Bible Belles ~ Review and Giveaway

The girls and I have had the opportunity to review Esther: The Belle of Patience from the series The Adventures of Rooney Cruz.  Written by Erin Weideman, Esther: The Belle of Patience is a sweet children’s book that applies the Biblical principal of patience to everyday life.

Bible Belle Esther Cover

This original children’s series, Bible Belles’ The Adventures of Rooney Cruz, is written to introduce superhero women of the Bible to children in a way that they can easily remember the story. Hannah, Esther, Abigail, Ruth and Deborah are the five women from the Bible that are highlighted in the series. Continue reading

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ForBrain ~ Review

Recently, we have had the opportunity to use and review the wonderful bone conduction headset from Forbrain – Sound For Life Ltd.  The goal of Forbrain is “helping children and adults to develop their talents and potential by using their voice.”

Forbrain – Sound For Life Ltd Review

What is Forbrain and what makes it special?

Forbrain is designed to help boost the users brain simply by hearing their own voice through the headset.  Forbrain uses bone conduction technology.  Basically, this means that when the user speaks the sound travels through the dynamic filter and then vibrates on the bones in front of the ears. This bone conduction delivers the messages directly to the nervous system and brain rather than relying on the ears or air conduction.

Forbrain has a dynamic filter that helps to amplify the users voice while simultaneously blocking out environmental noise.  This helps the user to hear his voice clearly without distraction.  This helps train the brain to be more attentive.Forbrain – Sound For Life Ltd Review Continue reading

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Potatoes and Sawdust

You may remember that when I planted the Yukon Gold and Red Pontiac potatoes it was in a new garden box that I didn’t fill all the way. I had the best intentions of adding more compost to the box as the potatoes grew. However, we went through a stretch of rainy weather which coincided with when I needed to be putting more compost in with the potatoes. Since it was muddy, Scott couldn’t get more compost for me. I wasn’t sure what to do; the potatoes needed dirt pulled up around them but I didn’t have any.

Potatoes in raised bed

Potatoes needing to have dirt hilled up around them.

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The Glass Castle ~ Review


Recently, Adisyn had the opportunity to read The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins.  The Glass Castle is a clean, Christian fiction from Shiloh Run Press.  Adisyn loved it so much that I had a hard time getting her to put the book down long enough to do anything else.  If you are looking for a good book for your middle school age child, she can’t recommend The Glass Castle enough.

The Glass Castle {Shiloh Run Press Review}

The Glass Castle is an beautiful hardback book that has 41 short chapters (250 pages).  Authored by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins.  Trisha White Priebe is a wife, mom and writer; Jerry B. Jenkins has authored more than 175 books, including the Left Behind series.

The Glass Castle Continue reading

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MaxScholar ~ Review

We have been using a variety of multi-sensory reading programs from MaxScholar.  For this review, I received a one year subscription for two students for MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs.

What is MaxScholar?

MaxScholar is a multi-sensory, reading, language program that uses the Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood Bell methods to teach reading.  It is especially good for students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia.  However, even if a student doesn’t have dyslexia or other reading issues MaxScholar works equally as well.

The two reading programs are MaxPhonics and MaxReading. MaxPhonics is based upon Orton-Gillingham techniques, using a multi-sensory approach.  The activities feature visual, tactile and auditory drills. The visual aspect comes with learning to recognize the letters on sight. The student traces the letters for the tactile aspect and the auditory reinforces the sound the letter makes.

Screenshot 2016-06-08 at 10.33.49 AM Continue reading

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