Verse of the Week

Sorry that I missed this last week..   I do hope that you will accept my apology but last week was a bit crazy for us here :)



For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.     

Romans 14:11

This week, my verse is very simple.  But I think it's pretty profound. Especially with the way things have been these last few week with discussions about Christianity vs Muslims.. But it also hits home with me this week as this week, I found out that a cross that I use to visit for comfort during some very difficult times in my life is current under threat to be removed because an Atheist group has deemed it illegal.

I have to tell myself, the ending is already written.  We know how this story ends, He wins!!!   I might not know what happens in the pages between now and that day, but I know without a doubt the ending.

Weekly Linkup

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An InLinkz Link-up

The TOS Blue Ribbon Awards

As my first year on the 2015 Review Crew winds down and the family and I switch gears to prepare for the holidays, I wanted to share with you what my families personal favorites from the 42 wonderful products we reviewed this year as well as share the 2015 Blue Ribbon Award winners.

Overall Favorite Product:

Without a doubt, Koru Naturals came out on top for our absolute favorite vendor.  We reviewed this vendor not once but twice and each time we loved everything we were given.

However, the clear winner here was the Pure Emu Oil. Prior to this review, we never would have even thought about buying Emu oil. Now, we cannot live without it.  Both my oldest daughter and I use this oil as part of our nightly skincare routines and it has helped to keep our skin blemish free.  My husband uses this oil daily in correcting his dry skin in his T-zone.  My youngest daughter LOVES this oil as it quickly eliminates scales caused by plaque psoriasis with absolutely no pain.  If ever there was a miracle in a bottle, this would be it.    When asked what their favorite review item was, both Charles and Alyssa did not hesitate to answer with Koru Naturals and the Emu Oil.

Garrett and Ashleigh's Favorites:

This was a two way tie for both kids as they couldn't really decide which one was their absolute favorite.  They both named these products as their favorites.

First is Egglo Entertainment's Glow in the Dark Eggs.  Garrett and Ashleigh are both looking forward for Easter to come back around so they can have another glow in the dark egg hunt.

Their second choice is Peter and the Wolf from Maestro
Classics. I honestly believe this one should have been the clear cut winner as they listen to it almost daily and they still sit and discuss the various instruments and how they are represented in the production.   Although, I have to laugh how they follow listening to this with "All About the Bass" by Meghan Trainor.  Go figure!!

Mom's Educational Pick:

This was a very hard choice as there were so many wonderful products to choose from but I kept coming back to one product in particular.   Horizons: Phonics and Reading by Alpha Omega Publishing.   This product has been a game changer for Garrett when it comes to reading and writing.

Garrett has always been the type of student who basically throws a fit and says "I can't" when it comes to reading aloud and sounding out words.  I don't know what it is in regards to this particular curriculum that he doesn't mind, but this is one of the very few curriculum where I can ask him to read a word or a sentence and not get met with a complete meltdown.

As we have progressed through this curriculum, both kids reading skills have improved greatly.  Ashleigh has moved on to reading three syllable words with very little problems and Garrett is where he should be as far as his reading levels go.

For these reasons, Horizon's gets Mom's Educational pick for 2015.

Other Top Pics for 2015

There were so many wonderful vendors that we got to review and I wish I could list all of the ones we especially loved.  However, in addition to the ones above, these 6 really stood out as our favorites. 

In Freedom's Cause - HeirloomAudio Productions 

ARTisticPursuits 

Institute for Excellence in Writing

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy

With Lee In Virginia from Heirloom Audio Productions 

USAopolis

The Blue Ribbon Awards

Each year, the members of TOS Review Crew votes on many different categories to pick their favorite vendors. Many of these products were not ones I reviewed as they didn't fit in with my family so it's a great way to read reviews for other wonderful products and vendors.


