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Origami Owl necklace review and giveaway!!

Written by Joy
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Origami Owl necklace review and giveaway!!

**UPDATE** Winner of a medium silver locket is Aurie G!!

After my first two children, I was given a necklace with two little charms on it with my children’s birthstones on it. I loved it and wore it all the time. However, when I had my last two children, I stopped wearing it because I couldn’t find the charms with the birthstones that matched my other two. After that, I just never looked for 4 similar charms that represented my 4 children.

That was until I heard about Origami Owl Custom Jewelry.  Origami Owl was started by a 14 year old girl, who started the business to try and save up enough money to buy a car.  Now, 2 years later,  she has built a successful company that helps for families to tell stories through jewelry.

My friend, LaRessie, started selling this jewelry back in October.  She is an amazing person and loves to help people tell their stories through this jewelry.  She made me a deal that I just couldn’t resist.  I was finally able to get a necklace with all four of my children represented.  The necklace came in a small blue box (I failed to get a picture) with a small little case inside to store the necklace.  My choice was a silver medium locket, with 2 small boys and 2 small girls in my children’s birthstones.  It is absolutely beautiful!

My Origami Owl necklace with my children’s birthstones.

There are so many categories with a lot of choices to build your legacy locket.  You can make one with your favorite hobbies or you can even build one for grandma’s.  The choices are unlimited!

LaRessie has offered to give a free charm with a purchase of a locket.  You will need to make this order by contacting her through Facebook or e-mail her at laressie@gmail.com with A Journey of Joy-sale in the subject line.

Now for the giveaway!  LaRessie is also offering a medium silver locket to one of my readers!  How does that sound?  I think it is amazing and I can’t wait to choose who it will be!

I am going to leave this giveaway open until Tuesday night at 10:00 pm.  Just fill out the rafflecopter below!
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2012, review, , ,

The Big Book of History ~ book review

Written by Joy
6 Comments
The Big Book of History ~ book review

The Big Book of History is written by Laura Welch and published by New Leaf Publishing Group.

 The Big Book of History is a 15 foot fold out time-line.  You can use it like a book and flip through the pages, or you can fold it completely out.  It is a time-line that covers from Creation to the time that it was published.  It as 4 different lines and each line represent 4 different events.  You have Biblical events, inventions, world events and civilizations and empires.

This time-line book isn’t just a bunch of dates on a line.  It has pictures and little comments through out the book to help explain the dates that are mentioned.  The biblical events listed are some of the major events that happened in the bible.  It also lists the major inventions, world events and civilizations/empires that have made a huge impact on our world.

The Big Book of History is colorful and very easy to follow.  You can keep it compact in a book shape or you can fold it out completely and hang on the wall.

Overall, the kids and I really liked the Big Book of History.  It has a lot of information that led to some great conversations.  The kids enjoyed folding out the book and comparing when events happened.   I see us using this often on our homeschool.  It is definitely a conversation piece with my children and I.

*I was sent this book from New Leaf Publishing Group, in return for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

 

2012, homeschooling, review, , , , ,

The World of Science – book review

Written by Joy
The World of Science – book review

The World of Science is published by My Father’s World and Master Books.  Master Books is a division of New Leaf Publishing Group.

In this world, it is hard to find books that talk about and teach science from a Creation point of view.  New Leaf Publishing has published a book that does just that, The World of Science.

This book is hardcover and has 240+ pages with over 800 colored pictures in it.  It has 7 sections in the book; Matter and Chemicals, Energy, Motion and Machines, Electricity and Magnetism, Light and Sound,  Earth and Life, Space and time, with the final section being science experiments that you and your children can do together.

As I mentioned before, this book teaches science from a creation point of view.  However, it isn’t an apologetic’s book.  It just blatantly states that God created everything in the beginning of the book and I like that.  I also like how it includes the scientists that discovered certain things, for example, Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity.

The experiment section in the book has over 60 experiments that you can do.  A lot of the experiments use items that you can find right in your own home.  Which makes it a lot more fun and easier to do.  We have tried a couple of them ourselves and enjoyed doing them.

The World of Science book is one of our favorite science books to look through and read.  I find the kids looking at it often and checking to see if we do have the right items to do the experiments.  I highly recommend this book to families to read together.

*I was sent this book from New Leaf Publishing Group, in return for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

 

2012, homeschooling, review, , , , ,

Jim Hodges Audio Books ~ a review

Written by Joy
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Jim Hodges Audio Books ~ a review

Recently, I was sent 2 audio books from Jim Hodges Audio Books, to review.  While we haven’t used audio books much in the past in our homeschooling, I am thinking I will try to incorporate using audio books in our lessons more.  We have thoroughly enjoyed listening to these mp3 files.

