It’s finally here. I must say, I am ready for the break, and I know my kids are as well.  I think we’ve had a very fine year this year. I think part of the reason we had a most wonderfully successful year is due to the fact that I’m a Crew member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. We’ve been blessed to have opportunities to try new things that we may otherwise  have never heard of or had the opportunity to try.   I’m so proud of how well the kids have done with their work this year.

   Ethan has especially improved in his reading abilities. Everyone has of course made improvement. Lucas is picking up new things and learning more very day! He turns 5 in September, and I was thinking of starting him in “home Kindergarten” this year, but I think we’ll wait another year. He still seems so young to me, so we’ll just keep play learning with him. My plan is to engage him more and more throughout the new school year so that he’s used to doing at least some sit down work.

 Issac has really developed even more of an interest in video gaming since we had the chance to review Computer Science for Kids. That was so much fun to do! He also enjoys the challenge of Math Rider that we reviewed. That will definitely be a permanent part of our school.

  Rachelle’s love of art has also grown. We’re reviewing a very exciting art program right now, and it’s been a real blessing. I’m not gonna tell you what it is yet, you’ll have to wait for the review coming up very soon!

  How has your school year gone this year?

  I LOVE when I get to try products out for myself. It’s so much fun to have some goodies for myself. For the last month or so, I’ve had the pleasure of using Mystie Winckler’s Simplified Pantry eBooks. I was given Simplified Dinners, Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free, and Paperless Home Organization. For the purpose of this review, I’m mostly going to talk about Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free.

  About a year ago, I was diagnosed with a ridiculous amount of food allergies, including wheat and dairy. I do not have Celiac Disease, I am just allergic to wheat (yes, those are 2 different things entirely). When you’re used to having these items on a regular basis, it can be hard to find substitutes that are tasty and not loaded with carbohydrates the way that most gluten replacements are, and dairy seems to be in almost everything that is premade, which is very frustrating. For $12.99,  Simplified Dinners GFDF gives you a list of ingredients that potentially contain both gluten and dairy, a master pantry list, LOADS of recipes with different variations, a menu planning chart, and GF/DF desserts! Recipes include:

• Slow Cooker Roasts
• Skillet Cutlets with Pan Sauce (one of my favorites, and has MANY pan sauce ideas!)
• Foil Packet Fish
• Bean Pots
• Fajitas
• Quesadillas
• Taquitos
• Oven Omelette
• Stews
• Side Dish Salads
• Starchy Sides
• And so many more!

The book is a bit short page-wise compared to most cookbooks I’ve seen at 33 pages, but each page is PACKED with the recipes and the variations included. For example, on the Side Dish Starches recipe page, there are 11 different recipes for Breads, Vegetables, Rice, and Potatoes. At the end of the book is a sample Winter menu plan, along with the blank menu plan. I’ve been following the Trim Healthy Mama plan for a couple of months, so any recipes I made for myself I tweaked as needed. :)I love the recipe variations available. For example, the Bean Pots page has both stovetop and slow cooker instructions, then you pick which variation you want to use! There is a good variety for each section, but it’s not enough to overwhelm you. I like not being overwhelmed, I have enough to worry about without having my cookbooks making me feel like a crazy person.

 The master pantry list highlights items that you should double-check in the store to be sure they’re gluten and dairy free. This is very important, especially if your allergies are bad, or you have Celiac. I printed this sheet out to hang on my fridge. I love hanging pretty and handy things on my fridge. 😀

Simplified Dinners is similar to the GFDF version, but the recipes are not all the same, of course. You still get the master pantry list and menu plans, though. It is also $12.99

Paperless Home Organization gives you easy tips and tricks on how to make a digital homemaking binder! It is $3.99 and available in PDF AND Kindle format I have thoroughly enjoyed using the Simplified Pantry and Paperless Home Organization products. I feel they’ve been a blessing to my home life. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a cookbook fiend, so I’m all about trying new ones! Thank you for your visit!

