Linda @ Linda’s Lunacy

In the Kitchen with Linda – Dinner Menu

June 17, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

I didn’t do anything major in the kitchen this week. Really, All I did was cook our meals, and wash dishes. A was rather boring in the kitchen with Linda this week. Tomorrow should be a little exciting. I’m making lasagna with homemade meat sauce and homemade ricotta that my daughter is making. I’m having a birthday dinner for my mother tomorrow, so I’m also making chocolate cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes are always exciting. 🙂

Now…. to answer the question that I get asked about a hundred times a day……….

What’s For Dinner?

Dinner Menu:

Saturday – Sabbath- Make ahead meals- Leftovers!

Sunday – soup & sandwich day – Chicken sandwiches for lunch, dinner out for Father’s Day

Monday – chicken – BBQ Chicken with homemade barbacue sauce, oven fried potatoes, peas

Tuesday – pizza/pasta – Lasagna made with homemade ricotta & homemade meat sauce, broccoli

Wednesday – beef – Tacos with all the fixings

Thursday – chicken – Chicken Pasta Salad

Friday – Sabbath Dinner – Meatloaf, rice, corn

For more ideas, visit Menu Plan Monday

Memoria Press Geography 1 Review

June 17, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

As part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received Geography I from Memoria Press to review.

Disclosure: I received no other compensation for this review. My opinions are my own.

Memoria Press is a family run publishing company that has been producing classical education materials since 1994. I had never used anything from Memoria Press before, so I was excited to try this Geography 1 course.

Geography 1 is written for grades 4th thru 8th. Included in the set are:

Geography I Text
Geography I Workbook
Geography I Teacher Guide
United States Review Student
United States Review Key, Quizes, and Tests

You can see samples of the Table of Contents, a text sample, and a workbook sample on the website. Geography 1 covers the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe, the area that constituted the ancient Roman Empire. Each country has a two page spread. The reading text and country information on the left, with a “History Headlines” section, and a “Tour of Today” section. A large map takes up the whole page on the right. In the Student Workbook, each country has one page with questions & fill in the blank answers on the top, and a map on the lower half of the page. There are also review pages through out the student workbook.

This Geography 1 set also includes The United States review books. These books don’t contain any lessons, just lists of info, maps to fill out, and questions to answer. What you would expect in a review book. It is very thorough, though, and can be used before or after the Geography 1 books.

Memoria Press Geography 1 Review

I used Geography 1 with my 12 year old son that is going into the 7th grade. He used both books at the same time, usually on the same days. Zach averaged 4 days a week with both books. He really loved these books, and would often do more than the one lesson a day that I required of him. On his own. Without my asking him to. Many days, he would go back later in the afternoon and get the books out again to do some more. I lost track of how many times he called out, “Mom! Did you know….?” or “This says……I didn’t know that!” He only has one page left to do in The United States Book, States and Capitals, which is 25 pages long. He is over halfway through the Geography 1 book, he has completed page 50 of the 90 back student workbook. He really liked the way the information was presented in this course, and if he continues to do well with the rest of the book like I think he will, I will get him the Geography 2 course next. We have other geography resources here, but he has done so well with this first book, I think he will benefit greatly from doing Geography 2.

In the above picture, you can see a page from the Geography 1 Student Workbook on the left, and a page from The United States Student Workbook on the right. Both of these are a fair representation of what the rest of each book is like.

The Geography 1 set sells for $48 on the website at the time of this review. Books may also be purchased individually. Great if you are using this with more than one student & need extra books because these student workbooks are consumable with no permission to copy for family use.

Saturday on the Farm – Garden Tour

June 15, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

There’s a lot going on in my gardens this week. The Roses and Day Lilies are blooming in the Bible Garden

Beautiful!

We had a storm go through earlier this week that had a lot of wind. My Hisbicus didn’t care for the wind that much.

The two Hibiscus below are are between the driveway and the house, going towards the front yard. The one on the left survived the storm, the one on the right is severely leaning over. The wind didn’t break the bush, so I’ll prop them up and they will still bloom.

Now on to the vegetables! The lettuce in the raised bed behind the house didn’t appreciate the wind, either.

We finally made it out to the garden to plant the potatoes. We like to place the seed potato on top of the ground, then cover with straw. We had more straw as needed to keep the potatoes covered.