And the Winners Are

Favorite Reading Curriculum: Reading Kingdom
Favorite Writing Curriculum: Institute for Excellence in Writing
Favorite Vocabulary Program: Dynamic Literacy
Favorite Spelling Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing: Phonetic Zoo
Favorite Grammar Program: Institute for Excellence in Writing: Fix-It! Grammar
Favorite Penmanship Program: CursiveLogic
Favorite Literature Curriculum: Progeny Press

Favorite History Curriculum: Home School in the Woods
Favorite History Supplement: Heirloom Audio Productions: In Freedom's Cause
Favorite Science Curriculum: Visual Learning Systems
Favorite Science Supplement: Ann McCallum Books: Eat Your Science Homework
Favorite Math Curriculum: CTC Math
Favorite Math Supplement: SimplyFun

Favorite Christian Education Curriculum: Grapevine Studies
Favorite Christian Education Supplement: Brinkman Adventures
Favorite Foreign Language Curriculum: Middlebury Interactive Language
Favorite Fine Arts Product: Maestro Classics
Favorite Elective Curriculum: Apologia Educational Ministries: Field Trip Journal
Favorite Audio Drama: Brinkman Adventures
Favorite Video: FishFlix.com

Favorite Preschool Product: La La Logic
Favorite Elementary Product: Star Toaster
Favorite Middle School Product: The Critical Thinking Co
Favorite High School Product: Writing with Sharon Watson
Favorite College or College-Prep Product: Freedom Project Education
Favorite Parent Product: Koru Naturals
Favorite Planning Product: Apologia Educational Ministries: The Ultimate Homeschool Planner

Best Resource I Didn't Know I Needed: Homeschool Planet
Best Online Resource: Super Teacher Worksheets
Best e-Product: Home School in the Woods
Just for Fun: USAopoly
Kids' Choice: La La Logic
Teens' Choice: YWAM Publishing
All Around Crew Favorite: Institute for Excellence in Writing

I'll Be Back

Yeah, you know you read that in your best Arnold voice ;)

Late last night I received a confirmation email confirming that I will indeed be a member of the 2016 Schoolhouse Review Crew.   To say I am both excited and relieved would be an understatement as I was really stressed out as to if I would be invited back or not.

I'm one of those people who always thinks the worst about myself so I spent the last couple of weeks wondering if my writing had been good enough, did I showcase the vendors well, ect ect. I always second guess myself in everything I do.   Now, with the confirmation email in my inbox, I can start looking forward to another great year of reviewing various curriculum.

As I finish my first official year as a crew member, I can't help but to look at how this blog has evolved from where it was this time last year to where it is as of today.  In November 2014, this blog was nothing more than a homeschool diary where I jotted down what we did so that my in-laws in Indiana could keep track of what the kids were doing.  Honestly, I don't even know if they ever read any of it and I was lucky to have even 1 hit on my blog each month.  In almost a year, I had less than 200 hits.

One of the earlier blog postings

What a difference a year makes!!!   I have had almost 16K viewers visit my little corner of the internet universe and it always blows my mind when I post something new and it instantly has 10 views within the first 10 minutes.   Thank you to all of you for the support you have given to this blog, without yall, I would still just be writing to myself.

This blog has evolved in many other ways as well.  In it's early days it was nothing more than a running commentary - the kids did this, the kids did that, I did this and I did that..  Pictures were minimal and were usually just the kids filling out a worksheet.  There was a title and text and that was about it..  Can we say BORING???

Granted, it's not like this blog resembles anything remotely like award winning journalism but it has come leaps and bounds from those early days.  I spend almost as much time designing the graphics that go along with the blog, whether its the title banner on the top or the accompanying Pinterest pins for each posting.

The Pins have even changed.  Yesterday for Throwback Thursday I reposted the review I did of the "Wanna Be - When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Firefighter" by The Old Schoolhouse..  The difference between the pin for the original posting and the pin for the Throwback post?? Night and Day :)

Already the Review Crew has a wonderful list of Vendors coming up for 2016 so there will be even more wonderful reviews from both favorites as well as new companies.  

