for myself due to time constraints with my book not being shipped on time. I will use this as a read aloud for our future school year. The story is well written and easily understood, providing a great deal of knowledge throughout the book. I personally enjoy historical fictions and this one will top my list for future suggestions.

Sowing Beside All Waters was originally published in 1875. It was written for ages 12 through adult. It is available from Salem Ridge Press for $14.95 in softcover or $24.95 as a hardcover book.

For more reviews of Salem Ridge Press books, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!