Simple Family – Page 7

Simple {Nearly} Messless S’mores

S’mores are fun, but let’s face it. They’re messy!

Here’s a simpler version that won’t get quite as many stains on the shirts and goo in the hair.

Ingredients:

Cookies with a hole in the middle and chocolate on at least one side. From here on out they will be referred to as “striped dainties,” because that’s what we called them when we were small and couldn’t read the boring name on the package.
Jet-Puffed marshmallows. This is not the time to be skimpy and buy the cheaper varieties. They are not as good! We’re talking s’mores here, people! Step up to the plate!
A stick or poker that will fit through the cookie hole. The double mallow roasters won’t work here, nor will the self-rotating triple or quadruple mallow contraptions.

Directions:

1. Select the cookie that calls your name and “thread” the stick through the center hole with the chocolate-covered side facing away from you. This cookie is covered in chocolate on both sides, so use your imagination.

2. Run the cookie down toward the handle of your roasting stick.

3. Find just the right marshmallow…not too sticky, not too firm.

Oops.

Find just the right marshmallow again and spear it with the stick.

4. Roast that marshmallow to perfection.

5. Now it’s time for the removal and sandwiching. I like to combine this step into one smooth move, while my husband prefers to defy gravity with his impeccable balance skills.

If I were doing this, I would at this point place my second striped dainty on the stick with the chocolate side facing the mallow, and then proceed as my man indicates.

Move the striped dainty from the bottom of the stick toward the marshmallow, and slowly push it and the mallow off the end of the stick. Ignore the dog in the background saying, “Drop it, drop it, drop it.”

Perfect!

6. If you haven’t already, sandwich that baby!

Done…almost.

There’s this one last step:

7. Eat it!

You can also eat them open-faced.

Take s’mores to another level with other chocolate-covered cookies instead of grahams. Obviously, cookies without holes can’t be threaded onto the stick, so there’s more hand/mallow contact. I’m thinking that if you cared about hand/mallow contact, you probably wouldn’t be eating s’mores.

Open up an Oreo and pop a mallow inside—licking the cream out first is optional. Or try mint cookies—it’s like a trip to the moon without the G-force.

Why is this “better” than traditional s’mores?

Scientifically, when compressed by the top element, the mallow has someplace to go besides oozing out the sides of the cracker sandwich. Some of it pushes up through the hole while some pushes toward the edges. This way, you have less sideways mallow displacement and better overall mallow coverage for a proper mallow/cookie/chocolate ratio in each bite.
You have to buy and deal with one less ingredient.
The chocolate melts every time.
The chocolate does not drip out all over your daughter’s pale yellow shirt and stain it forever because you’re out of stain remover and the shirt somehow gets stuffed into the bottom of the sleeping bag and lost for three months.
It’s a cookie. Cookies are good.
They’re less messy…although admittedly not mess-free.
It isn’t as intensely rich as a traditional s’more, believe it or not, so you can eat more. That might not be a good thing.
Circles are fun.
You can obtain complete cookie coverage with one mallow.
Your s’mores world opens up to dozens if not hundreds of variations.
It’s fun…more fun than a box of graham crackers.

Please note the unmelted chocolate, the mallowy face, and the massive sideways mallow displacement in the following pictures.

Please note: This does not work with cauliflower.

Special thanks to my s’mores team for enduring two nights of s’mores experimentation. I know it was a strain!

What’s your best s’more recipe or tip?

Trailer-Friendly Children’s Paint — Kwik Stix

You know what we received in the mail? This set of Kwik Stix 12 pk from The Pencil Grip, Inc., in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own…and my kids’…and our cat’s.

Yesterday I was taking a nap with my baby. My four-year-old was lying across my feet whailning. Whailning is a combination of wailing and whining. It’s pretty intense, and it’s pretty annoying. I know that as a mother I’m not supposed to say that my child is annoying me, but if whailning doesn’t annoy you, you must parent from a higher level of existence. The issue was bananas, but three seconds before it was something else and three seconds before that it was something entirely different.

I knew it wasn’t really bananas. She needed some direction. So I said to my four-year-old, “Do you want to paint?” and she said, “Yes!” and I said, “Go right ahead,” and I went back to sleep and she painted.

Those of you who have four-year-olds are wondering why (since this is my seventh four-year-old) I don’t have more parenting sense. (Others think I’m negligent for not joining in, but that is a parenting discussion for another day.)

