Training Day Picnic

In the Air Force, the first Monday of any given month is Training Day.  Typically, all personelle basically go and listen to training lectures about whatever,and sometimes the units do a moral activitiy like play a sport, go bowling or go to the movies together.  But a few time each year, the Booster Club for my husband's unit pulls some funds together to host a unit and if family is allowed, we accompany him to that.  This month, they had a barbecue so after his mandatory training classes, Charles swung by the house to pick us up and headed to Arnold park for a lunch of hot dogs and chips along with some play time for the kids. 

 The unit rented a bouncy castle for the kids to play in so we found us a nice shaded spot with a picnic table next to it so the kids could play and I could keep an eye on them.

There's also this grassy hill that the kids enjoy sitting and playing on.  It's not very often they can roll around on soft grass, so when they get the chance, they enjoy it.. LOL

And from their spot on the hill, they had the perfect view to watch the military men playing Cornhole.  I honeslty do not understand the fascination of this game, even after living in Michigan, but obviously many people enjoy playing it.

 Any time you have a big group of men together, you know they are going to show off their cars.  The company picnic is no exception.  The front row of parking seemed to be an impromptu car show for everyone to show off their cars.

 I still think my Yellow pops the most, although that Green one is a close 2nd ;)

There's also as small play area at the park where the kids could swing/

And I had to laugh because while we're always joking about Alyssa meeting some young Airman at one of these types of events, it turned out we were worried abotu the wrong kid, as Garrett managed to find him a little girlfriend for the day.  (She had asked him for his phone number but ahhhhh, no, that wasn't happening!!)

ASD Reading (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Due to his Autism, one thing Garrett has always struggled with is reading.  Originally, we weren't sure if he would ever be able to read due to his ASD but over the years he has worked hard and does read.  However, he 's still not at the level of reading that I think he could be at, even with his diagnosis.

Recently I was given the opportunity to review  ASD Reading, a reading program designed for children ages 4-15 who are on the autism spectrum that teaches reading and writing to a third-grade level (Lexile score of 750).  Using a similar structure as the original Reading Kingdom program designed for neurotypical kids, the ASD Reading program incorporates a number of modifications

and additional formats making it more effective for students on the spectrum.

We've been working hard on reading with the kids, mostly focusing on phonics. But let's admit it, when it comes to phonics, English is confusing for kids. Why is BIND pronounced B-EYE-ND but WIND is pronounced WAHY-ND and how do we explain to them when these changes in vowel sounds occur?  We try to teach them to sound out words but this only works if the word follows the set rules and can be sounded out. Many words just don't follow the norm.

ASD Reading is a browser-based reading that understands that phonics and sounding out words will work only with limited success.  It is designed by Dr Marion Blank who is a world-renowned expert on literacy. ASD Reading requires no prerequisite skills - even those who are nonverbal can use the program and provides customized instructions that adapt to your child's skills to read, write and comprehend the written language.

The program is very thoughtfully presented with cute backgrounds, rewarding animations when children answer questions correctly, changing scenery and engaging activities.  With a child like Garrett who easily bores, this was exactly what he needed to keep his attention focused on what he was doing. Lessons are fairly short (taking about 10-15 minutes a day) but geared towards learning letter locations on the keyboard as well as repetition, recognition, and recollection of words.

It is recommended that the student uses the program for at least 4 days or more a week, with 1-2 sessions each day in order for the program to work most optimally. 

How We Used It:

Garrett has become significantly more independent when it comes to using the computer during his school time, so after the initial login and set up required by me, I simply put a link to ASD Reading on the Bookmark Bar so that Garrett could easily access the program.  Then, each day I would just tell him "Garrett, go to your Dinosaur program" (The animation at the beginning of each lesson is of a dinosaur) and he could log in on his own.

 Each level consists of 6 books containing activities that help students learn to read, spell and write words used in each book.  Each book builds upon the previous learned book, helping to build word recognition and also helps to build confidence.  These activities include things such as asking the child to first type a word they might already know. 