Stories of the Pilgrims from Yesterdays Classics and Wulf the Saxon written by G.A. Henty.

Jim Hodges sent me Stories of the Pilgrims for my younger two kids.  For those days that we have been sick and have not felt like reading aloud, this has worked out perfectly for our family.  Stories of the Pilgrims begins with Queen Anne’s visit to Scrooby Inn.  It continues to tell the every day life of the Pilgrims from England and Holland, in a story form.  It tells of their voyage on the Mayflower and of adventures they have in the New World.  This is a perfect story to listen to leading up to Thanksgiving.  The Stories of the Pilgrims is split into 43 chapters and is 4 hours and 10 minutes long.

Mr. Hodges also recommended that my oldest daughter choose a G.A. Henty book.  He has quite a few to choose fr om. My oldest daughter chose G.A. Henty’s book “Wulf the Saxon:1066“.  She loves this time period in history.  Wulf the Saxon:1066 is about when Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England is 1066. William of Normandy contests his right to be king because of an oath previously sworn to support William’s own acquisition to the throne.  The story has 22 chapters and is 12 hours and 35 minutes long.

I was really excited when Mr. Hodges had suggested Pilgrims for my younger children.  I love this time period and love reading about the settling of the country and how the Pilgrims sacrificed so much to start over in a New World.  The CD’s came in the mp3 audio file format.  They came in a CD case with a very nice cover.  We listened to the CD’s in my computer for us to listen to while sitting down.  I played it using Windows Media Player.  Once the program came up, all I did was hit play.  Very easy to use!   You can start and stop at any of the chapters when you need to and start back up where you left off.  I really like this a lot.  You can also play this in any CD player as long as that CD player can play the mp3 audio files.

Once the stories began, Jim just sucks you into it with his smooth voice.  His voice brings the stories to life and truly makes you feel like you are right there in the story with the characters.  Once you start listening to the stories, you definitely do not want to stop.  He keeps your attention and has you waiting and wanting the stories to continue!  The recordings are really great!  Overall, the kids and I truly enjoyed these stories and are looking forward to getting more to listen to!

For the month of November, you can get Stories of the Pilgrims as a download for $15 this month on the Jim Hodges Audio Books website!

 

*I was sent these cd’s to review.  The opinions expressed are of my own.

2012, homeschooling, review, , , , , ,

My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

Written by Joy
52 Comments
My Well Planned Day Software Review and Giveaway!

When I first started homeschooling, I tried using several different planners to help me plan our day.  With in a couple of weeks, I always stopped using them, either because they didn’t fit our needs or I got behind trying to write everything down that I wanted to keep track up.

At one time, my husband even created a weekly excel spreadsheet that I could right lesson plans in and I could print lessons for the day or even for the whole week on it.  I used it the longest for a couple of years.  However, it still did not have everything I wanted to keep track of on it.

As the years have gone by, I have turned more and more to the computer and online world to make up different plans, spreadsheets and calendars to help me keep track of our busy life with four children.  I have yet to find anything online to keep track of everything, until now.

When I went to the 2:1 Conference back in April, I had the pleasure of meeting Jenny from Home Educating Family.  We got to talking about the Well Planned Day Planners that Home Educating Family offered.  I had seen them before, but never bought one because it was paper and would have required me to write everything in.  Knowing my history with this, I knew it wasn’t the planner for me.  I asked her if Home Education Family had plans for making there planner online.  She said yes!  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to try it out when it became available.  Jenny contacted me about a month ago and asked if I would love to give it a try and I just couldn’t pass up this offer!

The My Well Planned Day software is amazing to me!  One of the things I love most about it, is that it combines School plus Household activities and events.  I can use the software to make lesson plans and assignments plus make a menu and grocery list!  The best of both worlds that I wanted together!  You can add the textbooks on here that you are using and keep track of the Literature that you are reading.  What has really gotten me excited is that I will soon be able to sync my Google calendar that my husband and I use, to the calendar on this software!

I really feel like the My Well Planned Day software is going to help me out so much.  I can already see areas that it has helped me in.  I would like for you to have the same chance to see if this awesome software will help you as much as it has me.

Home Educating Family is offering the readers of My Home In The Smokies  $15 off the MWPD software retail price of $65. The code is case sensitive, no spaces, and expires on October 1. Your personal code is: 31wpdblog12.

Also, thanks to Home Educating Family, you have a chance to win a 1 year Subscription of the My Well Planned Day Software!!  Just use the rafflecopter below to enter the drawing.  This giveaway will end on September 5th, 2012.

Due to international sweepstakes laws, this offer is only for U.S. entries.

This giveaway is not connected to any social media sites and none of the social media entries are mandatory.

 

 

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2012, family, homeschooling, review, , , , ,