Letting her paint alone–insane! You’re thinking I woke up to the entire travel trailer arrayed in pinks and purples, or the cat painted, or at the very least bowls of water and containers of paint spilled on the tables, cushions, and floor.

Not at all. I woke up to this:

Two sisters had been painting together–two sisters aged 7 and 4. Please take note of the mess. Here’s another angle:

There is a mess–there are crayons and colored pencils lying around, a couple stacking pegs, a bear face-planted into the table, a little felt vest they sewed, a wadded up tissue or something equally sinister. But there is no paint mess lying around. Even the cat can’t make a mess out of the project, and you know that cat would be redecorating the curtains if she could. Poor disappointed kitty.

(If you have a four-year-old artist and a curious cat and you’re sold on these paint sticks right now, they are available on Amazon (affiliate link).)

What Tuppence the cat is standing on is a set of Kwik Stix. Here’s a better view:

They work like paint, only there is no brush, water, or extended drying period. No water! No water!

That’s my favorite part.

The colors are easily contained, easily stored, easily used…while Mama is napping. Hooray!

I really like the look of the projects my children made with the paints.

These are not markers–it’s tempura paint. You can change the look and feel of the picture by layering or adding pressure. While you won’t do a ton of blending due to the rapid dry time, you can do a bit. What takes this up another notch is the younger painters won’t end up with a big page of army brown with a hole in it. That’s the painting we all know ~~and love~~ from childhood, right?

Rebecca (7) likes the soft look, like in this valley scene that she matted and hung on the wall:

Elijah (10) is a little bolder and would rather rush through several projects. The tempura paint dries in only 90 seconds, so he can do that right in his sketchpad without our having to limit him based on available counter space or hanging space for drying. (Remember we live in a travel trailer–all 10 of us and two critters.)

This is his bold creepy clown (clowns creep us out):

Eliana (4) and Elisabeth (15) worked together. Ellie made a request, Elisabeth “Bean” painted it on one side of Ellie’s sketch pad, and Ellie copied her. I’m sure in the higher-trained educator circles, this process has a name, but I just call it Neat and Sweet.

Here are some results of one of their Neat and Sweet sessions:

Notice the green one-legged blobster (blobby monster) showing through the picture on the left. That’s from coloring with marker on the other side. As of yet, we have not had a single incident of the Kwik Stix showing through on the other side. That’s a pretty big deal when you’re 4…or 43.

The Neat and Sweet duo also worked on a horse together. Bean drew the outside shape, and Ellie drew the same shape inside of the original, and so on until they had a horse. Actually, they had a cow, but a little mane-and-forelock action transformed it into the horse of another color you’ve heard tell of.

The kids also painted frames they had cut out of boxes. Wouldn’t that make a great Mother’s Day gift?!

For some reason I have yet to comprehend, every single time the kids use the Kwik Stix, they put them away! Covers on, sticks in the plastic holder, voila! Apparently, Kwik Stix come with a little bit of Mary Poppins magic or the box screams “Put me away!”

These would make excellent gifts–end of school parties, birthday parties, Christmas stockings, Easter baskets. They would also be great to stock up on for classrooms, parties, daycares, or summer indoor fun. My kids love them.

You may wonder why the company is called The Pencil Grip, Inc., instead of Best Kids’ Paint Ever, Inc. They produce pencil grips, which are small finger positioners that slip onto pencils. The child or adult who has a ~~really bad~~ unique method of holding a pencil positions the fingers on the Pencil Grip and–bada bing bada boom–the hand is positioned properly. They even have a three-step trainer set.

This is not an issue we are currently struggling with, but we used them in the past for previous children (and me), and they work well.

Here’s where you can go to learn more about Pencil Grips.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Art runs deep in this family, as you can see by our second daughter’s art business, so we’ve tried to have ready supplies in the trailer for any time the art bug strikes, and for our Saturday art classes. Unfortunately, the paint wasn’t making the cut–too messy, bulky, time-consuming, space-consuming, and messy–that deserves to be mentioned twice. The kids were restricted to a little watercolor set you find in the craft and school supply aisles at Wal-Mart. Even that made me cringe with the bowl of water/cat combo.You understand if you live on wheels!

This is the solution.

We’re still keeping our watercolor set around so the kids can paint with brushes, but I no longer feel compelled to stock acrylics. What a relief!

