

We also received the Happy Kids Songs Workbook, which includes lyrics and activities for every song in the entire collection. When you purchase a download, you will also get access to free pages you can download for those songs. This is the same content that is in the Workbook. The Workbook is just all of those free pages (122) pre-printed and bound for you. Continue reading
Title: Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms
Author: Mary Jo Tate
Publisher: Apologia Educational Ministries
Pages: 288
Where I got the book: I received this book free through The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for an honest review.
My review
In the foreward, this book and system is described as “life management, not time management”. All moms have challenges trying to fit in work, kids, recovery time, friends, spouses, family, and an endless list of household tasks. This particular book addresses those issues faced by homeschooling moms, with particular interest in moms who work from home. Mary Jo Tate is also a single mom, and she hasn’t forgotten this sector of homeschoolers who are frequently ignored, particularly in the Christian homeschooling world. She mentions single moms throughout the book, and there is an entire chapter devoted to encouragement for them (us), as well as things other families can do to help make a single-parent family’s journey easier. Continue reading
Carol Topp is a Certified Public Accountant who wanted something to help her teens learn about planning and managing a business. When she couldn’t find anything she was happy with, she wrote the book herself. As someone who has read way too many small business/marketing/bookkeeping books and/or websites, I was very impressed with the way the information was presented. Most of it was not new to me, but it was definitely written in a way that was easy to understand, and I even picked up a few new ideas.
Now, it’s Micro Business for Teens (or pre-teens, ages 10-18), so of course, my twelve-year-old read the books. He’s been asking for years what he can do to make money and I really didn’t have any good ideas for him, partly because of his age, partly because of our location, and partly because of his OCD-induced preference for staying clean. (It’s hard to do yardwork and stay clean.)
First, I’ll go through my impressions of the books as I read them. Then I’ll have an interview with Jack about his thoughts. The suggested pace for the books is one chapter a week. My son read one chapter a day, although that was spread out over five weeks, rather than the three it would have been had he read one each day. I think it would depend on what actions your child is taking as they complete each chapter. We’re still in the early planning stages since he didn’t see anything that jumped out at him as a business he wanted to start right away. (Although there were a couple of things he’s thinking about.) Continue reading
The Manuscript Complete Set includes one soft-cover student workbook ($18), a laminated manuscript quick reference chart ($10), one tactile card set ($28), and a student whiteboard ($9). The set sells for $65.
There are a variety of ways to use this program, and we almost used one of the suggested ways. 😉 (You know I have to do my own thing.) Blake’s fine motor skills still need some work (so do his gross motor skills, but that’s not relevant right now), so after trying the workbook for a couple of days, we decided to just stick with the whiteboard for now. It was much easier for him, not just because the lines are wider, but because the marker slides across the board easier than a pencil on paper. Continue reading