If they do not know the word, then the activities gear towards repetition and recognition to help the child become familiar with the word before moving on to the next word.  Then, when the original word is repeated in the sequence, the student is quickly able to recognize the word.

Garrett seems to enjoy almost all of the activities he's encountered with ASD Reading, with one exception - the typing skills activity show in the picture above.  While he has a pretty good understanding of letter placement on the keyboard, he does find the task tedious as he gets bored with it very quickly as it typically involves around 80-100 keystrokes at a slow pace.

Activities are scored and students are made aware of what score they need to achieve in order to progress to the next level in their "passport" and move through the program. Garrett is still working on achieving his level 2 in his passport and each time he uses the program he gets closer to the intended goal. 

Some of the activities are on a timer. Initially, Garrett was getting rather frustrated with the program because he was running out of time before he was able to answer the question.  This is super common for Autistic kids - it takes a few seconds for those gears in their brains to engage.  Luckily, a few days after we started the program, we received an email from Reading Kingdom letting us know a few tips and tricks for using ASD Reading, one of which was how to slow the program down through the parent dashboard to allow users more time to answer the questions.  This was a game changer for Garrett.  He went from hating the program initially to really enjoying it - with the exception to that typing skills portion.

Parents are able to see a progress report that shows how the child is progressing through the program.  This shows how many days per week the child uses the program on average, as well as how they are progressing with the program.  Garrett is currently still in level 1, as he works on the program once a day/three times a week (sometimes more). 

 By clicking on the child's name, you can then see a slightly more detailed list that shows what book your child is working on for that section, what words they are currently learning and how their overall progress is.

Finally, a parent can choose to download a report in Excel spreadsheet format.

Overall, this program seems like a great addition to any reading curriculum for autistic students. The confidence that Garrett has achieved in word recognition has really become apparent as he progresses through the program as well as in his classwork when he has to read aloud with our other curriculum. 

For more information on ASD Reading, visit their website.  You can also visit them on the following social media platforms:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/readingkingdom

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/readingkingdom 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/readingkingdom/

Weekend Meal Planning

Whew!!!  I have never been so happy to get to a meal planning weekend than I am right now.


The last time I did meal planning, I did so for 20 meals.  I obviously didn't plan well enough because I ended up running into a couple of small pitfalls.  One, my husband kept saying "I don't feel like pork chops tonight/I don't feel like chicken tonight" and so porks and chicken kept getting pushed back and pushed back until both the package of pork chops, as well as the package of chicken thighs, went bad in my fridge.

The second pitfall was that I didn't buy enough ground beef and so Charles request for Cheeseburger Casserole got canceled.  I'm making it up to him this time around as I have a bacon cheeseburger casserole planned.

Monday- Moroccan Spiced Cabbage Rolls with buttered broccoli

Tuesday- Pizza Stuffed Meatloaf with Mac and Cheese 

Wednesday- Philly Cheese Steak with Fries 

Thursday- Slow Cooker Carne Asada Tacos

friday- Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole with Tater Tots and salad

Saturday- Greek Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki (Marinade)

Sunday- Spinach and Ricotta Calzones with Salad

Monday- Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with Rice

Tuesday- Blackened Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa (marinade ahead of time)

Wednesday- Garlic Butter Steak with Potatoes

Thursday- Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce, couscous and baby carrots

Friday- Slow Cooker Mississippi Pot Roast with rice and mac and cheese 

Weigl Publishing (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Have you ever read a book and wished that rather than just words on a page, you could actually SEE what is being written about? With media enhanced books from Weigl Publishers, your reader can do exactly that.  With more than 1800 titles covering topics from science, social studies, math, language arts and fictional storybooks, media-enhanced books bring the story to a full multimedia experience.  Members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given three titles to review:  A Lion's World, There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant, and Glaciers: Earth's Water.