To say I'm pretty excited is an understatement.

So, here's to our one year anniversary.. Thank you for helping me make it this far as this blog wouldn't be anything without readers..  And here's hoping 2016 sees even more changes (for the better)..

"Wanna Be - When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter" - Throwback Thursday

A year ago this week, I posted my very first review in the hopes of making the 2015 Schoolhouse Review Crew.  At his point, I wasn't sure if I would be accepted as a member of the crew and was biting my nails to the nubs stressing out on whether or not I would make it.

Fast forward one year and many other bloggers who homeschool their children are writing their first review in hopes to be accepted to the 2016 Review Crew.  The rest of us are (not so) patiently waiting to hear if we will be returning as members of the 2016 Crew as well.    One again, my nails are being bitten down to the nubs are I wait for my email saying I've been invited back.

So it is only fitting that this is my Throwback Thursday posting..  While it is my hopes to return,  I may or may not be a member of the 2016 Crew but either way, it has been such a wonderful blessing to have been part of the 2015 Crew.  Good luck to all those writing their Application review, I hope for the opportunity to get to know you in the upcoming months :)

P.S.  I had to laugh that my son still wears those pants and he STILL wears them backwards every time he puts them on ;)

This posting is part of the "Throwback Thursday" Linkup hosted by Tots and Me. Be sure to click over and see other Throwback Thursday Postings :)

 

Review of "Wanna Be - When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter"

Originally Posted 

November 12th, 2014

Attention grabbing front cover

This week we had the pleasure of trying out and reviewing the “WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter” unit put out by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it for Schoolhouse Review Crew, however the opinions expressed are my personal, honest opinions.The Old Schoolhouse's "Wanna Be - When I Grow up I want to be a Firefighter" can be purchased for $8.95 at this link.

This is the first product I have used by The Old Schoolhouse and was very happy with it. In the past I have read articles out of the magazine but I was not aware of the fact they actually had unit studies for purchase and can be purchased at The Old Schoolhouse Store.

We received the unit to review and use on a Tuesday and I took the rest of the week to actually sit and study the materials. The first thing I noticed is there's a plethora of information put together nice and neatly in the 82 page ebook with a table of contents that highlights topics for study. The addition of the table of contents was very nice as most unit studies that we have used in the past do not have one and I tend to have to search for the page/topic we left off on. The table of contents neatly corresponds with the page number of the start of each section which makes it perfect for a not so organized mom like myself to go straight the page I need and pick up where we left off.

Another thing to note right away, before digging into the actual content was the bright colorful picture on the front of the unit with six smiling firefighters. I know they say “Don't judge a book by it's cover” but when you're dealing with two first graders, sometimes the cover art is very important. In this case, the picture was enough to grab my kid's attention and provide a great conversation starter to bring us into the lessons. I especially like the fact that there were firefighters of both sexes shown so both Garrett and Ashleigh could have someone to relate to. We were also able to incorporate the cover photo into part of our discussion, as I will explain in a few.

As said, before sitting down and starting this unit with my kids (both being 1^st grade) I took a few days to review the materials includes. There is a lot included for the price ($8.95) and you definitely get the bang for your buck. There are many activities included to tie into the lessons such as a word find, a crossword puzzle, mathematics problems, copy work and fill in the blank vocabulary pages. Many of these pages I could tell would be too advanced for my kids but the introduction page does state this unit is mostly geared for students ages 4-10 so I do think that some of the activities would be better for students in higher grades (maybe grades 4 or 5). Some of the main themes of discussion are the history of firefighting, firefighting equipment, the requirements to become a firefighter and how much they make, as well as information in regards to building safety codes and technological advancements in fire fighting such as the use of robots. Some of the more advanced topics (such as about robots) also include ideas for science experiments or projects to incorporate with the discussion.

