NEW BEGINNINGS

Homeschool pioneers seem to be a rare breed these days so I was tickled when I had the chance to review a set of books: Choosing & Using Curriculum: Your Guide to Home Education, 1 Physical book and 1 e-book by Dr. Joyce Herzog. If you have homeschooled any length of time you have heard her name. I have personally read and enjoyed four of her books.

In order to appreciate the information given in the books you have to understand more of her background.  Joyce Herzog is a gifted teacher and has taught classrooms of learning disabled students. She has 25 years experience teaching the learning disabled. I know her more for her timeless teaching tips and down to earth practical advice along with a solid Biblical worldview. It is sufficient to say she is an expert in the homeschooling community with a bent always towards looking outside the box which is what is needed when choosing curriculum. Really her tips in any of her books work for any kind of struggling learner, special needs or otherwise.

The physical book contains 28 chapters ranging in topic from Educational Styles, Infant & Early Childhood Training, How to Interest a Child,  What Grade Level {one of my favorites}, to Comparison of Handwriting Styles. Several of the chapters like Comparison of Math Programs, Comparison of Reading Programs and Comparison of Handwriting styles go beyond giving background information and include website links to help you navigate your way through the mounds of homeschool curriculum.

The information in the physical book is not just for new homeschoolers. Seasoned veterans struggle with some of the most basics when they hit a roadblock too. Choosing & Using Curriculum not only educates you as to the different types of curriculum, but arms you with practical teaching tips in Chapter 27: Adapting Materials for Special Situations.

I don't want you to get the impression this book is just for special learners. It is not. Most all of us come to homeschooling with preconceived ideas of how we are going to educate our children. Thinking that our vision is clear, we find out real soon it is filled with more questions than answers. So the book is filled with not only background information on each topic but it helps you to hone your homeschool identity.  Giving you tidbits from her many years of teaching experience helps you to avoid costly mistakes in more than one way. Sure it costs dollars when we purchase curriculum that is not a good fit for our family but most of all we have lost valuable time teaching our children in the process. This book is a short two hour read designed to equip you quickly to make decisions about your homeschooling style and the needs of your children.

I really enjoyed the 39 page companion resource e-Book because it is chock full of hyperlinks and has sections for General Resources, Free Resources and even unique categories like Deaf Education Resources and Blind Education Resources. There are enough links and resources mentioned that you will happily be clicking, reading and downloading for hours.

This is what I enjoyed the most about Choosing & Using Curriculum: Your Guide to Home Education

• I value Dr. Joyce Herzog's mission to help new and veteran homeschoolers alike see that we can't warehouse children as she speaks about in her book. She has brought from her public school background only valuable teaching tips that will help you if you are struggling but has for sure left behind the thinking that education for the masses works.
• The ability to write in non-educationalese even though her teaching background is immense. She values the Bible's words where parents are the foremost teachers.
• Background information on each subject quickly educates a new or seasoned homeschooling teacher. You can avoid the stress of personally testing out each approach. Tying in Dr. Herzog's background information given and identifying your missteps in teaching thus far, you come away with some options on how to change your teaching approach now and in the years to come.
• Dr. Herzog's obvious heart and love for new and veteran homeschooler alike is felt all throughout the book as she not only wants to help save you money, but to build fond memories of homeschooling with less clashes.
  

This is what I did not like about the book. I struggled here with this because most of the time I like to give a "pros and consideration" for reviews. I realize cons is not always a right word because that could be subjective and so it differs for everybody. However, this is not a consideration or even a con for me but a deal breaker.

• When I got the physical book I thought a mistake had been made because the formatting was not up to standards like I have seen in her previous books.  Having written several outlines on a monthly basis for new homeschoolers, I feel like I lean more toward the forgiving side. Certainly I would not mention this if there were a few formatting issues.  I appreciate it is not easy to write from the heart and then to have to check for formatting. So I am not speaking about one or two mistakes but several huge formatting mistakes. A new homeschooler or veteran homeschooler might think it is unprofessional and question the validity and content of the information.
  

Even though the formatting was a main distraction I was able to glean valuable information from it and enjoyed the updated information from when I first read the original version in 1994.

Thank You Dr. Herzog for sharing your heart and teaching tips.

Product Name: Choosing & Using Curriculum: Your Guide to Home Education

Version: 2011

Website:  Joyce Herzog

Price:  Companion Set {Physical Book and E-book}  $15.00

Created for: Veteran and new homeschoolers.

Type of Product:  1 Physical Book bound

E-Book Format:  1 E-book in pdf.

Customer Service: My book arrived with the binding torn. It did not affect the content but I felt like more care could have been taken with shipping. It was received at the time it was promised.

Hugs and love ya,

All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

Something else I switched around this year or should I say I am doing away with are the one month per 1 page black and white calendars which I had used for appointments and kept in the front of my planner.