Click here to learn what stationary schoolers have to say about Kwik Stix:

To find The Pencil Grip, Inc., online, go here…or here or here or…:

Website: http://www.thepencilgrip.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepencilgrip
Pinterest: : https://www.pinterest.com/KwikStixPaint/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePencilGrip @ThePencilGrip

Kwix Stix are available on Amazon (affiliate link)

The Best Day of Her Life

We stood clustered in a small group listening to the exuberant man with the dynamic voice and the red hair. He talked about wonderful days–being born, getting confirmed, graduating, getting married, having children–wonderful days. Then he–the man with the big voice and the even bigger faith–said this:

“This is the happiest day of your life. This is the day you have been waiting for. This is your best day ever.”

And as he spoke of joy and celebration, I tried and failed to hold back my tears. As he spoke of life, my Grandma slipped away from our feeble attempts to hold onto her a little bit longer.

On this, the happiest day ever, Grandma died.

As I summarized Grandma’s full, rich life in an obituary that wouldn’t use up her entire life insurance policy for the space it took up in the papers, and also that wouldn’t reduce her generous spirit and faithful journey to a bland recitation of dates and achievements, I thought about that “best day of her life.”

I could have (and maybe should have) written this:

“Marie was born and baptized, was taught about her Savior, lived her life as a fallen and forgiven believer who trusted in Christ, and, best of all, she died.”

Best of all, she died.

I, on the other hand, didn’t die.

I’m right here, living. I’m here, sick with who-knows-or-cares-what, with four children sleeping in my room because the next room over is too far away. I’m here nursing and worrying over and trying not to breathe my sick-germs on a two-week-old baby who peed on me three times last night and threw up inside my nightshirt and I didn’t even bother to change. I’m here trying to deal with the needs of people who–quite honestly–seem unnecessarily needy right about now: you think you should eat today?

I’m here trying to heal hurts that won’t heal and sooth a pain that will be torn afresh at every reminder. I’m here helping family decide if 100-plus people should eat mashed potatoes or potato salad, calling strangers to share the news, plunking out potential funeral hymns on the piano, reducing Grandma’s life to dates and achievements for the paper, and–strangely–really missing my grandpa who died last year.

I’m here hurting for my mother and uncles who lost the woman who gave them life, hurting for my brothers who were too far away to hold a hand and hear Pastor talk about Grandma’s best day ever, hurting for my children who are so young and hurt so openly.

I’m here failing as a wife and mother because my thinking is clouded by pain, and that failure makes me want to crawl in that bed with Grandma and go with her–go to see Grandpa, go to see if heaven is paved with streets of gold or lined with Eden-like carpets of grass, go to taste the cookies there, go to see Jesus and not have to fail or hurt any more ever again.

My living doesn’t hold a candle to Grandma’s dying.

I’ve heard death described as a birth. Our Little Judah Eb was resistant to being born. Despite many, many days of nightly labor, he was eight days late. Even then, he was happy to not come out, even though he had “outgrown” his old life. I wonder if he was scared–all the pressure, the squeezing, the estimated 750 million people putting their faces to Mama’s belly and hollering “Come out now!”

But then there he was, his old life was gone and his new one was just begun, and there was Mama’s face, and there were Mama’s arms, and there were Mama’s eyes pooling over with love, and there was–whoa, what’s this?!–milk! It’s pretty good on the other side. What he had resisted became his best day thus far–I mean, milk! Hello!

We resist death–our best day ever–but why?

Let’s look at what Grandma is probably doing right now. She was a relatively new widow who died one day before her 67th wedding anniversary. Living the last year without Grandpa was hard for her. She missed him something awful. She didn’t acknowledge her 66th anniversary, because he had just gone to heaven ahead of her, and she didn’t have the heart. Can you imagine the celebration they had this year?

She’s reunited with her parents, her father who loved his little “Moonie” like a father should, her brother who was killed in action in World War II and whose death shook her hard even 70 years later, her mother and sister. She’s seeing cousins and friends and her mother’s seemingly infinite number of sisters who were always filled with joy and who would get together and laugh and laugh and laugh and then simultaneously sigh out loud as if that laugh was the best thing that ever happened to them–I can almost hear the great-great aunts laughing now. What a reunion! Can you imagine?