I decided to present the material of this unit to my kids over the course of three days and I found this to be a reasonable time frame to cover almost all of what is included in the material on the level appropriate for my kids. Much of the information presented also gives a great platform for more independent exploration (and a bit of fun). For example: during the topic of the history of the fire departments, we talked about the “Bucket

Bucket Brigade of the Colonial Era

Brigade”. We were able to find a great youtube video in regards to “Firefighting in the Colonial Era” which showed the bucket brigade and we were able to easily extend the discussion beyond what was covered and discussed how the men were on once side of the line, the women and children on the other and why that would have been (the full water buckets being heavier and easier for men to handle). This also made for a great “fun” activity as we compared an empty bucket to a bucket full of water and the kids then pretended they were tossing the buckets of water onto a fire. When talking about fire equipment, the kids got to pretend they were firefighters in the front yard and battled a “fire” with our garden hose. When discussing how the firefighters live in the firehouse for 24 hours at a time and cook, clean and sleep there, we also returned to our previous discussion on nutrition and the food groups and talked about how the firefighters had to eat healthy foods such as lots of fruits, vegetables and proteins in order to stay strong to meet the physical needs of their job. Mom also threw in some good ole pushups into the mix when talking about the physical fitness standards and the daily training they needed. And remember that cover photo? Well, after watching a video that talked about the firefighter's gear, the kids learned to recognize the Fire Chief and the Fire Captains by their helmet color so they of course wanted to go back and see what color helmets the firefighters on the cover were wearing and pointed out the Chief (the one holding the white helmet).

Heavy Bucket of Water

While some of the topics we did skim over as I felt it was a bit advanced for my kids, such as the information about general salaries throughout the country, these types of topics were very few and far between and I felt the kids were able to grasp most of the material (at least on a basic level) and they were able to

Putting out the Fire

answer most of the questions presented in the quiz section of the unit. Overall, I feel this unit indeed provided enough material to be considered enriching even at their younger age. I also feel it is a great resource to visit later down the road as they get older and could understand the more advanced ideas such as wages and about the history of fire insurance and will try to return to it again when they are probably around grade 5.

I do highly suggest that outside material be used when using this unit with younger students. It is a great platform on its own but using other resources such as youtube videos or photos off the internet will really help to get the ideas across, especially for younger students or those who learn more visually then by being read to. Together we watched videos of “A Day in the Life of a Firefighter”, videos of firefighters actually battling fires, listened to fire truck sirens and looked at photographs of the old horse drawn fire trucks which made what we were talking about really click. There's also a great video of Wilshire the fire dog (who's history is a point of discussion in the unit) online as well.

Horse Drawn Fire Truck

Overall, I was very happy with the unit and would definitely look into purchasing the other units of this series in the future. (Other available units include A Doctor, A Chef, A Missionary, and A Pilot among others). The material was clear, concise and accurate and presented nicely in a format that is easy to follow. With a bit of imagination, this unit could easily be extended to cover a week or two by also incorporating activities from other subjects, like we did with the discussion about the food groups or physical fitness. I think when I revisit it, I might plan a small obstacle course for the kids to run and pick up a firehouse cookbook and let them prepare and eat like a firefighter.

Grapevine Studies (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

It has only been recently that we have added Bible studies to our school curriculum.  While my kids really enjoy hearing various Bible studies, finding a study that they can enjoy without feeling overwhelmed has proved to be challenging.   Recently, we were given the opportunity to review Birth of Jesus: Multi-level  from Grapevine Studies and I think that we have found a Bible Study perfect for my kids.

About the Study Unit

As far as Bible Curriculum go, this is one of the cutest things you will ever see.  Gone are the multiple grey haired men with long beards and robes and instead children draw out cute stick figures to represent various people in the Bible. Children draw or trace scenes that take place in the selected reading which helps in memorization of the materials. Relevant Bible verses and vocabulary are scattered through each lesson for memorization.  These verses are short and simple and even young students can remember them.

