Snake Oil: It Cures what Ails Ya! by Out of the Box Games (TOS Review)

Games are always a great family activity. Lately we have been playing a new game, Snake Oil: It Cures what Ails Ya!, produced by Out of the Box Games which I received for review.


Snake Oil is a game ages 10 and up and for 3-10 players. There are different variations included for a large group of people which include a Tournament and TV contestant game.  In this game every player gets numerous opportunity to be a snake-oil salesman, which means you are allowed to create a very creative and interesting (and most likely possibly made up) sales pitch.The rules are pretty basic:
1. One person is picked to be the first "Customer" and they pick a customer card.
2. All the other players look through their cards in their hands (six cards) and then pick two cards to create something for their sales pitch.
3. Then the craziness starts--each player persuades the "Customer" that their item is best. This can go on for a while (though the "Customer" can stop the sales pitch after 30 seconds) and can get quite noisy as each person pitches their sale.
4. The "Customer" then picks the sales pitch the like best and that player gets the customer card. The first player to collect three customer cards wins the game.

I played this with my kids 18, 15, & 12. This game had an easy learning curve and went fast. It seemed like we had only been playing a few minutes when the one player already had three customer cards. That was easily fixed by just continuing to play or making the winner have five customer cards. This is a family friendly game, though there were a few cards we chose to exclude,

During one round Chantry was a "Teenager" for the customer. His sales pitch included--banana juice, a sleep closet, pajamas cloak, and a booger poster. Chantry picked the least pushy salesman (Caleb) who was selling pajamas cloak.

A couple of my kids were pretty good with coming up with their sales pitch, while it was harder for others. There were a few times it was just plain hard to come up with a sales pitch at all. This could have been due to us requiring the winner to have more than three customer cards. There were a few times we needed to start over and all get new cards at a certain point.

Snake Oil provided us with plenty of laughter, but in the end my kids mentioned they preferred other games to this one. I can only put it down to having weird kids. I would really like to see this played in a bigger group setting with a bigger mix of people.

Snake Oil has won numerous awards including Mensa Select. This game is a great family game which provides plenty of laughter. This game will really appeal to those who like a good argument, are great with words, or love being the life of the party!

Snake Oil: It Cures what Ails Ya! is available at Out of the Box Games for $19.99. Also, make sure to check out the other Review Crew review of Snake Oil - Party Potion for ages 8 and up.

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Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation by Jay Schabacker (TOS Review)

I always enjoy reading about the Creation of our world, especially when it is written in a format that is has a nice presentation and easy to understand. We recently have had the opportunity to review Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation from Jay Schabacker.


In Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation is a beautiful, hardcover coffee-table book that is appropriate for all ages and looks at the principles of science that rule our world and explains the elements of design that make life possible. It also presents evidence that shows the purpose of God in these designs.

It includes:

• Introduction - The Man on the Moon
• The First Day: Creation of the Heavens and the Earth--the Foundation of It All
• What Keeps it Things Going?
• The Second Day: Creation of the Atmosphere and Water
• Quenching the Thirsty Earth--The "Rain Cycle"
• The Third Day: Creation of the Dry Land and Vegetation
• The Importance of Vegetation and Plants to Humans
• The Fourth Day: Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars
• The Suns Ray and the Earth's Tilt
• Use of the Preciseness of the Sunrise
• The Many Benefits of our Moon
• The Beneficial Ocean Tides
• Stars
• The Fifth Day: Creation of Land creatures and Humans
• God Made Domestic Animals for Us
• The Amazing Uniqueness of the Human Beings
• The Seventh Day
• Epilogue--Who Made the Cookies? 

There are several themes that run throughout this book. One is that the creation of the world didn't just occur--there is a Purposeful Designer. The second is how creation was designed for our benefit, which include the seasons, animals, food, and so much more. The third is the perfection that God used when he created our world. Think about it--if our world was tilted at anything other than 23.5 degrees life as we know would be vastly different if not existent!

I read this over a couple of weeks to my children (6, 12 & 14) for our devotion time. We read it in short chunks and spent time looking at the pictures and discussing what we had read. Thought his is recommended for all ages, this did not keep my six year old's attention and most of it went over her head. I had some interesting discussions with my older kids and overall felt that Purposeful Design left us marveling over the greatness of our God.