I am doing away with them for several reasons. One thing is that the majority rules and I only create forms I use and like so the one month per 2 page spread appointment keeper color calendars has hands down been the favorite. It's my favorite too. I started creating these a few years back because I needed more room to write my appointments and important dates on.

Also, the one month per 1 page black and white is an easy find for freebies and well I am not very inspired. Needing not only more room but a tad more style pretty I created the one month per 2 page color calendars.

Side point here: You could even print off the whole set and put them in front of your home management binder if you are using it like a family command center. They can go in the student planners also. Even persons who don't homeschool but like their own page size planner use them. I love it when it helps public school teachers too. I have a wide audience on this form at times.  I have 2 color choices to download today for the Appointment Keepers Calendar.

 But I wanted to tell you about how I create them. When creating the colors for the forms I am inspired by things I heart. Not always, but a lot of times I am. I am in love with the Caribbean Sea and we have taken many trips there. I am hoping if I put this in my planner and turn the page I may feel the ocean breeze. I can wish because it has been a few years since we have been. But, the Caribbean Sea is certainly my fave.

Download Caribbean Seafoam Luv here

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Another favorite of mine is shopping for unique jewelry. The bigger the better for me. If you haven't noticed by now I am not shy about my jewelry. Oh sure I love the real stuff but I always set aside a jewelry shopping day when we are on a trip locally or in another country to look for unique hand made pieces from amber or coral and things like that.  I love wearing all those pieces traveling or not. Also though I am inspired by a beautiful sunset. So those two things inspired me on this calendar.

Download Coral and Sun Luv here.

I just wanted you to know that though I love color, the appointment keeper pages always have some kind of personal touch and remind me of something I heart. They are not just forms for me but forms I hope you heart too. Don't let the instructions on the downloads throw you off. I know not everybody needs such detailed instructions but I would rather you have them than not. Try to take your time in preparing your planner so that you get exactly what you want. It has taken me years to get to this point so try to glean by going slow.

Well you hung with me during this 5 day spree of planning forms. I think I like this better since you can get a majority of them now.  Hopefully, you can get your planner put together early, or just print off as you go along what you want. You know the pages stay up during the year and I update as I go along when I have a new form. Yes, I already need some other things. The perfect planner is a unique find and like curriculum is an ongoing changing process. I know not everybody is following me for the planner but I am so glad you indulged the rest of us as we had to get in our punch for planning.

Some other topics got put on hold while I had all the year end stuff hit me at once so I will be finishing up 5 Days of a Homeschooling Co-op Convert.,  our present unit study and I still have progress on the Home Management Binder.

This cough is still lingering so I had to grab some meds for it. I try to do natural as much I can, but you know sometimes you need a little help getting over the hump. Of course that does not keep me ever from planning or organizing or doing our unit studies. I will be schooling lightly through the summer as I take care of project graduation for Mr. Senior 2013.

How about you, are you almost done with your year or are you taking it lightly too?

Hugs and love ya,

Rip roarin' to go on your planner? Grab the downloads from the other days.

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 1 Free Covers

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 2 Academic School Year Pretty Calendars

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 3 Printable Year Around School Planning Schedule

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 4 Editable Progress/Report Card for Teen

If you are new, the Main Planning Page that takes you step by step begins here:

Ugggg............. I knew there was something I forgot to tell you because it got lost in the nightmare story about Mr. Senior 2013 learning how to drive. Okay well maybe I didn't really forget to tell you. I am afraid I will turn into a sobbing wimp like I have been lately because of Mr. Senior 2013. I thought as together loud talking as I am that I could handle sharing with you some glimpses of my heart-to-heart talks with Mr. Senior 2013.  I had planned to share all my graduation ideas with you by now too. But, I cave, I am totally a sobbing wimp. I have embraced the full meaning of homeschooling with heart. You just can't homeschool and teach your son from his first tiny baby step, to his first hold of a pencil, to his first feel of a car steering wheel and come away unscathed.

I need to look at all of this project graduation objectively instead of how I feel now. Too, you know how up/down this past year was with the hubby.  So I savor every precious moment of life and I get spikes and shots of overflowing feelings when I get ready to write.  So stay tuned as I know I will eventually share but I keep myself reigned in about project graduation lest I sound like I have totally lost it and possible unsound words make their indelible marks on the world wide web. Enough of that. So what does this have to do with what I am sharing today?

Well I did want to share this picture with though it's a tad bit out of focus. Tiny was on the other end but I do kid friendly pictures.  Mr. Senior 2013 has gotten on a roll of getting real short hair cuts lately.  I don't like his hair because he looks like he is ready for boot camp. Whatever. But, this was the day Mr. Senior 2013 finally got his driver's license.  What a patient kid when all of that stuff hit us while I was in the middle of teaching him to drive.

