Homeschoolopoly Game Review

 http://www.homeschoolopoly.com/

I had the wonderful opportunity of receiving Homeschoolopoly Game in return for my honest review on my blog.

Price:  $24.99 each or buy 3 for $49.99!  

These make great gifts!

Recommended for ages 8 and up.  
*Although homeschoolers tend to be advanced, so ages may vary. ;)

For 2-6 players.

This is what is included in the game set:

game board

2 dice

Stacks of Books pieces

Keys to Knowledge pieces

stack of "Mercy" cards

stack of "Grace" cards

deeds

play money

6 tokens  (boy, girl, world globe, rocking chair, bicycle, and a dog)

What Is This? -

This game is similar to the original Monopoly game which is how many years old?  Well, I remember playing the original game when I was a kid, which tells about how old I am, hee, hee.  But, this particular game is a little different.  It was created with homeschoolers in mind and has some pretty neat features. 


The "Mercy" cards & the "Grace" cards, that you may have to draw during the game, are pretty funny and realistic.  Here are a few below.












Here is a favorite from each of the stack.  I love the HSLDA 'get out of court free' (shown above).


We all know that the library is a huge part of homeschooling so this one (to the right) hits home!



The real estate / properties are all of homeschool curriculum that were hand picked by the creator.  Some are very popular like these below.




There are some that I have never heard of which is great.  Most homeschoolers are always up for new curriculum to try!


Here are some other great features of this game.  If you remember, the original game has hotels and houses to place on the 'property' after they are purchased.  Well, instead of the hotels, there are "Keys to Knowledge".





Instead of the houses, there are "Stacks of Books".

The concept of the game is pretty similar to the original as far as the playing rules.


What I Thought -

This game is awesome!  My son wanted to play this game EVERY DAY!  





Some days he was the banker, which is so great for tweaking his math skills.  I am so glad that we found a game that is fun and educational.  I think that the 'Mercy' & 'Grace' cards are hilarious!  

This game is full of great colorful design with Christian (or neutral) curriculum companies.  I really liked that too.

So if you are looking for a family game to play on family night, I highly recommend this game!  

Changes are you know other homeschoolers and/or have families in mind that love to play games.  Christmas is coming up quick and this game would make an excellent Christmas gift; not to mention a great price!


Disclaimer:
All the opinions are mine from my personal experiences.  I was not paid in any way other than receiving the product to review.

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The best job ever!

These are my perks of my wonderful job:

*  I can pray and praise the Lord during work

*  I get to sleep in

*  I get to choose my own hours

*  I get to play games with my children daily



*  I get to plan out each and every day involving my children



 

*  I get to stay up late and not have to worry about being tired in the morning

*  I definitely save money on work clothes

*  I can work in my PJ's if desired

*  I don't have to buy my lunch

*  I do not own an alarm clock

*  I spend time with my children every day



 
*  I don't have to leave the house unless I'd like too

*  I don't have to do my hair and make-up daily

*  My pay is 100% invested in my children


 

I love my job as a homeschooling mother!

Franklin Sanders from At Home in Dogwood Mudhole TOS Review

http://dogwoodmudhole.com/


I received the physical book: 

At Home In Dogwood Mudhole 

by: Franklin Sanders 

for review.

Price:
$22.95 paperback
$16.95 Kindle / ePub / pdf

This is the first volume of three.



As you can see in the picture above it is worn - good sign that it's a good book.


What Is This? -

This is a paperback consisting of 379 pages.  There are some black and white photos inside.  This is a true story of a Sanders family who began building a self reliant homestead in fear of the terrible economical collapse of Y2K that was approaching.  The story is written, not really like a story, but several personal monthly letters that were written and published into Franklin Sanders'  'Moneychanger' newsletter.   

Franklin and Susan Sanders have seven children, five boys and two girls.  They are a hard working family who is determined to become more self sufficient in this high technical world.




They tell their story of how they moved several times to finally get to Dogwood Mudhole in Tennessee.  Franklin tells about how they have too much 'stuff' when they would move and he is wondering why they 'needed' all this stuff.  (Trust me when I say, he is not the only one - I can relate.)  He also tells about all the animals they raise successfully and some unsuccessfully.  From chickens, cows, horses, pigs, and of course man's best friend.....the K9.  He tells about the many dogs that this family has gone through.  When he told about the $30 dog that turned into the $1000 dog with socks, that was pretty good.




Franklin Sanders (shown above with one of his dogs) has written personal monthly letters to his 'Moneychanger' newsletter readers.  He has been devoting seventeen years to these also devoted newsletter readers. 