The Birth of Jesus study is exactly as it says, students learn about the birth of Jesus, beginning with the Genealogy of Jesus and the Angel's visit to Mary, continuing with Simeon's Proclamation and Anna's Declaration, and ending with the death of Harod and Jesus's return to Israel.

This particular study is considered a "Multi-level" which means that depending on the age of your student, various tools can be used while teaching the lesson.  Younger students who are not yet ready for copy work or memorization can be taught using only the stick figure drawings while older students will be able to look up words in the dictionary, verses in in Bible or places on a map.

Grapevine makes it easy to figure out what level your student might be ready when making a decision as to which unit to use.  Each level is designed with a particular age group in mind and adjust the student pages for that age group. An example of this being traceables for very young students, larger drawing areas for elementary aged students and more complex study tools such as dictionaries for older students.

What We Received:

For our review, we had selected the Birth of Jesus Multi Level Unit.  We were given a digital downloadable copy of both the Birth of Jesus Multi Level Students workbook as well as the Birth of Jesus Multi-Level Teacher Guide.  The multi-level unit is designed for students age 7+.

The Birth of Jesus Student Guide is a 40 page guide that contains the traceable handouts for the students to complete for the study.  There are 5 Lessons in this unit:  The Announcement, Birth of Jesus, The Proclamation, The Wise Men and Harod, and the initial Birth of Jesus Timeline.  There is also a final review as a way to gauge what students have learned through the course of the study.

The Teacher Guide is a 50 page lesson guide that walks parents through this study of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.   It contains teacher's notes that explain important information that need to be covered in the lesson, a Bible Dictionary that contains words where looking up definitions could be helpful, maps to add geography to the lesson and Lesson Reviews.  The guide also contains the answers for the Final Review found in the student workbook.

Both the Student Workbook and the Teachers Guide come in a downloadable PDF format or can be purchased in a physical format as well.


How We Used It:

This particular Grapevine study is broken in 5 lessons which can either be done as 1 lesson a week or 24 daily lessons.  For us, we decided that splitting each lesson between 2 days a week worked best for us.

As my whiteboard recently had a fatal accident, I purchased some white board contact paper to go on the wall to use until I could replace the original board.  This gave me a really nice size surface to work with that my kids could see clearly while they sat with their own copy of the work.

Each week, I would print out a copy of the traceables for the lesson we were going to work on for both Ashleigh and Garrett.  These smaller packets kept the kids from feeling overwhelmed and gave them a weekly sense of accomplishment as they finished them.

I found that loading the Teacher's Guide into my Kindle made for an easy and convenient way in which to access guide.   The PDF is very clear and works well while viewing on tablets.


What We Thought:

First, did I mention how cute this concept is?  It's stick figures!! Anyone can draw a stick figure!!  Meaning even the youngest of students can participate in this study.

Both kids really seemed to enjoy these lessons and had a lot of fun when we did these twice a week. With the fact that my son is a very visual learner, this Bible study proved to be exactly what he needed in order to not only maintain interest in what we were doing but to be able to do the assignments without too much difficulty.  Garrett typically isn't one to like to draw, however, so the stick figure drawings seemed perfect for him and he enjoyed tracing and drawing on his own for each lesson.  Ashleigh absolutely loves to draw and color and tends to draw on almost everything, so anything that allows her to break out the crayons and draw is alright in her book..

The kids had such a time watching mom "write on the wall" with the various colored markers while they copied each of my drawings onto their own papers in crayon.   Never once did I have them complain about doing their Grapevine studies: instead I had several days where they complained because they wanted to do Grapevine as their first subject rather than at the end of the day.

This study is indeed a keeper and I have a feeling Grapevine will become a staple in our homeschool for the next few years for Bible Study.

More information about Grapevine Studies can be found on their website as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google + .  You can also find Grapevine Studies by using @Grapevine Studies on the Periscope app on your smart phone/tablet.