Harvesting is so easy! Pull pack the straw and there are your potatoes. No digging! This year we’re using some hay that was given to us for free. If anything starts growing from it, it is easy to pull the weeds out, as they are not in the ground, just in the hay.

I started to plant the Armenian Cucumber seeds. When I pulled back the cardboard and used my little hand shovel to make a row for the seeds, I found lots of worms.

That’s why I love using cardboard and mulch gardening. The worms love it. I never did get the cucumbers planted. I got sick from the heat and and to stop. Those will be going in the ground shortly.

Once the cucumbers are planted, we’ll have all the major veggies that we wanted planted done. We will put in two more rows of corn in another week, so that it doesn’t all ripen at the same time.

What’s growing in your garden?

[Read more…]

Our Homeschool Week in Review

June 15, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

This week has been spent preparing for graduation! Calen and Hannah will both be graduating. Graduation is scheduled for June 29th. They only want family at the actual graduation. Hannah wants a party, but Calen doesn’t. Trying to coordinate two graduates wants in one graduation is…..interesting. lol

Neither one of them wants to wear a robe, but they both want to wear caps. They were delivered this week. I think I was as excited about it as they were. Actually, I think I was more excited. lol

There diplomas were delivered this week, also. I bought these from HSLDA. That’s were I bought my older two diplomas at, so they all match. That’s more for me, then for them.

I also bought each of them this really fun Class of 2013 t-shirt from HSLDA. The 13 on the back takes up the whole back of the shirt, and inside the numbers are the class superlatives. Most Popular, Most Likely to Succeed, etc. Very funny, since homeschool high graduates are often a class of one.

Hannah has finished all her work, and Calen just has to finish Geometry. It looks like he will finish by the end of next week. If that’s the case, we will move up graduation. Since it will just be a few family members, it will be easy to move. Hannah will still have her party on the 29th, regardless of when graduation takes place.

Abby and Zach are still working on their schoolwork. They have to get a certain amount done before they can take a break. I’m not a big fan of summer breaks, anyway. So this doesn’t bother me at all. They won’t be getting more than four weeks off, if that much.

It’s going to feel really strange with only two students. I haven’t had only two students since Calen was born in 1998!

Our Homeschool Week in Review next week may graduation pictures!

I posted Thinking About Homeschooling? The First Five Steps this week, you might be interested in reading.

I also posted a review of two eBooks from Christianity Cove.

To see more homeschooling posts, visit Weekly Wrap Up.

Thinking About Homeschooling? The First 5 Steps

June 12, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

We’ve homeschooled all 6 of our children from the very beginning. We started with Kindergarten with our oldest in 1991, and finished when our youngest graduated in 2019 That’s a long time! I thought I’d share what I think to be the first steps to take when you are thinking about homeschooling.

Thinking About Homeschooling? The First 5 Steps

1. Decide why you want to homeschool and what you want out of it.

Religious reasons? Special Needs? Want your child to graduate college by 18? It is very important to decide the whys behind your wanting to homeschool because they will influence the rest of your homeschool choices.

2. Find out the homeschool laws for your state.

These are easily found online. Every state has a homeschool organization, some more than one, that you can turn to for more information.

3. Join Homeschool Legal Defense Association

We have been members since we started homeschooling. I think the membership fee is worth it. You can also find your state homeschooling laws on their website, as well as much more information. I ordered our high school diplomas from them. They sell many things in their shop, including books. Members receive a discount in the store, as well as other perks.

4. Start looking at curriculum.

Your reasons for homeschooling will help you decide on curriculum. Even with that, choosing a curriculum can be overwhelming. There are just so many choices. Start with looking at what others are using, either at a homeschool convention or with other homeschoolers. Homeschoolers are usually very friendly. If you connect with a local group, chances are some of them will use the curriculum your thinking about using and will let you come and look at it.

5. Relax

Starting to homeschool can feel so overwhelming at times. Even those that have homeschooled for years can feel very overwhelmed at times. When you start to get that suffocating feeling, remember why you started homeschooling in the first place. Then relax and have fun with your kids. Laugh with them.

If your thinking about homeschooling know that homeschooling works, and it can work for your family, too.

Christianity Cove Review

June 11, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

As part of The Schoolhouse Review Crew I received two eBooks, Bible Science Experiments and 100 Simple Service Projects, from Christianity Cove to review.

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this review. My opinions are my own.