This book really is for anyone who is interested in becoming self sufficient.  It gives you ideas on how to do things for yourself.  Raising animals for meat can seem like an semi-easy task, but the books tells some valuable tips that can make your animal raising less havoc.  Franklin seems to have learned how to run a self sufficient home with providing meat, and other foods for his family.  Yes, the Y2K is over with, but we never know what could be around the next corner in life, especially with the economy collapse and debt in this country.  There is nothing wrong with being prepared to provide for your own family in case of a disaster of any kind.  Even if disasters do not come in your lifetime, it is still good to help preserve this planet, eat better, etc.  There is something gratifying about providing for you and your family.  


What I Thought -


This book did hit home with me with some parts of it really interesting.  My husband and I have been trying to 'go green' for about 5 years now.  We plant a huge garden every year, hunt for our meat, use a wood burning stove as our only heat source, collect our rain water for laundry and showers, etc.  This hasn't been easy, but very gratifying for us.  
  
This book also had me rolling and literally laughing out loud a few times.  The way he describes his relationship with his animals and the daily challenges of dealing with them really cracked me up.  I am an animal lover but I too realize the some animals are raised for food and you cannot get attached to them.

One of my many favorite parts is the chicken stories. My husband and I raise chickens and we have been through our trials with them.  From stray dogs killing them (as well as our own) to fighting roosters and baby chicks hatching, we have had our stories as well.  I could really relate to his hardships and laughter with raising them.

There are a few things that I didn't like.  One was that it was hard to follow due to it wasn't written as a 'book / story' style so I felt it wasn't really in chronological order.  But if all fairness, the book contains the monthly letters written in the Moneychanger newsletter so I don't think it was meant to be told or written as a story.

The other thing I was a bit confused about was the whole IRS deal.  He told of how he spent time in jail for a problem with the IRS.  He claims that he did nothing wrong and will continue to do whatever it is he did.  That is the part that I am unclear about.  I am not very 'IRS smart' per say, so I didn't understand what it was that was going on here.  He did mention that the IRS was wrong and he shouldn't have been charged with anything.  I am however impressed a bit that he stood up for what he believed in.  It sounds like he was legally guilty, but on a moral issue, he was innocent.  Not sure if that makes sense or not.  Hmmmm.  Anyway, I just wanted to mention that.


I truly believe that being self sufficient is what God intended for us from the start of creation.  Honestly, the Lord has given us everything we need to survive right here naturally.  He has given us water (rain), heat (sun), coolness (shade), food (plants and animals), shelter (ability to build things), etc.  This may be getting a bit 'political' but it needs to be said that this country seems to think that it's the governments responsibility to take care of the people in this country and that is not true.  We need to be as self sufficient as possible in my opinion.   

As far as the rating of this book, I would give it a 3 star rating.  

Apologia's Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics TOS Review

 

http://Apologia.com

I was sent the following three products for review from Apologia Educational Ministries:

 Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Textbook
Price:  $39.00

 Notebooking Journal 
Price:  $24.00

Junior Notebooking Journal 
Price:  $24.00

This homeschool science curriculum is recommended for grades K - 6'th. 


About the Textbook -

This is the newest science textbook and journal from Apologia.  First, I want to tell you about the textbook.  It is a very nice, hard cover book containing 280 colorful pages.

This book uses the Charlotte Mason style of teaching.  It explains the concepts with detailed examples within each lesson.  Throughout each and every lesson, there are several "Try This!" sections.  (Lesson one has 10 of these sections.)  They are experiments/activities for the student(s) to do.  The are clearly marked in light blue boxes and explain everything needed for that experiment.  

The "Try This!" sections physically show what the lesson is teaching your child(ren).  For example, the picture below we have learned about atoms, elements, molecules, and compounds.  It teaches us that 2 'nice' atoms mixed together could make a huge reaction.  When those atoms are by themselves, they are 'nice', quiet atoms.  

Here is an example of our favorite "Try This!" so far.

In this experiment, we needed the following list of things (which again, are basic household products we already had).

Safety goggles 
small empty soda (or water) bottle
1 tbs. yeast
4 tbs. warm water
1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid
food coloring (my son chose blue)
a cup
a stirring spoon
a deep-sided dish
hydrogen peroxide
safety gloves (which we didn't use for this one)

We stirred the yeast and warm water in a cup and set aside.  We then poured the dishwashing liquid in the bottle.  My son put about 5 drops of blue food coloring in the bottle.  Then he put on his safety glasses and poured the yeast/water mixure in and wow!  It overflowed really fast!