The beauty, the sounds, even the feel of the air and the ground must be new and amazing and indescribable. The food, the ethereal light, the graceful slipperiness of the water, the delicate scent of the flowers, and the soft coolness of the breeze–can you imagine?

And then Him. His face. His hands that were pierced for us, for Grandma to enjoy her best day ever–strong hands, yet gentle and forgiving as He reaches for a hug. His lips as he says, “Well done, Marie. Well done.” His eyes–the depth and kindness and knowing of those eyes. Can you even begin to imagine those eyes?

It’s Grandma’s best day ever, and it will last for eternity. Can you imagine? I can’t.

This is only Grandma’s best day ever because of her faith in Christ. There was nothing she did to earn heaven–goodness knows Grandma had her fair share of flaws. Despite how wonderful Grandma was, she wasn’t “good enough” for heaven’s standards and never would be if she lived Adam’s 900+ years. People like Grandma and me–we’re not Christians because we’re better than everyone else; we’re Christians because we’re not good enough and we couldn’t possibly earn a best day ever on our own.

It is all Jesus–He took Grandma’s punishment and gave her salvation; all she did was trust Him and “it was credited to her as righteousness.” I heard someone say, “If you don’t have faith in Jesus, you’d better live it up now, because this is as good as it’s going to get.” As harsh as that sounds, it’s true. No Jesus–no best day ever when you die. Period.

But the rest of the story is that the gift of the best day ever is free. You can have an eternity like Grandma’s. Jesus (God) did all the work for you. Just trust Him. (Learn more by reading John or Romans or ask me.)

Grandma (and Grandpa), I miss you. You both were and are such a crucial part of my life. Someday, on my best and happiest day ever, we’ll be together again–you and me and the laughing aunts and Him with those eyes.

Originally posted here on August 24, 2015. Reposted today in honor of Grandma’s birthday.

PORTRAIT BY MARISSA RENÉE (17 at time of drawing, currently accepting commissions)

Milton Hershey–More Than Chocolate…If That’s Even Possible!

My family received a copy of Heroes of History- Milton Hershey from YWAM Publishing for review purposes…and for an excuse to eat lots of chocolate–it’s educational, after all! We also received access to a Digital Unit Study Curriculum Guide for the review.

First, a bit about YWAM’s “Heroes” series.

YWAM has two heroes series which they’ve developed over the past two decades. They carefully choose the heroes based on the lessons their lives can teach young (and over-the-hill, like me) readers.

The Christian Heroes: Then & Now series focuses on Cristian missionaries, such as Nate Saint and David Linvgstone. Your children, like mine, will become fast friends with these heroes of the faith.

The Heroes of History series are slightly different. The biographies offer a view of main players in American history, as far back as our old friend Christopher Columbus and as recent as Dr. Ben Carson. I want to share this quote from an email the company sent me, so you can understand how the subjects were selected:

We have included key individuals of historical significance and character in this series. Not all were involved in government and not all are remembered for their personal faith. But all of the characters make a contribution to the series as important representatives illustrating the American story and history. In this series you will find: explorers, pioneers, presidents, inventors, doctors, authors, and heroes in time of war.

So which hero did we choose? You guessed it–Milton Hershey!

The book we read is entitled Heroes of History–Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate, by Janet and Geoff Benge.

I went into this book in my typical my-life-revolves-around-food manner, wondering what kind of contribution could a man like Hershey make to America that was more important than chocolate? I learned two things:

He made a mean caramel.
He was a man who had to pick himself up over and over and over and do a little groveling and work harder than most modern men (men meaning men, women, and children) are willing to do just to fall on his face again…and today he is a household name.

Sticktoitiveness (stick-to-it-ive-ness) is the word I’m looking for here. He had it…and a technique for super creamy caramels.

We learned quite a bit more, but ultimately it’s the character-building we take with us, and not the dates and facts, isn’t it?

A great read…like the rest of the YWAM books.

How did we use this book?

We read this book individually and came together for discussion, but some of the others we’ve read aloud. We’ve also simply placed YWAM books on a shelf and waited for the magic to happen without any direction from us–that works, too, especially when you find a name that already interests your kids or that they hear relatives talking about, like Ronald Reagan or Bonhoeffer or Thomas Edison or Corrie Ten Boom. So many greats!

The digital curriculum guide includes questions for discussion, as well as activities. Our favorite is the timeline and, uh, buying Hershey chocolate and eating it. That last part wasn’t exactly in the study guide, but we like to enhance our studies a bit. Ahem.

