Spanish For You - Review

Spanish For You is a Spanish Curriculum written for children in 3^rd – 8^th grades, however you can easily adapt it to younger children, and the best part is that you can teach all grade levels at the same time since the curriculum was written to be taught by themes and not by grades. There are currently three themes being offered: Estaciones (the one we reviewed), Fiestas, and Viajes. You can purchase the download version or an actual book. The cost for the 3^rd to 8^th grade package is $64.95.

One of the characteristics of the program that I appreciate is that the audio files are recorded by the author, and a second recording is offered by a native speaker. This makes it easier to hear the correct pronunciation needed. In our case this was not necessary, but I can see the importance of this for other families who may not be fluent in Spanish.

The curriculum is written in such a way that it teaches speaking, reading, and writing. Since I have children at two different levels of learning all subjects, but specifically Spanish I appreciated the depth of the material. Little Knight can speak and read in Spanish but has not yet mastered how to write it, so this is the focus for him. Little Princess can understand Spanish but has difficulty putting her thoughts into spoken words. This curriculum offers a great deal of practice for her. The theme approach makes it easy to teach words that can be both practiced and used throughout the day.

The one negative aspect of this curriculum is the fact that it needs a little organizing to make it work. As a download I received various files including the book, teacher guide, and worksheets. Each had to be downloaded. You can print and bind the book, or you can simply choose to read the book straight from the screen and only print the worksheets you will need for the day.

To read what other Crew members thought about this curriculum you can take a look at the SchoolHouse Review Crew Blog.

Her Recital

Saturday we had the pleasure of attending another CMA recital. This time it was Little Princess' turn, and she did beautifully.  I do have to say that the road to her recital has been a bit rough at times. Practice was a bit of a struggle some days and I almost thought we would not make it this far. However, I am glad we persevered, in the last couple of weeks she has been more willing to practice and seems to enjoy it a lot more.

She looked beautiful in her dress and was very happy to be there. She sang beautifully, played  her solo and other music wonderfully, and was even on time with playing the triangle during the ensemble  pieces. I loved watching her beautiful smile during the entire event and looking at her eyes as she tried her best to concentrate. I know that she put all of her effort into her recital. You see sometimes it is difficult for her to stay focused in class because it is a class with about 8 other children and their parents, everybody is playing the piano at the same time, this makes it challenging for her. She often says that she can't hear herself when everybody else is playing, but somehow she made it through. I (we) were so incredibly proud of her, and can't wait for her next recital in about a year from now. It will be her graduation recital.

I cannot say enough for music education, I think every child should at least have some exposure to it, and CMA is a great program. The curriculum is written in such a way that they not only learn how to play the piano, but they learn music theory as well. As an added bonus, since it is a parent participation program, parents get to learn along with the chidlren. I am so thankful that both our children have had the opportunity to participate and hope that in the years to come our youngest two will also be able to join the program.

Little Princess we are very proud of you. You did an incredible job!

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Polly!

for winning 

What's in the Bible 

Volume 1 and Volume 10

The Good News - Giveaway

T.V. watching is such a struggle for me. Sometimes I hear about people who don't own T.Vs and wish that was our story, but we do have one, and I can't say that I don't enjoy watching it at times, although I really only get to see whatever my children are watching and an occasional movie/documentary with my husband.

Trying to figure out what to let the children watch is quite challenging. We try our best to let them watch DVDs or Netflix shows that are harmless. We don't have cable anymore and we don't get regular channels where we live, so if we don't get it on Netflix or a DVD then we don't see it.

One of the series they and I truly enjoy is the What's in the Bible series by Phil Vischer.

We have learned so much from how this series presents the Bible. We have all nine DVDs that cover the Old Testament and recently we were sent the 10th episode to review. Thank you Susan for asking if we wanted to do this. It has been such a blessing. I truly learn a lot from these shows, almost as much as my children do. Even Baby Boy likes them and will often ask for "Bible" when he wants to watch one.

Just as all the rest of them, Number 10 was a very well put together episode. It teaches the Gospel in a very easy to understand way, but it also explains details about the four gospels, some that I actually learned for the first time when I was enrolled in a University level New Testament class. Phrases like "Synoptic Gospels" are provided in the episode and explained quite well.

I love that my children love to watch these DVDs, we can watch them over and over again and not tire of them and each time they and I learn something new. These DVDs have truly become part of our homeschooling experience and a great way to further learn about the Bible.

If you have not had the pleasure of watching these DVD's you will be happy to know that you can enter a giveaway. The folks at What's in the Bible gave us  episode 1 and 10 to giveaway, so if you would like to win these please leave a comment telling why you would like to win them. Make sure you leave your email if it doesn't already show up in your comment.

This giveaway will end Friday April 19th at 6:00 p.m. (PST)

Oh Yes, and just as I was finishing this post - Guess What? Number 11 is out already. Can't wait to see to see it.

Disclaimer: We were given this product free of charge in exchange for our honest review.

UPDATE

***This Giveaway is now over***

First "I Love You"

There are many stages of childhood that I love, and one of these is when my littles start talking. From their first words to their first sentences I just can't get enough. They sound so incredibly cute when they begin to put words together. As a speech pathologist I realize that they understand a lot more before they can actually express themselves and at times I have worried that their language isn't coming along as it should, but I obviously worry for nothing - as Baby Boy reminded me tonight.

This little guy is going to be 2 years old next month and though I have been telling him I love him since the day he was born (and even before then) he has never said those words. Recently his daddy has been trying to get him to repeat those words back to him, but hasn't been very successful.