Also a free curriculum is available for download. This covers all seven chapters that will enhance your child's readings and help their comprehension. The questions start easy for younger children and then section of testing and comprehension questions. There are suggestions for memory verses and additional scriptures for reflection. Though this could be used with younger elementary children, it was better suited for older children who have strong reading and writing abilities. Also, available is the Teacher's Answer Key which includes the answers, a certificate of completion, along with some additional points for discussion.

Purposeful Design is truly a beautiful book that can be used in a more relaxed learning environment or it can also be easily enhanced with the free curriculum and used as a short Creation Science course.

Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation by Jay Schabaker is available for $18.95

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A Christmas Story - If He Had Not Come (TOS Review)

I love a good Christmas book and just in time for Christmas I had the opportunity to review If He Had Not Come, a classic Christmas story by Nan F. Weeks, and reintroduced by David Nicholson.


David Nicholson was first introduced to If He Had Not Come, which was originally published in 1938, over 30 years ago. He was so touched by the story that he continued to share the story with his family every year. He has now been able to reintroduce it for a new generation with illustrations done by Charlie Jaskiewicz.

If He Had Not Come tells the story of Bobby, a young boy who is very excited for Christmas. On  Christmas Eve Bobby and his dad do their daily Bible reading and the phrase "If I had not come." from the Bible reading rolls around in his head.

Bobby goes to sleep and is soon awakened. He is excited for Christmas but when he goes downstairs there are no Christmas decorations or presents. He then notices that the factory down the road is rumbling. He heads to the factory to see why they are open and is astounded that no one knows what Christmas is. He then heads into town and and continues to ask, but no one seems to have heard anything about Christmas.

He continues on his journey only to find out that there is no church, no children's home, and no hospital, bet every time he is greeted with the message, "If I had not come." Finally, in his desperation he heads back home to look through the Bible his dad read from the evening before only to find...can you guess what he will find?

At the end of the book there is a list of interactive topics to use as a family or even in Sunday School. These are open-ended questions to encourage discussions. There is also a page that goes deeper into the message of the story along with a page on the gospel message.

The illustrations are engaging and one of my favorite things in the story. When everything is "normal" the pictures are in full color, but when Bobby is searching for someone who know about Christmas the pictures are only in partial color.  This added so much to the story.

I read this aloud to all my kids ranging from 6-18. My six year old had fun predicting what was going to happen next. I felt this was a sweet story with an important message, though I found the ending a little flat, but we did spend some time discussing it which I think helped in getting  . My kid's also noticed how much it reminded them of the film It's a Wonderful Life, which was interesting considering that it wasn't made until 1946.

This would be a great book to add to any Christmas book collection you may have or to make it part of your family tradition. In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, If He Had Not Come shares an important message of what the world would look like if Jesus hadn't come.

If He Hadn't Come is available from David Nicholson for $18.95 (hardcover) or $3.99 (e-book format).

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Experience History with Audio Books by Jim Hodges Productions (TOS Review)

We are big fans of audio books in the our house. We recently had the opportunity to review A Knight of the White Cross MP3 audio book by Jim Hodges Productions.

 
Gervaise Tresham, a poor, orphaned noble, joins the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. He quickly rises to knighthood and does daring exploits. He gets captured by the Turks and after being in captivity for two years he escapes in time to help in the defense of Rhodes. After defeating the Turks he heads to France to recuperate from his wounds. During his adventures he meets Claudia, but he has sworn to never marry. Because of his daring deeds he was released from the order and allowed to marry. Throughout Gervaise's exciting adventures he remains a man of strong character.


A Knight of the White Cross is narrated by Jim Hodges and is a story for all ages. It comes in MP3 format, which means it has to be played on MP3 compatible CD player, DVD player, or computer. One thing I like about the MP3 format is that it is easy to transfer to a personal MP3 player if you prefer to listen to stories on them.

My kids (18, 14, & 12) listened to A Knight of the White Cross together as our "read-aloud". Very nice, since I didn't have to read-aloud.  Being that it is set during the War of the Roses it took awhile to figure out who was who and what was what. Eventually, the kids began to get the characters straight and start to get into the story. By the end my kids were very involved in the story and were really excited when it ended better than what they were predicting would happen. Caleb (18) is the only one who has read any G.A. Henty books and I was glad to see that Destini (14) and Chantry (12) interested in his story as well.