After that jubilant day, the fun day came for insurance. The insurance company gives a discount for good grades in school and needed a current progress report. Oh yippee, I needed another form and figured you would need one like this too sometime or the other.

Since I need something a little more official looking than the pretty progress report  (Option 16) I already have on the site which is basically used to satisfy reporting for those that live in countries/states like this, I put this report together. It really acts as our final report card too.  The sample above is what eventually will go on the site. I left what I could on it from when I used it last year and added a few notes to explain how it is set up. It is editable and I am in love with it. It worked just perfectly when I sent it to our insurance guy. The only parts not editable are the comments and the signature which are normally done hand written.

Download your copy here.

Now that I have confessed all about Mr. Senior 2013, if you have a senior this year give him or her a hug today. You he or she needs it. 

Still in the homeschooling trenches with you as I have two more sweet sons to go and I am on Senior 2013 Project Graduation countdown, hugs and love ya,

If your enthusiasm about reports is getting the better of you, go here to grab the other days.

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 1 Free Covers

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 2 Academic School Year Pretty Calendars

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 3 Printable Year Around School Planning Schedule

If you are new to following me, all of my curriculum forms might be overwhelming, but I promise you they are organized. I walk you thru step by step. My planner is certainly not one size fits all. It takes time to build your unique production but you should always start on the Main Page first. Click below to go that main page.

I think planning is the hardest part for any homeschooler. I encourage you to always take time to sit down and look at your goals for the year. Map out the days and weeks to school, vacation and when you want a teacher in service day. Yep I give myself some of those days too. We need them.

I think the best reason to plan your schedule is that it keeps us in homeschooling reality mode. When I sit down with new homeschoolers, I see this scrollingggggggggggg list of things they want to accomplish. My head hurts even picturing it in my mind.  Instead of me trying to help them match that list to hours and putting it in their class schedule form, I encourage them to plug all of that in for the week on their own. You know why? Reality check. We all have those secret thoughts scheming how we can do so much more than the next busy homeschool mom. I have learned in helping many that we all struggle with the same thing: time management.

If you never assign all of those language art resources a spot/time on the schedule, it won't happen. Too, I see the whole day filled up with 3 R's and not any time for science, history or other fun and needed hands-on project. This helps anybody struggling see that no matter how wonderful a book, reading time needs to stay to x time, math time to x time and etc., if we want balance and harmony, not headaches and complaining.

I hear endless complaints each year of how homeschoolers don't get to that fun hands on science project, history project or even art. Then I hear of nightmare stories where they had their child do math for 4 hours. What?

No wonder a mom child hates homeschoooling. My heart hurts when I hear those kinds of stories. But, it is all because there is a lack of realistic planning on mom's part.

Planning is not met to stifle your day but to give it a flow. The minute math time is up doesn't mean we have to jump/run to the next subject but it gives us a gentle reminder so that we can work in the fun things too. Time to keep it moving.  Use the planning schedules as a support system and guide.

One more thing I wanted to remind you of is a form called Tracking Your Week that I have the New Bees do for homework in September's workshop. I do this because it doesn't matter what and when another homeschooler starts their day. It matters that your day follows the rhythm of your family.  If you have babies in the house its almost impossible to start before 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. If you don't have a baby but middle school and teens, your day should start earlier. My day starts as early as 8:00 but most days I prefer 9:00. Tracking your week now and again helps you to see where improvement is needed. Maybe you think you are starting your day early only to realize that some things need to be cut out in the morning so you can get your day started. Perhaps your family is young and you find you are trying to start too early. Find the pulse of your family and go with it.

A combination of these forms will help you to make schooling easier not more burdensome.

In updating my website, I added some notations to my sample page when I planned a few years back.  I wanted you to see them too if you haven't scooted by the website lately.

I highlighted in yellow the days/weeks I was going to school and when I wanted to take days off.  That year I took of 3 weeks in December and almost the whole month of April. April is just so pretty here in Texas that I took advantage of it that year and schooled during the summer.

Even though I don't have accountability here in Texas, I do for myself. I want to be sure I am the best teacher for my sons and I owe it to them and to myself to plan.  It gives me a "blue print" for the year to follow and I always have the weeks/days we schooled each year. We have a sense of direction and accomplishment and I don't enter that forbidden zone for homeschoolers which is comparisons.  You simply cannot be compared to any other homeschooler. You ARE unique! Your children think so and I know so.

I am finding myself quite informative chatty today. I get all wired when it comes to planning. It brings such relief in our school that I want any who struggle with it to not struggle. That is one reason I updated the legend or key to the form this year.

The above picture is the bottom of the forms. Goal is on there because that is what it is. Don't beat yourself up when it doesn't match reality or achieved.  Mine never does each year and it won't because we are imperfect and life happens. You can count on that. I know for me though, I meet way more goals than I ever would have if I had not planned.