You can also find out about one of the other Grapevine Studies that other Crew members had the opportunity to review by clicking the banner below.

Ann McCallum Books (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

 I would like to invite you to enter a world of an alternative reality.  In this reality, my kids beg to do their math assignments, eager to learn about things like the Fibonacci sequence, Tessellations, and Probabilities.  To say they beg would be an understatement, in this reality, they pester me about doing extra math assignments even though they have JUST finished their previous assignment less than an hour before.    If I told you this alternative reality was my actual reality, you would assume that either I was exaggerating or that I have extremely nerdy kids.    Neither of these would be the case.

The truth is, we had the opportunity to review the book Eat Your Math Homework: Recipes for Hungry Minds from Ann McCallum books.   Written by Ann McCallum, this is just one book in a series which introduces educational concepts using recipes and yummy treats as a tool for learning.

Eat Your Math Homework is a 48 page paperback book that introduces kids to six different math concepts that take your kids out of the classroom and into the kitchen. The book opens with an introduction as well as kitchen safety tips for getting started and then ends with a math review that covers what was taught with each lesson as well as a glossary to help with definitions.  The full color pictures are cute and eye catching for younger students and the concepts taught are easy to understand, even for the youngest of kids.   This holds especially true when you have two students like my own who think with their stomachs before anything else.

Straight out of the gate, my kids decided they wanted to start with the middle of the book and make the "Tessellating Two Color Brownies" which teaches the concepts of repeating polygon patterns called tessellations.  While they were looking through the book, the idea of making various "pictures" out of their food really caught their attention and they knew this was what they wanted to do first.  (Of course, they had to pick the most difficult recipe out of the book to try first.. haha).

Well, lets just say if they are going to "eat their math homework", I made them do the homework

themselves in order to eat.  The recipes are very easy to follow and all I needed to do was help them measure out the ingredients and help them read the recipe for them.  Beyond that, I allowed the kids to do everything else on their own.   They had so much fun making these brownies on their own and they were great about taking turns pouring ingredients into the bowl and mixing everything up.   I would LOVE to show you a picture of the finished product but unfortunately, they gobbled up several of them before they had even cooled off (Note to parents:  put these up someplace safe while cooling or experience the same fate).

So I'm sure your asking yourself : Sure, your kids made brownies but did they actually learn anything?   Well,  I'll leave this with you - how many 2nd graders do you know would have a conversation with you in regards to whether or not a dodecahedron would be considered a tessellation?

Not all the included recipes are as labor intensive as making sugar covered brownies.  An introduction to simple fractions were easily handled using some well seasoned tortillas and a pizza cutter, while the concept of Pi is made delicious with a personal pizza.

We really enjoyed this book.  It was a lot of fun for us to actually put our math book away for a couple of weeks and concentrate instead on these fun recipes.  While each recipe concentrates on one particular math concept, kids are using other learned math concepts while measuring and mixing for each recipe.  Not all the recipes in this book involve turning on the oven, such as the trail mix that teaches about probability or the snack sticks that teach the Fibonacci sequence, but each recipe is fun and the kids found them to be very yummy.

This is only one book out of a series of "Eat Your Homework" books. Other titles include Eat Your US History Homework and Eat Your Science Homework.   Ann McCallum Books also offers picture books for younger students that introduces them to mathematical concepts in through fun stories.   Members of the Crew got to review each of these other books in addition to this one, so be sure to click over and read what the others have to say about this wonderful series.

Ooops.. I Kinda Forgot About THAT Part (Throwback Thursday)

It's happened to all of us at one point or another.  We put on a cute kids show, something we remember as being safe for them to watch, lacking questionable content.  All is well, the kids are into the show and are staying out of trouble when THAT part comes on. 

For my Throwback Thursday posting, I'm revisiting the day when that exact situation occurred.   However, my reaction now is much different than it had been when that first happened.