Weigl books can be read one of two ways.  The first is your standard Ebook in a PDF format, which allows you to read on any device and does not require an internet connection to enjoy the story.  As a whole, the books are entertaining as is. However, in the front of each book, readers will be directed to a website where they will enter the included code in order to access the extra multimedia content included for each title.  After answering a quick question to verify the purchase of the title (questions like what is the last word of the first paragraph on page 10), depending on the title, readers can elect to have the story read to them, watch the still images on the pages spring to life in moving video, or explore more about the topic being discussed.

The first book that we reviewed was A Lion's World.  This book is part of the "EyeDiscover" series intended for readers in the K-2 age range.  This is a perfect reading selection for any young child who loves animals.

The ebook version of A Lion's World features 23 pages of brightly colored, double spread photographs of lions with easy to read text for beginner readers and includes 36 common sight words as well as 11 content words that are paired with the pictures to help aid in recognizing and learning new vocabulary words related to the story.

When the reader visits the EyeDiscover website and enters the code, they will find an audio version of the book being read to them along with accompanying video to go along with the text where readers can actually see and hear a lion roaring when they read about their roar being loud enough to hear for 5 miles or they can see video of lions rubbing their heads together in greeting rather than just reading about it.

The second title we were given was Glaciers which is part of the "Earth's Water" series.  Written by Christine Webster, this 24 page ebook brings readers up close and personal to glaciers.  This book is a non fiction science book and is written for grades 3rd-6th.

This particular book takes advantage of the Lightbox website which, once again, using the code found in the front of the book, allows readers to explore glaciers by clicking on embedded elements within the story on the website.  These elements may be vocabulary words, links to maps which use a popup from Google maps but does not allow students to click the image to leave the text, or videos that  demonstrate the point of what is being described.


For example, as seen in the images below, Page17 of both the Ebook and the Lightbox version of the text looks almost identical.  However, the Lightbox version shows that the image on the page is a video link.  When the reader clicks on the image, a popup video featuring a video clip from a Smithsonian channel feature on Alaskan Glaciers plays.

We really enjoyed exploring this particular title.  One video in particular which showed the calving of one glacier was especially interesting, especially to Garrett who watched that particular video several times in a row.   Of the three books, this was without a doubt Garrett's favorite.

The final book that we reviewed was There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant.   This is a fiction book written by Helen Ketteman and illustrated by Will Terry and is intended for grades K-2.   The book is 31 pages long but follows much to the same sing-song pattern as the original story making it an easy, fun read.  The cute illustrations are really cute which helps keep kids interested as well.

Without a doubt, this was mine and Ashleigh's favorite of the three titles, maybe it's the Texan blood in our veins lol.   This story is a version of the familiar nonsense children's song "The Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly", however, the fly has been replaced with a good ol' fire ant who, as any Texan knows, bites with a  "Texas Size Sting".  Through the course of the story, our Cowpoke swallows crazy critters such as Longhorns, armadillos and rattlesnakes trying to rid himself of the previous critter.  Thankfully, this story has a much happier ending than the Old Lady who swallowed the fly.

This book is part of the AV2 by Weigl Fiction Read Along which, like the other two selections, allows you to log into a website with a code found in the book where you can have the book read aloud along with sound effects.  This story is a bit different than the lion book as this isn't just read to the child but is more of a dramatic reading along with a narrator and a male reading the part of the cowpoke.  Ashleigh and Garrett thought the read along was so funny and they enjoyed this story very much.

For more information about Weigl Publishers and the huge library of media enhanced books offered, be sure to visit their website.  There you can find a free demonstration of the I Am An Elephant enhanced book.  You can also click the banner below to read the reviews of other Crew members.

YWAM Publishing (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Each time that I am given the opportunity to read a book from YWAM Publishing, I'm all over it. They are one of my favorite companies that I enjoy including both in our homeschooling as well as having available for free reading.   I always put money aside when we are going to the area homeschool convention knowing that YWAM will have a sales table there so that I can pick up a few more books for our personal library. So when I was given another chance to review a book, I was super excited.