Christianity Cove has over 25 products for use in churches, other ministries and classrooms. All of their teaching products are digital, so you can download and get started right away.

Bible Science Experiments contains 25 fun, hands-on, and easy science experiments that teach a Biblical truth. Bible Science Experiments is written for ages 5-12. I used this ebook with my 12 year old, 6th grade son. He thought the experiments were way to easy for him. I happen to agree. I think this would be better suited for lower elementary grades, Pre-K thru third.

Each experiment starts with a Bible verse, then lists the materials required. All the materials are easy to find, you probably have them at home already. The section continues with the steps for the experiment, followed by the answer, and an explanation in scientific terms. Every experiment ends with an Understanding God section. Each experiment takes only 5-10 minutes, including the readings.

The experiments are divided into five groups – Light, Color, Motion, Magnetism, and Gravity. There are 5 experiments in each group.

The instructions are easy to follow, the experiments simple, with minimal clean up. My son’s favorite experiment was the Coins in Motion Show God’s Protection. The only materials required are a quarter and your student. The Bible verse for this experiment is Psalm 37:24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with His hand.

In this experiment, you put a quarter on your elbow and put your arm down very fast to catch the quarter in your hand. Zach had never down this before, but it only took him a couple of tries to be able to catch the quarter. Here’s a video of him doing it. Sorry for the sideways video, I don’t usually take videos with this camera.

I also received 100 Simple Service Projects. This ebook contains 100 service project ideas for children in Pre-K-6th grade. 100 Simple Service Projects is divided into 5 sections, Service to the Family, Service To Those In The Neighborhood, Service to the Community, Service to Large Charities in America & Overseas, and Helping Kids Who Want to Start Their Own Charity.

The Service to Family section has printable coupons for the kids to use for helping a parent, helping a sibling, and helping a grandparent.

The Service To Those In The Neighborhood is full of suggestions the children can use bless their neighbors. A list of work that the child can do, such as raking leaves, and walking a pet. Another list has lots of fun stuff for the neighborhood to do, a block party, kids play, or a neighborhood walking tour.

In Service to the Community, there are lots of ideas for helping the elderly, children, animals & wildlife, and the environment. For this level of service, our family runs our church’s clothes closet. We spend 2-3 hours every week sorting donated clothing and opening it to the public. This is a great family ministry.

If you’ve been wanting to find a way to instill service to others in your children, 100 Simple Service Projects will help guide your family to find a ministry to work in together, or start our own ministry according to your children’s and family’s interest.

Bible Science Experiments sells for $25. and 100 Simple Service Projects sells for $19.95 on the website at the time of this review.

To read other reviews, visit The Schoolhouse Review Crew

The Confession DVD Review & Giveaway

June 10, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Disclosure: I received a copy of this dvd for review purposes. I received no other compensation, my opinions are my own.

I love Beverly Lewis books. I loved The Shunning DVD, so I was really looking forward to The Confession being released on DVD. The Confession will be available in stores on June 11th, but I received a copy early so I could review it.

About The Confession DVD

Raised by an Amish family, Katie Lapp (Katie Leclerc, TV’s “Switched at Birth”) always felt the call of another life. Now, her quest to find her birth-mother, Laura Mayfield-Bennett (Sherry Stringfield, TV’s “ER”), has drawn her into world of the “Englishers.” Along the way, two very different men try to help her overcome a devious scheme to steal her rightful inheritance. Business-minded but kind-hearted Justin Wirth (Michael Rupnow) reaches out to discover Katie’s hidden secrets, while her childhood companion Daniel Fisher (Cameron Deane Stewart) sacrifices his own happiness for her future. Katie’s heart is divided between two worlds as love reveals the truth in the moving saga based on the hit novel from New York Times bestselling author Beverly Lewis. Based on the novel by Beverly Lewis and directed by Michael Landon Jr.

While the movie doesn’t follow the book exactly, it’s a great movie. Katie Leclerc does a fine job of portraying the innocence of a young Amish women. You can thoroughly enjoy watching The Confession without having seen the first movie in the series, The Shunning. However, it is easier to follow the story line if you’ve seen the first movie. And you will be better able to see how the Katie Lapp character grows and changes.

So, what do you think of the trailer? Doesn’t it look like a great movie? It is a great movie that the whole family can watch together.

That’s why I’m pleased to say that I get to give away one The Confession DVD to one of you! Simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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