The more I have given this topic thought as to when exactly the right age for the  "miracle of life" discussion was appropriate to have with my kids, the more I realized that there isn't really an age. This is a topic that really never should have been taboo or "age appropriate" to begin with.    I was really reminded of this the other day when I saw another mother say that she had taught her 7 and 9 year old boys that "God delivered the baby to the hospital where we picked them up".   

We live in a society today where when we need eggs, milk or chicken, we just run to the grocery store and everything is already neatly packaged for us for our convenience.  However, this hasn't always been the case.  Just a few generations ago, kids lived and worked on the family farm and from a very early age, these children saw both animals copulating as well as giving birth.  It was a normal occurrence and it wasn't a big deal.  As the child got older, they eventually put the two events together and realized that the first led to the second.  The "big talk" wasn't really an issue.

Fast forward to the present and we have suddenly made reproduction a major taboo subject that is reserved only for older students, if even then.  It's almost as if we've taken the miracle of life and turned it into something sinful - even when it comes to animals.  I've taken my kids to the Zoo and we've seen both Zebras and Giraffes mating while we were there and while we didn't make a huge production out of it, we also didn't rush away from the area in disgust as so many other mothers were doing with their kids.   One of our female cats has not been fixed (we were advised not to - the other two are both fixed) and when she goes into heat, the kids say that she is in "love mode".. Again, we don't make a big production out of any of this, but we're not going to shield it away from them either.  

How can we as Christians take something as powerful and as miraculous as birth and turn it into something dirty?   We cannot expect kids to believe that babies are all a result of immaculate conception - when you act as if none of this happens then you actually are taking away from the miraculous birth of Christ himself.  It's not like we're inviting our kids into the bedroom or popping a pornographic movie on the tv and saying "Here kids, watch this and learn".. However, at a young age, kids are perfectly able to understand where baby kittens come from and as complex thinking develops they will eventually come to realize that something very similar must happen with humans. 

I'm all for teaching kids purity and morals, however, I just don't think this pertains to the miracle of life.  I also feel we do a great disservice to our children by lying to them about topics such as these as it 1.) hinders their education and 2.) makes them question what other lies we have told them in regards to our own issues with  the topic.   I just don't think that a kid knowing where kittens, puppies, ponies or even their baby brother come from is going to lead them into temptation or corrupt their minds.  And I also believe we as parents make this a MUCH bigger issue than our kids will ever make it. 

OOOOPS......I Kinda Forgot About That Part.

(originally posted November 7th, 2014)

Today being Friday, we decided to have an easy day and watch a movie.. I gave a lot of thought as to what movie would grab the attention of both kids and give me some discussion material afterwards and kept drawing a blank, so I went over to the Teach with Movies website, put in the kids ages and looked through the list of what was suggested. Milo and Otis quickly caught my attention and I looked through the discussion questions provided and figured it was perfect.. I remember my oldest daughter watching that movie over and over again when she was little and how much she enjoyed it so I thought it would be great..

I guess you kinda block certain things out of your memory because I really did not remember the particular scene where the cat and the dog both give birth.

I don't have a problem with this.. its a fact of life and eventually I would have to explain where babies come from to the kids..Actually, I'm pretty sure its coming up quickly in our Science book so the topic would have been breached eventually.. As all of our animals are fixed, the kids haven't had the fun adventure of actually watching an animal give birth..

Imagine my surprise when I hear my youngest say "Mommy, the cat just pooped".. I'm thinking What?? I look up and there's a cat giving birth.. Then it shows that it's a kitten, to which the kids are like "Awwww, its a baby kitty".. Okay, cool..

Then it quickly cuts to the scene of the dog giving birth.. To which the kids thought the dog just laid an egg.. LOL

Not really sure why the movie had to focus in on the genitalia of animals giving birth. LOL

Guess we had to have that discussion a tad bit sooner that I was expecting.. The discussion questions went out the window as I had to then answer questions about why baby animals come out of their momma's butts..

Yup, we had a fun day today.