Guess what? There’s a coupon code good through June 3rd for a whopping 30% off any of these ebooks! Enter code TOS2013 to get your discount!

  Has anyone else had ridiculous weather this week? I know ours is nothing compared to what happened in Oklahoma earlier this week. We’ve been praying for the families there. I am just so saddened at the loss of lives, especially the children. I cannot imagine anything happening to my babies.

  We have had so much crazy rain this week. I was on my way home from church last night and was afraid I’d have to pull over for a bit because I could barely see anything. Luckily there was a car in front of me, so I was sort of able to use their tail lights as a guide. We did make it home safely, praise the Lord!

I’m so excited to tell you about it! Schoolhouse Library is a brand new library resource available to everyone! Whether you’re a new homeschooling parent who’s not sure where to turn, or a seasoned homeschooler looking for something fresh and new, this library is for you! For a one-time purchase of $25, you get to a library of over 175 e-books and audio books that include over 25 topics. The topics include Art, Geography, Organization, Grammar, Spelling, Special Needs, and more! ‘

 And, while you’re at it, check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com for most ALL your homeschooling needs. I can teach my children with JUST this site if I wanted to!

  We have a lot of Spanish-speaking people in our area, moreso than any other foreign language, so I was pretty stoked about Spanish For You! This is a theme-based curriculum for grades 3-8, and I love that I could use this with most of my kids (Ethan is 2nd grade so I did still work it in some with him). As of right now, there are 2 packages available: Estaciones (Seasons) and Fiestas (Celebrations). I chose to review Estaciones since my kids really like weather-related things. Spanish For You! is designed to be worked 3 or 4 days a week, and each theme is about a year’s worth of instruction. You can either purchase the entire curriculum at once for $64.95, or purchase each grade level for  $39.95. From the website:

ALL Spanish for You! packages come complete with:

• soft cover book or e-book (currently only our trial pkgs.)
• 24-30 week lesson guide for the grades you need (24 weeks for G5-6 & 7-8, 30 weeks for G3-4) (PDF download)
• self-checking worksheets (PDF download)
• audio files of entire book (includes bonus audio of native speaker of entire book) (MP3 download)
• flashcard/activity pictures (PDF download)
• *Teacher lesson plans are NOT included. These need to be purchased separately. ($12.95)

   I really liked the audio files. I think I did a pretty good job with my pronunciations (I took Spanish in High School), but it was nice to have someone pronounce the works perfectly. One audio file is from a native Spanish speaker, and the other is the author of the curriculum, and both are very clear and easy to understand. Our Spanish teacher always made fun of us in class because we spoke Spanish with a Southern accent. :p Here you can view sample pages of Estaciones. 
  For my initial ease of use, I printed off everything and put the sheets in a 3 ring binder. This helps me to be less overwhelmed with things. I love how easy Spanish For You! is to use. The lesson plans are clearly laid out and tell you exactly what you need to do and teach each day, so there’s not much in the way of planning for you to do. You don’t need to have experience in Spanish in order to teach Spanish For You! so don’t be afraid you can’t do it. We did about 30 minutes of work per day. You could certainly do more, but I’m a pretty laid back teacher for the most part. 
  As I said earlier, Spanish For You! is for grades 3-8, and it’s broken down into grades 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, so there was something for almost everyone here. 

 Estaciones is Spanish for Seasons, which is what the theme is, and what your child will learn. It covers Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Weather-related phrases

(¿Qué tiempo hace? Hace frio.), etc. There are several sheets of commonly used words and phrases as well, which I really like. There are also lots of fun games and activity ideas in the curriculum.

  For our use of Spanish For You!, I did as much as I could reading aloud, listening to audio files, etc. Then everyone broke up to themselves to do their worksheets. We were able to do the games together. In doing the reading aloud and audio files together, I was even able to include Lucas in the fun, and he even picked up a little Spanish as well, which I was very impressed with! Spanish For You! is a fun, engaging curriculum that I can highly recommend.