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***this is a sponsored spot, I will receive and post a review of the above product. Thanks to USFamilyGuide for supporting our blog****

Monsters University preview night with my guys. #monstersu

Monday evening we took the boys to preview Monsters University at Regal Cinemas at
Bridgeport. While the boys were not excited about having to wear the 3D glasses to see the movie, they were pretty stocked about seeing the movie itself. I gave them coloring pages and the Monsters University ID cards to design on the drive to the movie. They wore their ID cards with pride.
I also splurged and gave them bottle return money so they could buy treats at the theater.
When we arrived at the theater the local Radio Disney station was all set up with a booth. It was pretty crowded, but the little Radio Disney Mobile was parked off to the side and perfect for a photo op. (note I was bent over leaning into the boys, I'm not that short honest)

We headed in to the theater and picked out some pretty good seats (ironically my husband let me know if was the same place we sat last time we previewed a movie and will likely be the same spot the next time.)
Once our seats were selected I took Nathan to pick up popcorn and snacks (junior mints for N and reeces pieces for C). I forgot how expensive candy and popcorn are, yikes!

We had to wait for almost 45 minutes for the movie to start since we had an early arrival time, thankfully Cameron has his coloring page to work on . We chatted with a couple fellow bloggers and waited for the show to start.


The movie started with a short that was really unique, it even caught the boys' attention. Check out the clip below for "The Blue Umbrella"

After the short, the movie started right in. I have to tell you it was some of the best animation and adaptation my husband has ever experienced. He talked about how real things appeared most of the night on the way home and even after we got the boys to bed. He was impressed.
The boys loved the story and even talked about the story line on the way home.
This mom loved the underlying morality of the story line.
The movie has a lot of action, awesome animation, fun music, adorable monsters, a even teaches some consequences for your actions in the end.  I love the idea that even the unnoticed, unloved, underdog  characters come out on top. (opps was the a spoiler???)
You can check out a clip or better yet , just go check it out in the theaters. It opened today (June 21st) in theaters just about everywhere. It is a great family friendly film.

Opening Date:                  Friday, June 21st

Rating:                                 G
Running Time:                  103 Minutes

Synopsis:        Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. “MonstersUniversity” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

Screaming with laughter and fun, “Monsters University” is directed by Dan Scanlon (“Cars,” “Mater and the Ghostlight,” “Tracy”) and produced by Kori Rae (“Up,” “The Incredibles,” “Monsters, Inc.”). The film opens in U.S. theaters on June 21, 2013, and will be shown in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.

Geography, History, and Art oh my

 We received for review a complete Geography I program from Memoria Press for review in our homeschool. Since Geography wasn't something we had focused on other than location of the continents and oceans I thought this would be a good thing to add in. We are currently studying the ancients and Geography I covers the Middle East , North Africa, and Europe which is a perfect fit of the Ancients.
We started our with just reading the Student Text and talking about the worksheet. I would ask the boys to point out certain areas on the map in the text instead of writing it to begin with, then I had Cameron start writing in the Workbook. Cameron isn't a fan of workbooks, so I decided to add some extra fun to studying about ancient Israel, Ancient Iraq, and Ancient Syria.
I incorporated our history studies, a couple of Bible stories, some sidewalk chalk, and a small group of Playmobil characters and horses (might have had a cow as well) for outside school.

This collection of elements worked together with 2 little boys for a fun school day. We traveled with Abram and Sarai from Ur to Canaan after we drew and colored the map on the back patio. 

Something as simple as the maps included in Geography I inspired a cross curricular activity that was fun and kept my boys engaged for 45 minutes. What a simple thing. 

The complete set costs $48.00 and includes the text, the workbook, the teacher's guide, and the United States Review set (student book and teacher's book) for grades 4-8. Due to copyright rules for this book, if you have more than 1 student using the program,  you will need to purchase an additional student workbook which retails for $11.95 for each student. 

The program is easy to follow and integrates well with a variety of programs and learning styles. I was able to easy incorporate the program into our current Classic approach to history but can also see how it would work into a unit study as well as hands on learning with the workbook as reinforcement. 

