Latter-day Learning

**This is an affiliate post.  I was offered this curriculum to use for free in exchange for an honest review and feedback.  I was not required to give a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  If you decide to purchase this curriculum by clicking on any links within the post, I will be paid a small amount which would be greatly appreciated.**

Coming up with a curriculum for each school year can seem like a daunting task.  There are so many choices for each subject and there are always going to be those that just don’t work for your family, which is a bummer when you spend the money for something you won’t use.  It’s my least favorite part of the year. 

This year we started with a new curriculum called Latter-day Learning (this first link will take you to the main page for Latter-day Learning… no affiliate link).  Before I tell you how much we love it what we think of it, let me tell you a little bit about it.  This is a curriculum designed to be used for ages 4-12 as a group (family) setting.  That is why they refer to it as The Family School!  You can get the printed version or the digital version and print it all out yourself (that’s the way I do it.)

It’s a 6 year rotation and I believe they have 2 years available for purchase right now.  Latter-day Learning encompasses ALL subjects except math and language arts.  When I say ‘ALL’ I mean:  history, literature, science, geography, art, and music.  That is amazing!  Also, each lesson is tied to a gospel principle to help them understand it in a way that Heavenly Father would want them to understand it with an eternal perspective. 

Most homeschoolers that I know, including myself, try to have all their kids learning together as much as possible.  It’s not hard to have them all learning the same things in the subjects covered with Latter-day Learning.  The trick is getting each child to learn on their own level while in the group setting and it can be done!  Math and language arts, however, would be difficult.  You can’t teach a 12 year old and a 4-year-old the same language arts or math concepts.  If said 12 year old is learning pre-algebra for instance, the 4-year-old may get left behind.  Unless you have a genius 4-year-old.  In that case… have a ball!  ;)

Now I’m getting anxious to just say this:

We LOVE it! 

When I first started homeschooling I didn’t think I wanted it to be about religion at all.  School was school… secular only.  That was my mindset because that’s what I knew.  My mind quickly changed when I realized I wanted my kids to have spiritual growth as well.  And not only in addition to the secular but the spiritual became MORE important!

 

Since starting school again myself last month I’ve come to realize how much I depend on my spiritual knowledge to gain a clearer understanding of the secular knowledge. 

Age wise, I have to say that my 5 year old is not quite ready for this.  He has a learning style unique to him that I haven’t quite figured out yet.  He’s an interesting case, that C.  So, he will participate in the parts that look and sound fun to him but that happens probably less than 10% of the time.  All of my girls are actively engaged in this curriculum always!  They absolutely adore the lessons and I am so impressed at how much I am learning myself.  The lessons are very thorough and even though they say up to age 12, I find that they are easily adaptable for older kids as well. 

Miss K has been able to choose from several different types of essays to write.  I love that they give examples of each type of essay and a run down of how it would be graded.  K did a Five Senses essay about her dance studio.  That was fun!  In fact, reading over the different types of papers and essays has helped ME in my writing for my own classes. 

I think the favorite overall subject so far has been Literature.  Fairy Tales are up first in Year 1.  Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned fairy tale? 

If you are wondering if this curriculum might be a good fit for your homeschool you can take a gander at their sample lessons. 

There will be follow up posts in the coming weeks and months just to update you on our progress of this curriculum and how we are doing with it. 

This has truly been a blessing to my family.  Everything is laid out for me.  I don’t have to do much prep work at all other than making sure I have everything ready and reading each lesson ahead of time to make sure I understand what is being taught.  I don’t think I can ever go back… this program is everything I have ever wanted for my family and more.  And it is so easy to adapt it for different ages and comprehensions.  My two oldest girls take notes during the lesson while my youngest daughter is just present, listening.  Sometimes she will draw a picture of what is being talked about.  The application activities are geared toward both younger and older children.  I usually assign my oldest the activity for ‘older children’ and my youngest the one for ‘younger children’.  Miss A is stuck somewhere in the middle so I often let her choose whichever one sounds more appealing to her.  About 50% of the time she chooses the older activity. 

So, now that you know how much we love Latter-day Learning, what questions do you have?  Is there anything you want to know?  Anything I didn’t cover? 