For this particular review, we were given the choice of several different selections both from the Heroes of History series and the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series. Since I was about to have to purchase it as it is a required text for a curriculum that the kids are currently using in our classroom, I selected Heroes of History: Daniel Boone for our review selection.  We were also given the downloadable study guide that can be purchased to go along with the book.

About YWAM Publishing

YWAM Publishing is part of the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Ministries that was founded in 1960

and offers a large selection of quality books written about figures whose lives not only had a huge impact in history but also showcase how their faith helped shaped them and how God used them to make a difference in the world.  With books about Presidents such as George Washington and Ronald Reagan, great inventors like Thomas Edison, pioneers such as Davey Crockett or Meriwether Lewis , Civil Rights icons like Harriet Tubman, Sports icons like Lewis Zamperini and Missionaries such as Nate Saint and Corrie Ten Boom and even people like Ben Carson who are making an impact today, there's so many options that are sure to spark interest in any reader.

But these aren't just cut and dry textbooks.  YWAM Publishing brings each story to life through engaging biographies written by Janet & Geoff Benge.  Each book focuses on extraordinary people whose faith helped them to achieve some of the greatest accomplishments in history.

How We Used It

The kids and I are currently using an All-in-One style curriculum that revolves around 6-week unit studies to teach American History.  This particular curriculum focuses using "living books" to tie in the various lessons for language arts, science, and history.  One of the reasons I picked this particular curriculum was because of the fact it did use a number of titles by YWAM Publishing. 

Over the course of the last 6 weeks, the kids have been reading Daniel Boone, Frontiersman as their daily read aloud as well as working on their reflective writing using the passages from the book to answer questions designed to make them thing.  It would be very hard to do these types of assignments from most children's books but YWAM makes it very easy with all the details they weave into the story.  The kids learned about the early life of Daniel Boone as he suffered through smallpox and how being confined to bed in his cabin most likely had a huge influence on how Boone because the outdoorsman that he became.   We also learned about how to Daniel was able to recognize the character traits he was looking for in his future wife, Rebecca Bryan. We read about the Boone family's moves from place to place and the heartaches that the family experienced. They learned about what made

One of the things I really enjoy about the Heroes of History series is that while historically accurate, it's written in such a way that really pulls the reader into the story as it bridges the gap between non-fiction and fiction.  Readers are not subjected to dry textbook style reading as one would find in a typical history book, but instead are immersed in the story, setting and characters like they would be with their favorite novel.   Yes, all the pertinent material such as dates and locations are included but they are presented in such a way that they are part of the story.  From a parent who follows a more Charlotte Mason style educational format, I really like that these books are easily considered Living Books. The stories are vivid and engaging but highly educational.

The other great thing is that this text provides a platform for so many other "rabbit holes" when it comes to learning, from Native American studies to learning about edible plants,   From YWAM also recognizes this and offers a valuable  downloadable 76 page guide that includes comprehension questions for each chapter of the book, as well as multi-subject activities such as Language Arts essay questions, arts and craft activities, field trip suggestions, and movie and additional reading suggestions.  There are also notebooking pages as well as overview guides for homeschools, small groups and traditional classrooms that provide the historical order in which the books can be read, making incoporating YWAM books into your history lessons easy. .

I really enjoy sharing these books with my family and you can bet that in June, I will be purchasing a few more titles to add to our library.  I've had my eye on the Corrie Ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels' Den and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness.  I also know that we will be using Theodore Roosevelt: An American Original for a later study in our curriculum so that will be on my purchase list as well. 

You can find out more about the Heroes of History  and the Christian Heroes: Then & Now  series on the YWAM Publishing website.  You can also find them on the following social media platforms.

• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/YWAM-Publishing-482973445102/   
• Twitter:  http://twitter.com/YWAMpublishing    
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/YWAMpublishing  
• BLOG:  www.ywampublishingblog.com

Be sure to click the banner below to read reviews on the many different titles offered by YWAM Publishing.