Also I separated out Holidays from days off from school on the legend. For a lot of homeschoolers holidays do not always equal to a day off for various reasons. Homeschoolers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and I respect that. So this allows you to mark holidays so you know what is going on in the community but it may not necessarily be a day off from school for you. The yellow indicates yellow highlighter and the blue indicates a  blue highlighter. Something else that I added to the legend this year is to note the end of the 1st quarter, 1st semester,etc. You may or may not want to use this but it helps me in noting those dates so that I can switch out unit themes or start another study like geography. Doing one subject like geography for one quarter and say art for another is how successful educators get "it all in". I left those boxes blank because you may want to circle those dates, write them in, use a highlighter or use some other symbol. I hope you like this updated section.

Download Turquoise Luv Here

 Download Red Turquoise Luv Here

Hugs and you know I love ya,

If you missed the previous days: Grab them below:

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 1 Free Covers

5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner: Day 2 Academic School Year Pretty Calendars

If you can't contain your excitement any longer about doing a planner. Click below to go the main page on the website:

The real reason I didn't want the academic school calendars on the front of the curriculum planner anymore is because now I can add lots more color and different designs since they are a separate page. Mix and match is so much more prettier and unique. Today, I have 3 academic school calendar pages. Too when these pages are not laminated but put close to the front of your planner like right behind the cover, it allows you to circle holidays you want to observe and important days to your family.

These are school calendars only not the school planning calendar pages. There is a big difference. The pages today are for reference and noting important dates. The pages coming tomorrow are for actual school planning.

Remember too my pages are made for year around homeschooling. My pages start with July and end with June. Even if you don't start school until August or September and end in May that is fine. This is the one you will use. Keeping the form from July to June allows greater flexibility if you decide to start later and end early or vice versa.  Here are 3 color choices for the Academic Year School Calendar.

Download Green Chevron Luv Here.

Download Lemon Luv Here.

Download Red/Orange Luv here.

Here {excuse the font on my website-I am updating and my site goes a bit bonkers as I clean it up} is the calendar page if you want to grab the two page spread appointment keeper and a black/white page of a 2014 or 2015 calendar to use for long range planning purposes. The 2 page spread appointment keeper is toward the front with all of my pages under a tab Calendar. This way, my planning, my calendar for the school year and appointments are all kept together. Any black and white pages for long range planning or calendars for reference I put toward the back of my planner. That is just my preference because I tend to plan for next year at the end of the present year. So that is my planning preference. You may want all those types of pages up close to the front of your planner. You decide.

Tomorrow, I updated the Year Around Planning School Calendars and have those coming! Isn't this fun? Hitting you with all the forms at one time instead of spreading it out all summer. Plus you never know when I get my wild hair day and have another form I need. It allows me all summer to simmer on it.

Hugs and love, simmering

If you missed Day 1: Free Covers of 5 Days of Tina's 7 Step DIY Curriculum Planner -  Click below

If  you want to get started now on your curriculum planner for next year, click below to go the main website page.

[This post may contain affiliate or advertiser links. Read my full disclosure policy here.]

#7   

heather

 Congratulations to the two winners! Please contact us at dynamic2moms At Yahoo Dot com. {substitute the symbol for the words}

I admit to being fixated, not always, but a lot of times each year on themes as I create the curriculum planner covers. Last year I was fixated on including more editable spaces for dates on the covers. This year I am inspired by quotes. Well you know I love inspirational quotes anyway so I grabbed a few of them to put on covers.  Something you will notice different this year is that I have moved away from putting the school calendar on the front of the page. I am excited about this for several reasons: I am free to create more on the cover which I have been wanting to do. Also, it allows me to create yearly calendars that have more pizzazz and plus it has always been my goal that each planner be unique.

Who wants a planner where all the pages are the same and 1499 other people have the same thing? Not me. Call me odd.

Here are the four new covers this year.

Download above navy chevron here.

I love this quote:“When the world says, “Give up,” Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’” It is the one I chose to use at the end of the year in my new bee workshop. It just seems at times that the whole world can be against you when you're homeschooling. You don't have to be a new homeschooler to feel that pain. So it's one of my faves for quotes.

Download above Hope Whispers cover here.

I am an equal opportunity offender when it comes to color, I love them all. When looking over my covers, I noticed I was lacking in some red. This cover reminds me of my favorite pair of jeans and red tube of lipstick. I wear red and I love it on my planner too.

Download above here

Train up a Child has to be one of our very favorite Bible quotes for homeschooling. A lot of non-homeschoolers just don't get that our teaching goes beyond academics. So I have this cover as a reminder of our journey.

Download above cover here.