Additional Thoughts for My Fellow Roadschoolers:

If you don’t mind small books taking up shelf space, this is one of the few take-it-along book series we highly recommend! It is worth the space–it really is. Also, since the study guides are available digitally (as well as on CD), you can study this on a more intense level (which means more chocolate if you’re focusing on Milton Hershey) without taking up additional space or adding weight to what is inevitably an already weighed down roadschool.

Of course, you have to deal with download issues on the mishmash of crazy internet connections available on the road. Boo. But hey, there’s always Starbucks and the library! (Or, like us, you can download it and use it for a little while and then your whole computer can die and you have to buy a new computer with the money you were going to use to buy glasses, and then you have to download it twice. Whaa.)

Give it a try! (I don’t get any money for telling you this. It’s just a product I really believe in.)

To read what others have to say about the series, please click here or on the banner below:

Apologia’s Writers in Residence Program

Please know that I was given a free copy of Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries in exchange for my and my daughters’ fair and unbiased review. All opinions are our own.

I want you to meet Emily. Emily is our vivacious and fun thirteen-year-old. She has never met a writing class she liked, which is okay, because I don’t generally use writing curricula in my roadschool.

Another thing you need to know about Emily is that she doesn’t hold back her feelings.

Imagine her enthusiasm (grin) when I handed her Apologia’s new Writers in Residence program and said, “Here, Emily, is a brand spankin’ new writing program for you to use for two months or until the end of time, whichever comes first.”

Duck and run.

Ha ha. Not really. Emily has been an excellent sport about Writers in Residence, and why not? The program is great!

Here’s what we like about it:

The program includes top notch writing samples from writers you will (or should at least pretend to) recognize. This capitalizes on the excellent tactic of learning through the imitation of quality work…no junk.

Interviews from real Christian authors (not real like me, Emily’s mom, but real like someone that you might know or could at least Google) offer a solid, encouraging nudge with a taste of how-I-got-started reality. This guidance from “real” writers goes further than some of the inane things we parents say, like, “That’s great. Let’s send it to Grandma because our fridge is full,” or “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming,” which is my all-time most annoying thing I say when my kids get stuck on something. Lame, I know.

The program tackles grammar as well as writing. A good writer (and anyone else who learns to talk ever) needs excellent grammar skills. While we don’t study grammar formally in our household in the early years, I’m totally comfortable with my seventh-grader working through a grammar program, if only so she can see over and over and over again that, look at that, my mother was right. (Someone’s on her high grammar horse today!)

The writing aspect touches on several main components of the writing process within the six units of volume I; volume II is in the works. Click here for more details.

The student portion of the course is contained in a single spiral-bound text that the child can write in. (My kids love writing directly in their workbooks, but I always find consumables to be a drawback. As a single-income music missionary family with eight kids, I usually buy only non-consumable products so they can be passed down. Still, this is a great program, and I do recommend a student book for each student, especially if they don’t like writing. Just bite that bullet if you can.)

I like that the program is conversational and student-directed, so Emily can be pretty self-sufficient. That gives me more time to work on other things, like perfecting my omelet-making skills, which is my current craze.

It is already broken up into a four-day schedule. Emily doesn’t follow it exactly as written, but life is like that. Some days your dad says, “Hey, let’s go hiking in the Grand Canyon,” and your writing class has to wait.

For parents who aren’t comfortable with writing process, the answer key offers all the guidance you need for scoring and evaluating.

Here’s what I like best about it:

Emily likes it. ‘Nuf said.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

The entire program is encompassed within these two books. (One for us–I’m a writer by trade and training, so I don’t use the answer key.) Naturally, your child will want a pencil, because writing in blood is unwise. Otherwise, that’s it–no internet connection, no binders full of pages that tear out and get caught in the slide, no DVDs the baby uses for speed crawling. (Tell me your RV living is like this, too…please…even if you have to lie just a little bit.)

For the value of this program, the space it takes up is minimal.

On the other hand, spiral binding and I are not friends. When something in our lives is moving from trailer to van to church to trailer to dropped down the steps into the mud to forgot to stow and it launched through the air down a bumpy California road, well, you want the sturdiest book you can find, and that usually means hard cover.