We will continue to work the program into our current Classical History Model over the summer and into the fall as we work through the Middle East and North Africa and arriving in Europe sometime around January. It may seem like a long journey but my boys seem to be embracing the classical history with activities to help them remember the geography and events that help form the modern world we live in. 

The schoolhouse review crew reviewed this product as well as Prima Latina a program I am looking forward to reading reviews on as I am wanting to add Latin in the fall for the boys. 

 

I love Memoria Press' motto, "Saving Western Civilization One Student at a Time", in our case it is two students but still , it really is that easy to save history by teaching the true history to our children. I gratefully support companies that are willing to go that extra mile in the education of our children. 

Playing with cards and Playing with Art with Birdcage Press

We are working to incorporate more art images into the boys world. Thankfully, we received a new review product that helped facilitate that, Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art Cards from Birdcage Press
   Once we received our package from Birdcage Press, Cameron immediately opened them and started playing matching memory style games by himself. Once he made a match he would look over the full picture card and ask me about the artist or the piece of art.
Inspired by the games we have actually started an artists study notebook. We have continued to play with the cards putting the full picture cards into timeline order and trying to put the up close pictures in the same order without looking at the full picture cards. Another activity we found fun, grouping the cards by style.

Art Close Up: Museum of Modern Art Cards is a set of 48 matching cards, the size of playing cards, laminated and full color featuring pieces from the Museum of Modern Art  designed for ages 5 and up. The set of cards retails for $10.95 and can be purchased directly from Birdcage Press
My boys are really loving the cards and trying to come up with more games to play with them. For now though, memory match, timeline builder, and style grouping will do. The game inspired us to find a few more art style games and activities for the Montessori shelf and we are adding several of the other sets available to our homeschool wishlist and even a field trip to the Portland Art Museum later this summer.

While the retail price at first seemed a bit high for a set of cards, the more we played with them and the more inspiration gained from them the more I am seeing the true value in the set of cards. Birdcage press carries a wonderful line of art cards as well as art books, and even history , nature, air, and space activities. Members of the Schoolhouse Crew reviewed a variety of the art cards and several other activities from Birdcage press, you won't want to miss their reviews as well.

Dishes , prewash or No? #sponsored

No longer  thanks to Cascade Platinum Pacs.
I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Cascade. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating







Honestly, dishes are one thing I HATE doing with a passion. Thankfully most days I can get my husband to load the dishwasher and the boys will unload it. Lately though, I have my oldest unload the dishwasher and my youngest load the dishwasher. With that in mind, he doesn't pre-rinse or pre-wash anything, I'm lucky if he scrapes off the chunks and he is very creative in loading the machine.

Cascade Platinum Pacs were something I thought wouldn't work in our dishwasher, I was skeptical at first, but after a week of using them I have noticed that the whole issue with pre-rinsing or washing is not an issue. I no longer have bits and pieces left on dishes making them look as bad as when they went in. Clean dishes makes it easier to put them away, less frustration and makes putting dinner or even a basic lunch together nicer.  1 little Pac does so much work that I don't have to and the dish washer smells fresh and clean afterwards. (being on well water, it can be a mystery sometimes.) While I received this first package as part of this campaign, I will be watching for coupons to purchase more and the value is there for me in simplicity and quality

The Pac looks so small in the soap dish, but it really packs a punch.

Want to hear the best part of this deal??? Cascade is having a #MyPlatinum Instagram contest. Visit the main page to learn more about entering your photos for a chance to win!! You will want to use the hashtag #MyPlatinum and be sure to tag @My Cascade when you upload your instagram photos.

Thank you again to  Mom Central Consulting and Cascade for the opportunity to try this new product out and share our thoughts we you. While this was part of a sponsored campaign, all opinions are honest opinions of myself and my family.