While listening to the story we also used The Study Guide for G.A. Henty's The Knight of the White Cross. The study guide comes in PDF format and is 66 pages long. It includes vocabulary words,questions for each chapter, and quizzes. Also included are several activities that you can do for each chapter and an answer key.

I am not a big fan of study guides so I used this in a very relaxed manner and we focused on the questions. One thing about the questions is that they weren't all comprehension questions, but also included a lot of questions that seemed to required additional research. This was frustrating for my kids. I would have preferred these to be included under the additional activities along with a black line map or a link for one. The study guide would be a great asset to an intense study of the time period of history or just to use for history.

If my kids had any complaints was the narrator's voice. (As I stated earlier, we listen to A LOT of audio books and are very sensitive to that.) Thankfully, they did get so interested in the story that they were able enjoy the story for itself. Overall, The Knight of the White Cross was a big hit and it has definitely piqued their interest in reading other G.A. Henty books.

The Knight of the White Cross Audio Book is available from Jim Hodges Productions for $25.00 for the MP3 physical CD or $18.00 for the digital download. The study guide is available for $12.00.

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Warriors of Honor from New Liberty Videos (TOS Review)

As much as I love to read and encourage it in our home, I find that the rest of my family love to watch videos. A documentary is always a great way to slide a little learning in, plus a couple of my kids are visual learners. Recently I had the opportunity to review Warriors of Honor a Christian DVD which shares the faith and legacies of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from New Liberty Videos.


Warriors of Honor, which is a documentary for all ages, focus on Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and tells their story from the beginning of the Civil War to the end of their lives. The viewer is introduced to both men and learns about their beginning military careers, their strong faith in God, and their decision to fight for the Confederacy and then on through the war covering:

• Manassas
• The Valley Campaign
• Seven Days Battle
• Second Manassas
• Antietam
• Frederickburg
• Chancellorsville
• Stonewall is shot
• Crossing Over (Stonewall's death)
• Gettysburg
• Cold Harbor
• Sherman
• The Final Year
• Appomattox
• The final years of Robert E. Lee

Warriors of Honor is filled with a lot of information about both men's lives, especially during the war.  Many of the quotes throughout the film show the strong faith that both Lee and Jackson had in God and how they relied on him. Jackson was know for praying all the time and loved attending church and vocally gave glory to God. Lee's faith was showed in his character that he portrayed all the time.

The quality of the film is excellent. Shots of Civil War battlefields are throughout along with reenactments. Different voices are used for different characters. The music is pleasant and not distracting at all.

I watched Warriors of Honor with my husband and my oldest son. My 12 year watched up until Stonewall Jackson died. About two minutes into the film I realized that this was going to be very biased toward the South. I didn't say anything to my son or husband and a few days later re-watched it to see if I was reading more into, but determined I wasn't. I did ask both my son and husband separately and though they both enjoyed it they both noticed the bias as well.

If you are a Civil War buff or like learning more about Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Warriors of Honor may be a good choice for you just beware that there is slant to it. Researching quotes and how ideas are presented from this film would make a good research project for a high school student to do and find out for themselves where the truth lies. It would help a student see that things can be biased on either side.

Warriors of Honor is available from New Liberty Videos for $19.95 along with many other Christian DVDs of different topics.

Apologia iWitness Books (TOS Review)

I enjoy coming across books that take information that can be boring and presenting it in a way that makes the topic interesting and exciting. Apologia Educational Ministries has done that with their new iWitness series, which we were able to review. They include iWitness Biblical Archaeology, Old Testament iWitness, and New Testament iWitness, written and designed by Doug Powell.
iWitness Biblical Archaeology shows how different archaeological discoveries reveal the accuracy of the Bible. It starts at the Flood from there covers such topics as the Noah's Ark, Egypt, House of David and YHWH inscriptions, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jesus' world, New Testament locations, and much more.
Old Testament iWitness explores such questions as Who wrote the ancient books?, Is the Old Testament mythology or history?, and How is the Old Testament Different from the Hebrew Bible? The book starts with examining Old Testament manuscripts, how they were copied, the criteria for being in the canon, the Torah, the prophets, and so many more topics pertaining to the Old Testament.
Similar to the Old Testament iWitness book, the New Testament iWitness books explores similar questions such as Who wrote the New Testament?, How was it handed down?, What was the criteria for being included? The reader will follow the history and formation of the New Testament by letting you read through the evidence presented. Topics included are Church Fathers, Apostolic Age and Fathers, rejected books, copying methods, textual criticism, and much more.