 

 

 

 

Freddy the Frogcaster–Book Review

{Click image to see where you can buy this book.}

Sally Croaker is the weather forecaster.  Freddy has adored Sally’s forecasting ways since he was just a tadpole.  He is also very good at forecasting the weather… just not on TV. 

But what happens when Miss Sally goes on maternity leave?  Enter the popular Polly Woggins (love the names in this book)!  But with her inaccurate forecasts how will the Mayor know if he’ll be able to hold his Leapfrog Picnic? 

Can Freddy give him an accurate forecast?

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This book is darling!  My little boys and Miss H really liked it.  And it got them all wanting to learn more about weather and how it is forecasted.  The book is also chock full of fun weather vocabulary which we will define, in our homeschool, when we do our weather unit coming up.  ;) 

Books like this are always welcome in our homeschool library.  The storyline was fun and fresh and the characters were memorable. 

**I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.  I was not required to give a positive review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

 

The Remarkable Ronald Reagan–Book Review

TLC Book Tours gave my family the opportunity to review this book. 

Ronald Reagan just so happens to be one of my favorite presidents so I was happy to do it!  ;)  I learned several things about him that I didn’t already know.  For one, I had no idea that was married to someone else before Nancy. 

It was fun for the kids to learn about him as well.  They loved that he had so many different jobs (including acting) before he was the President. 

I knew that he was an actor but do you know how many different movies he was in?  I was shocked when I found out!  Nope, not gonna tell, you’ll have to read the book to find out.  But it’s way more than the 2 or 3 I thought it was…..

President Reagan had a great sense of humor and great insight for our country.  We could definitely use a few more leaders like him. 

Truly, this book was a great read.  Story format instead of poetry this time.  The kids missed spotting the hidden object as in past books I’ve reviewed but this is a different author than the others.  We really did enjoy it.  And there are a lot of extra goodies at the end.  Kind of like Bonus Features!  ;)  I would be ok with a book like this about every president!

**I was given this book at no charge in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed herein are my own.  I was not required to give a positive review. 

Baby J. Co–Playmat Review

Look at my sweet little guy.

Notice the beautiful blanket he’s sitting on. 

Actually it’s not a blanket… it’s a playmat.  Made and designed by Baby J Co. 

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to review this product for my baby.  He is six months old now but still not mobile.  He’s a lump.  You set him down and he stays there…. like a good little boy.  :)

I don’t know about you but I never pack more than one blanket with me.  And especially during the hot months, I forget altogether sometimes.  That’s always a bummer because then I have nothing to cover myself with when I nurse.  Not a good situation.  I’m not a very discreet nurser despite all the practice I’ve had.  ;)  Plus I have nowhere to set the baby down when we are away from home.  And I don’t like using the same blanket to nurse with that I use on the ground at various places. 

Well, now I don’t have to.  This playmat stays in my bag at all times so I can pull it out when I need somewhere to set the baby down to play with his toys.  I always know which side goes down, too.  My little Munch likes to try and grab the textured dots. 

Don’t you love the texture?  I love it!!  Check out all the chic and beautiful fabrics there are to choose from. 

President Adams’ Alligator–Book Review

Do you know how many animals have lived in the White House? 

When I was asked to review the book President Adams’ Alligator, I had no clue.  Think about it.  Other than the occasional dog and/or cat from our more recent presidents there isn’t much to talk about in the way of White House pets.

 

Little did I know that the White House used be much more exciting than it is these days.  What a boring bunch of presidents we’ve had in recent elections!!  No alligators, grizzly bears, porcupines, parrots, goats… NOTHIN!  Just dogs and cats. 

Seriously, I am in love with this book!!  The authors themselves… they have a great way of making it fun to read about topics that might seem boring to kids.  Heck, even I’ve learned a thing or two from their books.  (See here and here). 

This one is probably my favorite.  The kids all had a great time searching for President Adams’ alligator on each page.  An alligator… IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!  How cool is that?  They also loved hearing about all the animals and the stories to go along with them.  Some of those animals were pretty adventurous!  And the names of some of those animals were quite… interesting.  That was Anthony’s favorite part.  I like that my kids can name some of the presidents that they didn’t know before because they can now associate a pet to go along with them. 