Still, it is ideal for a student workbook, and ours has held up remarkably well, although we’ve only had it for six weeks. Normally after six weeks, the cat has spewed a hairball on it and the binding is compromised and the baby has chewed on the corner (not where the cat spewed) and a page or several are missing. So Apologia gets an extra cookie for that!

Honestly, it’s worth the space it will take up. This is another program we’ll continue to use after the review period has ended.

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers who fall a little closer to “normal” on the normalcy spectrum than we do:

Filling in the Learning Gaps for Math {A Review}

As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, my seven-year-old first-grade daughter Rebecca and I are reviewing two Math Mini-Courses (Time and Money) from A+ Interactive Math. We received free access to two mini-courses for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own…unless they are Rebecca’s, because we don’t always agree…unless it’s about dessert, in which case the answer is always “Yes, please!”

If you’re a homeschool parent who hasn’t been afraid of leaving gaps in your child’s education, you’re the envy of the homeschool community. Of course, we all know that every single education has gaps, and that a truly educated person learns how to fill in those gaps himself as necessary throughout life, but that’s beside the point.

I remember a friend once telling me she was afraid that, if she homeschooled, her kids would be standing at a checkout counter not sure how much money to use to pay for their purchases because Mama had forgotten to teach about making change. Big gap.

That’s where Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math come in.

A+ Interactive Math offers assessments to identify the gaps in your child’s math education. They then provide 20 separate mini-courses to fill in those gaps. Each course offers affordable access for a full year, although the course should only take two or three months to complete. No more fear of your child not knowing how to make change!

Money Mini-Course

And speaking of making change, the course Rebecca is working through is the Money Mini-Course.

Working with a seven-year-old review partner has its challenges. Clarity is sometimes…lacking. Following is the interview I held with her:

Do you like A+ Interactive?

What’s that?

The money course you’re taking on the Behemoth (the family computer).

Oh, yes, I really like it. I get all the answers right all the time except once.

What are you learning?

Nothing. I have no idea what’s going on.

Uhhhhhh…but you get everything right?

Yeah. It’s easy now.

(Five minutes later…)

Mommy, you have three quarters and a penny there, and that’s the same as 76 pennies…just so you know.

How do you know that?

Frog math (A+ Interactive).

Rest assured the child is learning. She proved it when she took all the change out of her tissue box bank, counted it out, added it up, sorted according to value, reorganized in piles totaling a dollar each, tithed, and played store. Not bad for not knowing what’s going on!

Beyond understanding the value of money, there are lessons on budgeting, taxes, commissions, and other topics I wouldn’t have necessarily breached with my seven-year-old, but which she will someday need to know. Pretty nifty, eh? Of course, those lessons are a little harder than the “how many nickles in a dime” conversion lessons.

What does it take from me?

I have to get her set up and, of course, answer the rare question. Logging on and getting started is a little confusing for her, and the program doesn’t automatically update her results for the report if she doesn’t tell it to. It would be great if getting started with each lesson were a little more automatic.

The lessons themselves only require a small learning curve and then she flies on her own. In fact, the Quick Start Guide reassures, “Relax! You don’t have to teach math or do anything. This program does everything for you.”

It’s true.

Time Mini-Course

The other math mini-course we reviewed is Time.

It delves into not only how to tell time in hours, minutes, and seconds, but it discusses days, months, years, and seasons. It also deals with more complex topics, such as converting units of time, adding time, and determining how much time has elapsed. (Maybe I should take this course so I can stop counting on my teeth.)

Summary

The mini courses are great for filling in gaps that perhaps your math curriculum might leave. We won’t be switching from our current math program, but we definitely appreciate the extra support in our weak areas.

The mini-courses are more in-depth than other math programs I’ve seen on these individual topics. Through our current program we learn the topics, but pursue further study through life experience. That’s fine, too–excellent, in fact–but this is faster and more thorough and leaves fewer gaps right from the start. Real life does offer more practical application, though–duh.

Could we have learned about time and money without a program at all. Of course we could, but remember this quote:

“Relax! You don’t have to teach math or do anything. This program does everything for you.”

As long as Becca can read, Becca can do most of this program on her own.

While I will never say a computer program is a replacement for a parent, I do appreciate the support now and then. That way Rebecca and I can spend our time together using her newfound money skills buying ingredients to make mother-daughter cookies.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

While you do need an internet connection to run the mini courses, this program is not a huge data hog. They do offer physical options if internet access and data are continual challenges for you, as they are for us.