Christianity Cove Tween a Rock and a Hard Place plus the Lord's Prayer

We received two different products from Christianity Cove  for review with the boys. Christianity Cove provides Sunday School lessons filled with games, activities and real life lessons for a variety of ages.
The first product we received for review Tween a Rock and a Hard Place , is designed for 9-12 year olds and helps parents and Church teachers discuss some of the tough topics with tweens. I love the thought on the webpage "Jesus isn't intimidated by tweens and neither should you be". Since I don't have a problem talking to by boys (ages 7 and 10) about issues I was hoping for something a little bit more that I got. While we did find some good discussions born from the e-book we received. I really felt there could have been more to the program. Unfortunately, I can't offer suggestions for what needs to be different as I have simply fallen back on the basics of the Bible to find answers to the majority of questions and issues that have arisen with the boys. While my boys aren't perfect in their behaviour, we have found that a dialogue and a reminder of behavior works the best for the issues. I know that may seem like I live in a bubble and believe me I don't. I have told the boys stories that are real and straightforward about the hard stuff in life.  If you are having trouble talking with your tween (by the way , that label is one that has never sat well with me, I wish I could come up with something different.) about the tougher issues of the world this can be a useful tool for language and activities to open doors. The e-book retails for $29 on the website.

The second book we reviewed, Lord's Prayer Lesson Pack retails for $19.99 and is filled with 14 activities to help your children understand the Lord's Prayer. We used this both our boys although I can see using it with slightly younger students and even older students (age 5-15 I suppose).  We did find several of the activities and discussions useful with the boys although they seems to really do well with copy work and breaking it down line by line.
I taught Sunday School to a variety of ages (3-14) for 4 years where I was always looking for inexpensive activities to teach the foundations of faith and this would have been very useful in that setting. The crafts and activities would really fit well into a Sunday School program. Looking back through my files I actually found some of Mary-Kate Warner's materials  that I used in Sunday School. I could also see these activities be handy in a larger family but with only 2 boys, it took some tweaking to make the activities really work , and as I was tweaking I realized I could show the boys the importance of prayer without the activities but with simple words and reading the surrounding text from the Bible. Again, I'm not saying this isn't a good program, but for us it didn't work out. Both my boys know the Lord's Prayer from simple practise and use each week, saying it in Sunday School and thinking about the meaning as we say it.
Christianity Cove has a variety of programs available online, if you teach Sunday School you are bound to find something useful on their site. The crew reviewed several of her programs and share their thoughts.

OCEANetwork Anchored in Christ Conference coming soon! #sponsored

I can not wait for the upcoming OCEANetwork Conference. In less than 2 weeks my husband , the boys, and I will journey into Portland to the Oregon Convention Center to join other Oregon homeschool families for the annual Homeschool Conference in exchange for my blogging before and after the conference..
This year's theme "Anchored in Christ" is fitting as our homeschool mascot the sailor and our school theme of a journey with Christ at the helm align with the theme perfectly.  I have already printed a list of the exhibitors and vendors along with a Conference Workshop Schedule. I am working my way through the vendor list making notes of who I want to talk to about their program along with a list of products I am searching for.
This year, OCEANetwork has a wonder children's tract with Stories from Bruce Isham and science stations throughout by Twin Rock Science Camp. Nathan is looking forward to the various science stations after last year's sea star dissection.
Our plan is to take the boys on Friday and then just Mike and I on Saturday, that way we can attend more of the adult encouragement workshops on Saturday and also the Used Curriculum Sale together without the boys having to be juggled.
So Friday looks like 3 stories by Bruce Isham for the boys , a lunchtime Exhibitor's workshop maybe 2 (can't decide between Institute for Excellence in Writing and Doorpost for Friday), 2 Heidi St. John workshops for Mom, General Session with Norm Wakefield, and 1 undecided session. Of course, this could all change once we arrive on Friday.
Saturday is looking good too. I found a Jon Dunagan workshop for Mike to attend first thing in the morning while 1st session is still undecided for me. Also the General Session in the morning looks good, but you can't go wrong with a message from Dick Karman. lunchtime will likely be a screen of Overruled! from Parental Rights.org followed by 1 of 3 workshops that seem like they will speak to me. The last workshop session has several workshops that I want to attend, I may have to step up and purchase the CDs or MP3 downloads after the conference.


Online registration has closed for the conference but you can still register by the door for $60 for yourself and your spouse. Children are $10 each.  You can also purchase an Exhibit Hall only pass $15 for adults and $10 for children.
I am looking forward to blogging more about the conference and even posting to Facebook and Twitter during the conference.