The iWitness books are presented from a Christian worldview and recommended for ages 11 and up, though they can be read together as a family or to children. The three books all have the same format and set-up. A colorful background with pictures pertaining to the subjects covered, a title in the top corner, and the text is written in a font that looks like handwriting. They are sturdy books and the pages are printed on a nice heavy paper. Though you can read these books in one sitting, they seemed to be set up to just slowly read through the information while looking at the pictures in the background.

I read these with my older kids and found that they went very well together, though iWitness Biblical Archaeology was a favorite. Because of how the author writes these books like an investigation, my kids found several parts confusing and not too sure how to interpret the information that was presented to them. This opened the door for many discussions. If I had any complaints it would be that a couple of the handwritten fonts were hard to read, though I loved the look of the fonts and felt they added to the whole appeal of the books.

We are currently reading about the Ancients in our history readings and I found that these books dovetailed nicely with what we were learning. Again the iWitness Biblical Archaeology book added a lot to our current study. It also caused us to get out the map and find where the places were listed.

Though we made reading it together work, it was hard to share the book so they could see the pictures. To get the full benefit of these books placing them on a coffee table, side table books, reading one-on-one, or placing them in the bathroom, since they can be easily read in short snippets and look at the pictures to their hearts content. Overall, we found the iWitness books interesting and fun reading.

iWitness Biblical Archaeology, Old Testament iWitness, and New Testament iWitness are available from Apologia Educational Ministries for $14.00 per book.

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Preschooler and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet by Kendra Fletcher (TOS Review)

Homeschooling older kids while having preschoolers can create a lot of hectic moments in a mom's life. I know--I've been there and done that! So has Kendra Fletcher from Preschoolers and Peace who has written an ebook for mom's in this situation called Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet.


Kendra Fletcher writes from experience--over 16 years of having preschoolers in her home. In Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet is a short e-book compiled from her site, Preschoolers and Peace.  It includes 14 chapters that cover an array of topics. The chapters are easy to read and are filled with encouraging words and easy to implement ideas. Chapters include such topics as:

• What a Homeschooling Mom Needs
• Preparing Yourself to Homeschool Older Kids With Little Ones Underfoot
• Planning Around Preschoolers
• How Do I Keep Them Busy?
• What Does a 2-Year-Old's Day Look Like?
• How Do I Get Any Preschooling Done?
• How Not to Just Kill Time
• Circle Time, or How We Pull the Little Ones In
• Preschool Boys
• When All of Your Kiddos Are Preschoolers
• Preschool Chores
• Planning for Preschool
• When Mama is Worn Out (or Pregnant)

Before sharing ideas on how to balance preschoolers and older kids, the author first talks to moms about the importance of keeping the Gospel as her center and to find her identity in Christ rather than in homeschooling her children.

She then talks about how preparation is the key to successful homeschooling before heading into the nitty-gritty of planning with preschoolers. She shows the benefits of making a schedule and how to use it to keep the littles busy. Her ideas on scheduling also come with great advice on how a schedule is a tool and the importance of making necessary adjustments when life calls for it. She includes sample schedules along what her schedule looked like after she adjusted it.

She lists over a dozen activities to do along with items that can be used with the activities. She shows how to implement circle time with your preschoolers and older kids along with a list of chores that preschoolers (and bigger kids) can do. There are a lot of tips and suggestions for dealing with preschool boys, dealing with all preschoolers, and filling in little moments of time with teaching moments.

She sums it up by encouraging worn out, tired, or pregnant moms to reassess her situation and make sure what she is pleasing to God rather than others. She includes a handy section on different ideas for Meal Planning and how a meal plan makes daily living a whole lot smoother and ends the book with a list of resources and links for each chapter.

I was able to review Kendra Fletcher's books Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Homeschool Day last year which I really enjoyed and have been able to implement in our homeschool so I knew that I would probably enjoy and glean from Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet even though I technically don't have a preschooler.

This is not a long book, I read it in the car on our trip home from vacation, yet it was an encouraging read and a few times I was convicted! Though my daughter is past preschool and doing school work she still has a lot of time on her hands and many of the ideas listed are ones that she would be interested in doing. This book giving me some inspiration to put a few more fun activities in her schedule.