Then of course he played in the bubbles -

These experiments require things that you pretty much have in your household already.  You also, do not have to do each and every one.  

Every one of these "Try This!" that he completed, I had him fill out a 'Scientific Data Sheet'.  I got this sheet from one of Apologia's other wonderful science books.  They give permission to copy it and reuse it in your home.  This is what the sheet looks like.

This Scientific Data sheet above is from another experiment.  Here is a picture below of that particular experiment.  My son just read about density in this lesson.

At the end of each lesson, there is a 'What do you remember section.  This is a few questions that you can ask your child(ren) to make sure they grasped and understood what was taught in the lesson.  (The answers are in the back of the book for your convenience.)  Then it has an experiment / project for your child to do.  It will list all the things needed as well as step by step instructions on how to do it.  This experiment / project is a 'bigger' version of the 'Try This!' sections.



About the Notebooking Journal & the Jr. Notebooking Journal -

The notebooking journals (both) are spiral notebooks containing over 237 + pages.  Located in the back of each book are the activity cut-out pages.  These go along with the notebooking journal assignments throughout the spiral notebook.  These activities go along with the lesson within the hardcover textbook.  Some of the activities are crossword puzzles, full color mini books, copywork, etc.  

I want to make note that we received BOTH the Notebooking Journal and the Jr. Notebooking Journal.  We only used the Jr. Notebooking Journal though.  I found that they were very similar so we only did the work in the one.  The Jr. Notebooking Journal had some coloring pages that the other journal did not.  The Notebooking Journal had some questions and answer instead of the coloring pages as seen below.

Another small difference in the Notebooking Journals were that the crossword puzzle was a bit more extensive than the other (Jr.) as seen below.  (The Jr. Journal is on the left.)

Because we only used the one notebook, some lucky homeschooling relative may receive the unused one as a Christmas gift..... wink. :)  The only reason why we chose the Jr. Notebooking Journal instead of the other, honestly, was because it arrived first.  I would say that the Jr. Notebooking Journal would normally be for the younger grades and the other for higher elementary grades.  But like I mentioned, they are very similar in my opinion.

Inside the Notebooking Journals there is a Daily Schedule. 




You do not have to follow this schedule, it is just a guideline to keep you on track throughout the schoolyear.  If you follow this schedule, you'll be doing this science program 2 days per week for 28 weeks.

Here is one of the projects my son did.  He had to create a 'flap' type book.  He wrote the definitions of each word under the flap.  Then he glued it in the proper place in the journal.

What We Thought -

My 10 year old son used this several times per week.  We have always loved Apologia!  It is so homeschool friendly and fun.  You can choose to do one full day a week of science or several days per week.  The experiments are very exciting and fun.  Apologia always stresses the importance of safety.  That is why they always recommend safety goggles and gloves on so many of their projects.  It is a good habit to get into.  I have three boys (the other 2 are older) and we have always used Apologia for several reasons and one being that we love the hands on experience in the learning process.  My boys learn so much when they are actually doing a hands-on activity on what they are learning about.  My older son is using the Apologia's Marine Biology text right now and he loves it!

Apologia offers K - 6, Junior and Senior high science curriculum. They even have Bible curriculum.  Click HERE to view all the worldview (Biblical) books offered.  It is so important to our family that the curriculum we choose is a true, Christian, and BIBLICAL perspective and this is another reason why we just LOVE Apologia!  

For a full list of what is offered click HERE.  

I also want to mention a few things.  These Notebooking Journals are all optional.  You do not need these in order to do the hardcovered textbook.  You can create your own notebook or omit it all together.  It basically reinforces all the concepts that are taught in the text. 

Another thing to mention is that I am a firm believer in creative homeschooling.  Eventhough this is geared for K-6'th grade, you can easily teach it to junior and senior high school.  I think adding a report and a few essays on famous scientists or something else, would make it ideal.  That is just my opinion, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

So we give this product an A+!  We have never found an Apologia product that we didn't like!  They offer other great science textbooks with  journals as well.   Obviously we HIGHLY recommend this to all homeschool families or private school classrooms! 

Thank you Apologia for making my boys LOVE science!

Heather's story......a true Mesothelioma survivor.

Heather asked to pass this information on about her journey and experience being diagnosed with Mesothelioma.  

Heather, this brave wife and mother, is one of the few survivors.  

This is her story. (Click on the picture below.)

Thank you Heather for sharing your story! God Bless!

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