So you can just imagine my joy tonight when as I was putting him to bed he said (in a very sleepy voice), "Mama, I love you mom" o.k. it sounded more like "Mama, I wuv you ma"but I completely understood what he said. He then proceeded to tell me he loved me two other times before he finally turned over and fell asleep.

Its moments like these that remind me of the very special gift that God has given me by sending me four  little children to love, and regardless of how challenging the days can be at times there is nothing I can do in this world that will ever matter more than raising them to Love God and then others.

Yes, that little guy definitely melted my heart and made my evening.

A Little Too Late

Several years ago the mother of a girl I was good friends with in High School passed away, but before she did her daughter called one day to ask for prayer for her. She was in the hospital and things didn't look good. Her mom was able to go home from the hospital before she went back in and passed away. At the time, I remember thinking that I wanted to go visit her, I had long lost the friendship with her daughter but I kept thinking that I wanted to thank her (the mom) because many years before she had treated us (my husband and me) very kind. She was always very hospitable and if she was cooking or had just cooked when we arrived she would offer to feed us. It was a home much like mine and I always felt comfortable there and she was one of the reasons that I did.

I kept telling my husband that if I didn't see her at least I wanted to send her flowers and let her know that I appreciated her kindness. Time doesn't stand still for anybody and instead of following through with what I wanted to do, I procrastinated, so much so that she eventually passed away and I was too late to say "thank you". As I sat at her funeral, it really bothered me and for about a year after she died, it still really bothered me.  It bothered me that I didn't make the time, that I let the busyness of life get in the way. Now I really don't think it would have mattered to her either way or made a difference in her life, so why did it bother me so much? I am not sure, maybe I just felt that I owed her a thank you because at a certain moment in my life she made a difference, but I was a little too late to let her know.

Last week I received a phone call that a little girl I worked with about 11 years ago passed away. She was a Freshmen in High School and I had the pleasure of working with her from the time she was 3 years old until about 5 years of age. She had severe special needs and I would go to her home once or twice a week to work with her. Somedays I would get there and she would be asleep and since I didn't know if she would wake up soon or not, I would wait the hour I was being paid to see her, just in case. In that hour I would sit and talk to her mom and sometimes her grandmother. Needless to say in those two years I felt very connected to her and her family. I enjoyed going to see her and her family and although her case was quite a difficult one, it was good being with her. I honestly think I learned a lot more from her and her family than I was ever able to teach her. Eventually I stopped working with her and then about a year or two later I left that job for the one I am at now.  I remembered still emailing her mom occasionally to ask about her and I think I even visited her once. As the years continued and my life got bussier, I lost touch with her mother. I have often talked about her to my students and even thought about visiting her again....but I never did, again just a little too late.

I wasn't shocked to hear that she had passed away, but I was a bit surprised that her mom wanted me to know. After all of this time, she wanted me to know that her baby girl was gone. Once again I sat here thinking that if I only made the time, I could have seen the little girl one more time and told her mommy what an impression they had made. So even as I sit here writing this post, I am in the process of writing this momma a letter just to tell her that I am sorry for her loss and that her little girl was an important part of my life all those years ago. And as I write these words I am struck with the realization that there will be people we will meet who may only be in our lives a short while.

People come into our lives and they don't all stay forever, and maybe that is o.k. King Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that there was a season for everything, and maybe that goes for special people and special moments that touch your life and make a difference and then are gone and all you have left is a memory and the lesson that was learned. The strength of a momma, of two little ones with special needs, is what I learned from knowing this family and that even in the midst of what seemed an extremely challenging journey they were still able to smile and laugh and make a stranger feel at home. Even if I was a too late to re-connect with the people I can definitely still learn from the time I did spend with them, and it is never too late to learn something new even if the lesson comes from a memory. So as I sit here and think about this sweet little one I will remember my time with her and the lessons I learned from her and I am sure in thinking about her there will be another lesson learned, a lesson I can use now that I may have never noticed then.

This post is definitely not what I usually write on this blog, but this has been on my heart all this week, so excuse the rambling, and if you have read this far maybe you can take a minute to think about somebody you may want to thank and do so before it becomes just a little too late, and if it is now too late simply think about them and the impact they made on your life. You may find that there is still more to learn from them and your relationship with them.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven"

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To Multitask or Not

Multitasking - the act of doing more than one thing at a time, I am sure at leat some of you are familiar with this. I often find myself doing more than one thing at a time, especially most days. You know things like nursing a baby and reading a read aloud or scrambling eggs for breakfast while giving directions on an assignment or changing a poopy diaper while answering a math question.

Sometimes it is the only way to get things done and still there is too much to do and not enough time. I can plainly see this is the case when I look in my closet at all of the baskets of unfolded clean laundry, but sometimes multitasking is not a good idea. Especially when they say I am not listening to them or when I say things like, "I don't have to look at you to listen to you," but then I expect them to look at me when I am talking to them.

Anybody else having this experience?

Recently my six year old Little Princess was asked to play with her Baby Brother to keep him entertained while her Daddy and I were busy with something or someone else. We knew she was with him but we could hear that she was actually doing something else. When her dad asked her, "Aren't you suppose to be playing with your Baby Brother?"

She quickly replied,

  "I am being like a mommy and doing two things at one time."

That got me thinking, is this really what I want her to learn? Should I be teaching her that mommy is always doing more than one thing at a time even when it comes to paying attention to them?

Not really sure I am sending the right message. Maybe multitasking should only be reserved to when we are not dealing with any other human.

If you have any thoughts on the topic I would love to hear them.