I have retired some older covers. If you have a favorite cover and are wanting to use some from previous years, go here to the Cover Page. Remember, all my covers are keeper covers now which means I won't put a year on them. I keep them each year on the website and add to them. Tomorrow, I have the Academic Year Around School Calendar Pages.

Switching to a science gear here on you, I had to let you know one more thing.

I just got word from Aurora at Supercharged Science that her online science camp (e-Camp) is now OPEN for registration. Registration for e-Camp 2013 is only open for 3 days, until this Thursday. I think Mr. Awesome is going to do this.

You can click the link below to get all the details before it's too late:

e-Camp

If you're not familiar with e-Camp, here's the scoop. e-Camp is an all-out totally fun and educational online science camp.

Imagine sending your kids off to a really great hands-on summer science camp. BUT, you get to decide what day and time they go. This is e-camp.

Plus, it's designed so they can do it on their own - just set them up and they'll be engaged for hours. So it’s perfect if you don’t have time to work with your kids, or if science isn’t really your thing.

If you want to keep your kids' learning this summer, but you also want it to be totally fun, this might just be the answer.  Rather than try to explain it all, I'll leave that to Aurora herself.

I have seen her stuff, and I can tell you that she really over-delivers. Last year over hundreds of kids enrolled in e-Camp in less than 4 days!

Registration for e-Camp 2013 is only open for 3 days, until this Thursday.

Click the link below now to learn more and to register:

e-Camp

P.S. This year, Supercharged Science has introduced a brand new Advanced e-Camp for teens. It’s supposed to keep even the “coolest” teenager interested. Click below to learn about it:

Advanced e-Camp

Hugs and love ya,

Linking up Here:

[This post may contain affiliate or advertiser links. Read my full disclosure policy here.]

I have to confess that other than making some fudge at home, I had never really made candy. Does that count as candy making? So I was thrilled to finally be able to do this review for our dynamic sponsor, Glee Gum.  I put off this review until after the co-op because I really wanted us to savor the sweetness and enjoy the process and we did. Glee Gum has diy candy kits and gum. But the beauty of these sweet treats is that they are made with all natural ingredients.

Tiny has been eyeing the Make Your Own Gummies From Scratch Kit by Glee Gum since we got it.  Gummy worms and bears are some of Tiny's favorite candy so he did the picking.  Kelley got the Make Your Own Chocolate From Scratch Kit to eat review. She is going to tell you below how she enjoyed her kit.

 Me? I want to tell you about how we had fun with ours. We got our choice between these three diy from scratch candy kits: Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit,  Make Your Own Gummies Kit and Make Your Own Chocolate Kit.  Also, they have all natural gum and I knew then I was on board.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to savor one of life's sweet delicacy. And oh yes I can make anything a history lesson. The American Indians chewed gum and then when we studied about the Ancient Maya and Aztecs in our rainforest unit we learned that eating chocolate was a part of their diet. It was such a nice fit when they invited us to try their products.

A few other things that caught my eye is the fact they had flavors of gum that were sugar free but without aspartame. I confessed openly about a month ago that I am a gum chewer but I prefer sugar-free. Knowing they didn't have aspartame in them was another plus for them because I try to stay away from the stuff if I get a choice. If you like your gum like I do, then you will enjoy the 8 different flavors Glee Gum has which are: cinnamon, peppermint, tangerine, bubblegum, spearmint, triple berry, sugar-free lemon-lime and sugar-free refresh-mint. Yummy.

But in making the candy is where we had our fun. I was confident that I could do the kits because they come with everything in the box to do it yourself. That is my kind of hands-on project, easy and tasty.  What is not appealing about making your own candy from scratch and with natural products? So Tiny followed the directions and he gathered some things in the bottom of his toy box and in our schoolroom to use as a mold. Some of these toys he doesn't use anymore. Not having made this before, I encouraged him to get a good variety of shapes and depths in case some don't work.

Simply press the molds or toys into the molding starch. Yep that came in a bag too. Pour it out onto a plate and that's it. The hardest part was getting Tiny to decide which molds to use.  The steps are even numbered on the instruction sheet and it only took 10 minutes for the candy to set up.

{I managed to snap this picture but after they ate the "hand mold" they made.}

He got instant gratification. Of course, if there is a sweet product to review Mr. Awesome is sure to make himself available as a "taste taster". This got a thumbs up from Tiny. I was prepared for complicated on this project and it was so refreshingly easy to do in the afternoon. Too, I didn't know that when we got the instructions with the kit that we would have a mini lesson on the benefits of seaweed too. More on that in a minute.

Then it was on to my favorite part, the gum tasting. They already had them poured into the sharing bowl for everybody to try. As I thought after having tested the candy, they were equally delish!

Did I mention another reason that we decided to try this out is because Glee Gum is about promoting education as well? They have a lot of free lesson plans and links on their sites to understand the background of chocolate and candy histories.