I highly recommend this book.  And yes, it was sent to me for free in exchange for an HONEST review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  LOVE IT!! 

 

Woodrow the White House Mouse–Review (& Apology)

So I was supposed to do this review back on September 26th. 

I forgot… totally spaced it!  (This pregnancy is really taking it’s toll on the brain… Did you know that it’s been proven that a pregnant woman’s brain shrinks by about 8% during the pregnancy?  True story!)

Anyway, I owe TLC Book Tours an apology.  I am so sorry!

But I do want to make up for it by giving my review now.  Better late than never, right?

My family really enjoyed this book.

I love how informative this book is at explaining what kinds of things the president does and goes through.  It’s simple enough that my seven year old understands it and my four and two year olds love the pictures.  All of the kids enjoyed the insight they received and the girls found joy in finding each of the Presidential Seals within each illustration.  I enjoy the extra tidbits at the end of the book. 

I’d vote for Woodrow for president!  ;)

Do I recommend this book?  Absolutely! 

**I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review.  I’m sure they would have rather it been on the 26th of September but… what can I say?  I’m late!  Please forgive me!**

BabyCakes Cake Pop Maker

Maybe you remember that the last time I made cake pops it worked like a charm… kind of. 

They were a lot more work than I had anticipated and vowed that I would definitely try them again (in a year or two ;)).

But then my mom bought us a cake pop maker by BabyCakes. 

She bought it at the beginning of December and it took until now for me to try it.  Can you blame me?  I was nervous!  Plus, the whole idea of a cake pop holding together is the fact that it has frosting as the ‘glue’.  That’s how it works.  These were going to be pure cake… how in the world were they going to hold together and stay on the stick?  There was just no way!

Needless to say, I was skeptical.

And so it sat and sat forever and ever (two months counts as forever and ever, right?) until I finally mustered up enough courage to give it a go.

I used a recipe from the owner’s manual for chocolate cake pops.  The recipe called for a bit of freshly brewed coffee.  We don’t drink coffee at our house so what do you do when you have no coffee to freshly brew?  You brew up hot chocolate of course!  Worked like a charm!

I followed the directions to a T regarding how early to plug in the unit, how much batter to put in each section and how long to let them cook. 

And I learned a thing or two about how quickly I needed to fill each section… umm, yeah.

That’s what happens when you put a whole tablespoon in (as directed… it fills it to the top) and go too slowly filling the rest.  I recommend filling it just slightly lower than the top and then move quickly!  I also recommend spraying with non-stick spray between each batch.

But even that slight mishap didn’t ruin the cake pops.  The thin layer between them chipped away easily.  No worries.

To remove them from the unit, I used the handy dandy fork tool that came in the box.  Honestly I thought that would be a silly way to do it because it would break them.  Surprisingly, it worked wonders and I don’t know how I would have done it without that wonder of a fork-ish thing.  What would you call that thing?  I just don’t know.

Look how cute they are! 

Perfect little balls of happiness.  Yes, they made me happy.

Once they were cooled they went into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.  Then I left and my mom took over the process with her little helpers also known as my kids. 

After pulling the pops out of the fridge, she stuck them on the sticks.

She melted the chocolate in the microwave, added a few teaspoons of shortening to thin it a bit (you can also use coconut oil) and stirred until it was a good consistency for coating and then rolled the pops in it to coat. 

How cute are they? And they tasted good too.  Like, REALLY good!  It’s a good thing I have so many kids to help me out with eating naughty treats because I could have a major issue!

Do I recommend this product?  Heck yes!  Will I use it again… SOON?  Heck yes!  Do I think you need one?  Heck yes! 

**I was NOT compensated in any way, shape or form for this review.  The BabyCakes ‘people’ don’t even know I exist and have no idea I am doing a blog post about their product.  It’s just a product that I tried and really loved and thought you might love it as well.  All opinions herein are my own and were not influenced in any way.  The link to the cake pop maker on Amazon is an affiliate link.  Should you choose to purchase from that link, I will earn an itty bitty percentage that would be much appreciated!  Thanks so much.**