Since the courses we reviewed are online, they are light as a feather and takes up a feather’s worth of space.

You can print some extras, or you can complete them right on the computer so you don’t have to unearth the printer and find space for yet more papers. That’s what we do.

For more opinions about Math Mini-Courses from A+ Interactive Math, click this lovely box below:

Typing Fingers — Learning Phonics, Writing, and Typing Together

In exchange for our honest review, we received a one-year subscription to Read, Write & Type by Talking Fingers Inc. In the biz, that is known as a disclosure statement. Moving on…

I’m going to be completely honest with you here, because I always am. I did not want to review this product. You know I’m old school. You know I’m not a fan of screens. You know I sniff books and licked paper once–maybe you didn’t know that. Pretend I didn’t say that last part.

But my kids…they’re young. They’re hip. They needed to learn how to type. So I hemmed and hawed and said okay fine we’ll review it. And my kids cheered and I was popular for, like, three minutes until I took advantage of my newfound popularity and said, “Hey, washing dishes is fun! Let’s do it!”

I went into this with a bad attitude–like stinky cheese. After several weeks of watching my seven-year-old type properly and enthusiastically, however, I am sold on the idea that perhaps this method of learning to type is ultimately better than the antique typewriter I wanted them to learn on. Click clack click clack ding…wheeee!

I keep talking about typing, and that is how we are using Read, Write & Type, but this is not merely a typing program. It is a multi-sensory approach to learning to read and write. My seven- and ten-year-olds are quite advanced in those areas, so they didn’t need the help (so far anyway), and our four-year-old isn’t quite ready for this. The idea is, however, to work on those three skills together.

Who would benefit?

This is an ideal program for ESL (English as a Second Language) students to learn English literacy (as opposed to conversational English). The available voice-over assistance includes Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and Tagalog.

It would also be great for struggling older learners. In my opinion, if somebody is strong in one of those areas, but not the other two, or struggles in all three areas, they would receive the most bang for your buck.

I don’t like to use screens to teach phonics to little ones, but in the past I’ve had a stalled early reader who took off as soon as I switched to a screen. In that case, perhaps this would be good for a child just learning to read, although then you can’t sniff the book and lick the paper. I didn’t test it with my four-year-old, because her hands are tiny, and…well…I’m old school. She, however, is begging for a turn.

What does it entail?

The program teaches sounds and basic writing as the student learns the location on the keyboard with the assistance of talking hands…or talking fingers. Get it? Because the program is Talking Fingers Inc. You’re a smart one!

It involves games of sorts, too, but nothing highly visually stimulating, and no unrelated games. It all fits together without overstimulating the child.

There is no violence, no motorcycle chases, no pop-culture, no aliens…so far…although there is a virus. Achoo.

I think Elijah’s favorite part is the emailing. He informed me that he writes an email letter and it is sent to another child in the program. I didn’t get to witness this and am not sure if he understood it properly; I think at the time I was being attacked by the sweet little bipolar cat we so lovingly adopted…or maybe I was feeding people, because they keep eating! Anyway, don’t quote me on this aspect, because, while I do have eyes in the back of my head, they were napping.

(UPDATE: the email thing is true! He sends a letter and receives a pre-screened (and sometimes edited) letter from another child in the program. Are you aware how fun it is for a boy to type emails about pizza and ice cream and send them to other kids? Very motivating!

Kids can earn certificates of merit as they move along. This is pretty motivating for some kids, especially since you can print them out. We live in a travel trailer, though, where extra paper lying around is the enemy, so no printing for us! Still, my littles enjoy the blue ribbons.

A talking virus…talking hands…certificates of merit…voice overs…whatever. The kids enjoy it while they are learning to type. That’s what matters to me–that and the lack of anything questionable. I don’t think a talking booger-ish virus is questionable, is it? Nah!

Look! She’s typing! She’s seven!

Despite my initial trepidation, this is one of the curricula items we’ve reviewed lately that we will continue using. My children are definitely improving their typing skills and enjoying it in the process. Thanks Typing Fingers!

Additional information for my fellow roadschoolers:

This program is all online. It is not a terrible data hog, but it does have some moving images and such. Basically, you won’t be streaming video, so it’ll definitely use less data than the big game. If your children need help with phonics and typing, this is a good multi-purpose tool that won’t get scratched up or eat all your data.

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