Having the convenience of everything packaged for you and the ease of the steps along with the natural and flavorful candy makes this an attractive product. Homemade anything, you know, is better than store bought.

Keep reading as we see what Kelley's family thought about the kit she got.

Kelley here. I will admit that I was tickled pink when we received the Make Your Own Chocolate from Scratch Kit to review.

We love chocolate and the timing was perfect. I had been reading up on chocolate and looking at recipes when I got to thinking about actually making a batch a chocolate from scratch.

I was impressed when I opened the package and saw cocoa butter in a bag, just what I had been trying to find, along with the other ingredients needed to make chocolate. Everything was nicely packaged and the instructions are nice and detailed. In the instructions it even talks about what "tempering" is and why chocolate crystals are needed to make the chocolate. Love the bit of science added in.

Now having a teen, I stepped back (ok I tried to, but it is chocolate after all) and let her make the chocolate. She chose the microwave method and followed the instructions. Now she has lots of patience (not me), I kept swinging by the counter anxiously waiting for the temperature to fall so the final ingredient could be added. I will admit that I had to taste everything as she went along.

Finally we have chocolate ready for use. Whew. It tells you it can take 15 minutes for the mix to cool enough to add that last ingredient, but I thought “no way”, “YES WAY”, who knew chocolate would cool soooo slowly. It was so worth the wait though.

We made a few plain pieces, but we were looking for all kinds of add-ins to use. We used almonds, cashews, candied ginger (my fave), cacao nibs, almond butter, peanut butter, pink peppercorns and pretzels. We had a whole plateful of chocolate pieces when we were finished.
Can you say YUM? Of course we managed to not eat all of them at one time and saved some for later. Not much later though.

My daughter and I decided this was a kit well worth getting again. The instructions are great and I really like that it gives you the option for microwave or stovetop. No guess work involved.

Like Tina mentioned in her review above, I appreciate the fact that Glee Gum provides educational material as well. On the back of our instruction sheet they have a whole page of history and information about chocolate and then refer you to their website for more educational materials.

Thank you Glee Gum for the opportunity to make and learn about one of my favorite foods.

Tina here again. We are just trying to test you out on this review to see if you can keep up with us as we go back and forth.

I have listed some of our favorite things about this product below.

• With all those "secret" ingredients I can't even pronounce in food right now, I have gotten more picky about even our snacking. I like the fact that the candy and gum are both all natural products and plant based.
  
• The candy kits are loads of fun, easy and make great gifts or a fun project to do with a unit study. The chocolate kit would be great to add to your next rainforest, Maya or Aztec unit study. The gum kit would be great too.
  
• I didn't forget to tell you about the seaweed. I learned something new which is that we all use seaweed more than we realize and it makes a gel that is able to be utilized in the gummy worms we made. From their instruction sheet: Gelatin is a substance that is made by boiling animal bones. YUCK! So carrageenan is a natural plant based gel from seaweed. Pretty cool uh? What a healthy substitute.
• They are not just interested in selling you something but educating you about how their products are plant based, environmentally friendly and your children obtain an education while having fun. Check out their free lesson plans here which have lesson plans on the history of chewing gum to chocolate to facts about the rainforest. We personally enjoyed the free educational tour of From Tree to Glee.
• You will love their tidbits of science and history behind the projects you make.
• Another fact I did not know: Glee Gum is the only gum in North America made with chicle, a tree sap harvested sustainably to aid rainforest conservation in Central America.
• I love, love the fact that I can get the gum in mixed flavors. I know it says it's a great gift option on their site but for a family it can please everybody as each one gets the flavors they like the best.
•  Mr. Awesome and Tiny wanted you to know their favorite flavors. Mr. Awesome's favorite gum was triple berry and Tiny's favorite gum was bubblegum. Me? I chewed some of ALL of them.
  

We are proud to represent Glee Gum and know you will enjoy their delicious and easy to make sweet treats.

Last but not least, Glee Gum has generously allowed us to give away 2 kits. So 2 winners and it is open for continental U.S. residents only.

Giveaway Ends Monday May 13 at 8:00 p.m. CST. Winners will be notified afterwards.

Add your comment now.

My rules are always simple. 

1. Comment here on the blog.

To do that, come to the blog, click on this post to comment here. Remember, though I always love getting your emails, you won't be entered in this giveaway if you send us an email. Note:{Update on our site: Though we have turned off the member section on our site, a mailing list still exists. We have left this feature on our site for the time being. So you may be asked by email after you comment to confirm to be on our mailing list. We don't like captchas either and are working on turning that feature off soon.}

2. You can comment twice.

Winners will be chosen by Random.org and notified.

That's it!

Hope you win!

Hugs and love ya,

Product Name: All natural Glee Gum and Make Your Own Candy Kits

Website: Glee Gum

Social Media: Follow on them on facebook and be sure to get their newsletters for coupons and savings. Follow them on twitter too and Glee Gum is on Pinterest now.

Price:  Candy Kit - $13.95 per kit/ $11.95 case of 12 boxes of gum. Attention:Gum Chewers - They have many options for pricing on their site. Click here to go there.

Ages: 8 to everybody!

Type of Product:  Edible and delicious diy candy kits and gum using all natural products.

 Current Newsletter. Click here to get it.

Customer Service:  Our products came exactly when it was promised and any questions I had were promptly answered.

 I have been in love over the past couple of weeks with my updated turquoise pantry.  You know I told you I have my own pantry. Well almost. It is a second pantry because I really like having a separate place that I can keep what is needed for when I cook. Since it is separate from my main pantry which is for the kids' snacks and cereal, etc., it allows me to find what I need and organize easier when I menu plan. Also, I keep my salad stuff in here because I love a good salad as part of lunch.  My main pantry is small and I have the room so I really like organizing my food this way. What do you think about the change? I am in love with my new baskets.

If you want to see how it looked before, you can see it here. A small change, but one I love.  Okay, now to what I purged, kept, used elsewhere, bought and made. 

I purged my cooking utensils. Though we grill outside during the summer quite a bit, I didn't need all of the cooking utensils I had. I do wash my dishes so I figured I could purge the cooking utensils and I did. I got down to one container.

Did I tell you that I use flower pots for storage? They come in way more colors than a utensil caddy, are normally cheaper and you can find them in bigger sizes. The orange chevron flower pot I found at Ross and fell in love. I used the yellow ones in my kitchen elsewhere. My clear containers are OXO. I know they are expensive but I love them because of how they all fit together. They just about make you measure and plan before you buy which is the way to do it.

But the biggest change has to be my green baskets from Hobby Lobby. The green baskets change the look and are the right size that I need. Since I use this more like a cooking pantry I was not looking for big or deep baskets. I ended up keeping the original turquoise baskets on the very bottom. I got them from Target but this is also where the Mr. keeps his protein drinks and I like to keep my cleaning stuff handy too like vinegar and napkins for the table. So it worked out better to have something bigger at the bottom.

Well I take that back, maybe the biggest change was that I finally got to label. Unless I label, a project is not finished. Remember I told you that labeling is always my last thing to do because I like to use something for a while before I label to be sure I like the lay out. Take your time when organizing and before you label to be sure you like the set up. I looked at my set up for months before I decided that I wanted different baskets.

I got the labels here for you that I used, but I am going to give them to you in two formats.

Download Pdf Copy Here.

Download Picture Format or Png Here.

One format is a pdf but the other is a  picture format because I want to show you how to fill in the labels that are PERFECT for you. You may or may not have the same items to label that I have. Also because this is my cooking pantry you may want to do your main pantry or you may need several of the same thing. So instead of me deciding your font & color like an editable pdf, I want to show you how to make your own using part of what I give you.

This tutorial is in Word because it is easy and also because a lot of us have some kind of word processing program we use.  Here it is step by step.

Open your Word Document. Copy and paste the picture file in your program after you download it from this blog post. Use the Picture Tools Format and click the picture to pull it out some and position it on your page. Get her straight on your page.

One more tip to be sure it fits, fills your page nice and is big enough on the page is to use Page Layout and change the margins to narrow. Then pull the picture by clicking on it to cover more of the page. Check the bottom of your page to be sure you are not off the page. Be sure it covers as much as it can without going off the page and you should have labels that are nice and big when you finish.

Click on the Insert Tab and insert a Text Box. I just use the simple text box. After you click on it, then use the cursor to position that box over your first label. Move it there by dragging it in place. Oh, and be sure to delete all the text in that box. Just highlight the text and hit delete.  The text should go away and your box should stay and be empty if you did it right.

Now we need to get rid of that ugly black line. Right Click on the box and go down to Format Text Box. Look for Line and click the drop down button and scroll down to No Color, Click Ok. Now we don't have a border around the text box. It has an invisible border.

Now the fun part. Take your time to make your font and color choice. Put your cursor inside of the text box. Be sure you are on the Home Tab and click down to choose a font. I just chose the first pretty one I saw in my menu. If you need your print larger make it larger.

I chose Artistic from my fonts and I chose the color blue and typed my first label. Isn't that pretty?

Instead of going back through all of this again to make the rest of them, just right click the first one you made and copy it. Then paste it somewhere on your page. It doesn't matter where. Just grab the copy and place it on the next label. Type in your next name or label. Keep doing that for each label. You can create as many color combinations as you want to. I did two. You can change the color for every label. Easy, peazy, diy and you get exactly what you like.

One last thing to share with you is how to attach them. I get all my labels laminated. It doesn't cost but a few bucks and it so worth it. You don't want it or need it very thick so even a home laminator works fine for this. As far as attaching them I prefer to use Scotch fasteners that come in a roll. I use a roll so I can cheat. I cut off a long enough piece so that I can reposition the circle as needed to get it balanced with the rest.  In other words repositioning the circle on the container up or down using a longer piece of strip, giving it a nudge or two gets the labels close enough to looking balanced without measuring each label on the container up and across.

My house is not perfect but I enjoy it and don't want to spend 30 minutes finding center. I take more care with how far up or vertical I go but not across. Scotch has been better over the years because they are known for being sticky and holding. So brand matters to me in this.

By using velcro too, you can switch out containers anytime you want to and use another label. I try not to label containers "permanently" unless I am for sure it will have the same content for years which is why I like velcro because I can switch containers and use it for something else.

Cut out the circles on the gray line or cut the gray line away.  The label looks cleaner when it has an outside edge that is white and the only way for me to show you that was to put a gray circle around it. That's it, all done.

I will print another set of labels to store in my Home Management Binder so I can have them handy. Are you doing a small project or two in conjunction with updating your Home Management Binder this year? I am lovinggggggg my new pantry updo.

Hugs and love ya,

I have done many things wrong when I first started homeschooling, but I have done a lot right too.

One right thing was choosing the beautiful Calvert cursive to teach all of my sons. I know that a lot of public schools and homeschoolers are moving away from teaching cursive, but I am not one of them. I tell my workshop new bees that writing or penmanship has always been the hallmark of a well educated man. Maybe that is not so true today but if you want to peek into the past, you have to know at least how to read cursive to understand historical documents. I think reading cursive and writing cursive go hand in hand. Too though I feel the time comes when you need to teach your kids typing skills. Boys especially benefit from knowing how to type because they seem to struggle with learning how to write more so than girls.  Penmanship is a time consuming skill to teach. Between the struggles of a child and the time needed to teach, a lot of educators give up on it. However, I feel in homeschooling we do have the time to teach those skills.

Choosing Calvert script at a time when I had not a clue of what I was doing ended up being one thing that helped me not to struggle so much in this area. After having taught Mr. Senior 2013 how to write in cursive, I just taught the other boys after that. I did venture out into other writing programs but came back to Calvert.

I came back to Calvert School cursive because it is a simplified cursive. By the way, Calvert script is specific only to Calvert.  It is unique and I wished more people knew what a beautiful font and cursive it is. It is neither D'Nealian or Getty Dubay but again a type of cursive used only by them.  It is simplified because it teaches manuscript uppercase letters and cursive lowercase letters. I like the fact that it is free of the superfluous loops found on the traditional Palmer method. Too, It is just plain pretty and simple as you can see from the chart above.

By the time Mr. Senior 2013 was in second grade, I knew how to teach cursive as you can see from his writing above. My middle son struggled more because I ventured off into other writing programs. {Mea Culpa} That was the dumb thing I did but again he is fine. Kids are pretty hardy and let you know real quick what is not working for them.

Because I still feel like the same way as I did when I first started homeschooling about the importance of cursive, ALL of us will do copywork sometimes.  Myself included. I keep a notebook beside my bed for me.  I never tell very many people that I pen a line or two also.  Oh, I don't write cursive as much as I use to. I use to write all their copywork out because the cursive font is not one you can find on computers or among fonts to purchase, but not so much anymore. Copywork doesn't take a long time and it's a way of storing exquisite words in your mind and heart. The benefits of copywork go beyond learning how to write. It gives you an overflowing amount of words and thoughts too. Especially when I do copywork from the Bible, I find it very satisfying and it leaves a lasting impression. Just a little each day is restoring.

So when doing our unit study on Ancient Civilizations, I had prepare some copywork for Tiny. I have hunted for a font that was similar to Calvert and came pretty close with the one I used in this copywork below. All of my sons know the Calvert cursive font but I still like to get pretty close.

The font is a little more slanted than I like but again close enough. The poem is Greece by Robert Frost. It is one of his more obscure  and early poems.  I like it because it's by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets. But also it gives a glimpse into his early writing and it shows his interest in history and idealization of heroic figures. I thought this would go along with our Ancient Civilization unit so we are trying to commit this to our memory. Here are the beautiful words. Download your copy at the bottom.

Greece

They say, "Let there be no more way!"

And straightway, at the word,

Along the Mediterranean shore,

The call to arms is heard.

Greece could not let her glory fade!

Although the peace be in sight

The race the Persians was arrayed

Must fight one more good fight.

Greece! Rise triumphant.   Long ago

It was you proved to men

A few may countless hosts o'ver throw:

Now prove it once again!

Download copywork Greece poem here.

Cursive, copywork, studying the classics and the co-op have all been on our mind lately.

What about you? Have you figured out the penmanship quandary yet? 

Hugs and love ya,