If you are homeschooling and trying to find the fine balance of working with older kids and keeping you preschoolers happy I highly recommend checking out Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet by Kendra Fletcher.

Head on over to Preschoolers and Peace to get a copy for $2.99.

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Homeschool Scheduling Made Easy with My School Logbook (TOS Review)

I discovered a few years into our homeschool journey the importance of giving my kids their own personal schedule to work from. I have been using a sheet that I created myself, but in the last few weeks Destini has been using the 2014-2015 School Year Butterfly My Student Logbook from My Student Logbook which we received for review.


My Student Logbook offers an automated approach to homeschool management. In other words, it runs itself! My Student Logbook is for 2nd grade and up and comes with 53 pages, a clear plastic cover on the front and a black plastic cover on the back. 9 different cover options are offered.

The My Student Logbook starts with a checklist that is used to create your list of assignments, reading, and/or chores. The checklist is removed from the book and then taped on to the current calendar page. Next to each box on the checklist is a box for the parent to record the time they estimate it will take the student to do that subject. When you have finished the calendar page for the week you turn the page and tuck it under the assignment flap and you now have a fresh page for the week. The same checklist can be used as long as you need. Six checklists pages are included so if your student's assignment lists change you just tape a new page onto the current calendar page. The checklist page may also be copied if needed. (A how-to video here.)

The calendar page comes with seven boxes--one for each day of the week and down the left hand side is a space to record notes (this is covered by the assignment sheet).  Destini's logbook was dated with each week beginning with Monday and ending with Sunday. The boxes can be used to record the assignment, check off the box, or record time.

At the back of the logbook there are numerous pages for record keeping. They include things like:

• "All About Me"
• Prayer and Goals 
• Bible Verses Memorized 
• Books Read Record of Events, Projects, Field Trips, Presentations, & Activities 
• Test Records 
• Year Highlights 

You can see that these additional pages would give you a great overview of your year and how great this would be for keeping records for high school students.

Also included in the book is what I would call a "crash course" on creating high school transcripts and how My Student Logbook can help the parent keep track of grades, hours, books read, other activities to create your high school courses. Check out the helpful videos that gives clear explanations on how My School Logbook can help with high school record keeping.

As I mentioned earlier, Destini (14) used the Dated Butterfly My Student Logbook. Since we received it a little before school started we added things like piano practice and chores. When we started school I listed all of her subjects on the Checklist page and then put the lessons or page numbers in each box. When she was finished she would put an "x" in the box. One thing I noticed that she also created her own key for her symbols she used (ex. x-finished, o-need Dad's help). There was a little room at the end to list a few chores and personal things she is wanting to make into habits.

She took to using this like a fish to water. I this this partly due what we have previously used, BUT the satisfying result of her using My Student Logbook is that she has taken the responsibility to plan out her own work the last few weeks! (Yes, I am doing a happy dance!!) Since I do prefer my high school student's yearly assignments to be recorded in one book this will fit the bill nicely for next year and will help to keep a record of hours, books, and activities for courses that will count for high school this year.

I will admit that I was fairly satisfied with my weekly schedule list I had created for my kids (it worked), but I am very impressed with My Student Logbook, so much so that my son will be getting his own. The biggest reason is that it is all in one book and I am not having to print or copy my sheet off every couple of weeks and then making sure I got them put in their binder when they were finished. It just made record keeping a whole lot easier! I also liked that there was plenty of room for school work, plus any extras that you wanted to include. This also would also be an excellent tool for habit training. Highly recommended!

My Student Logbook offers 3 different calendars:

• Northern Hemisphere School Year (August 1-July 31) 
• Calendar Year (January 1-December 31) 
• Undated 

The My Student Logbook offer 9 different covers for the physical books and are available at My Student Logbook for $15.00 with a $5.00 flat shipping rate. A PDF instant download is also available for the dated calendars and are $10.00-Single Use License/$20.00-Family Use License.

My Student Logbook on Social Media:
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The Seven-Minute Life Daily Planner (TOS Review)

As much as I like planning my kids' school year, I find when it comes to my own personal life I tend to avoid it. I was intrigued when I came across the opportunity to review The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner from The 7 Minute Life.


The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner is a unique planner that was designed by Allyson Lewis, the author of The Seven Minute Difference, as a personal training tool to help her take charge of her to-do lists and endless tasks that faced her. So what is the purpose of the planner and how is it used?


The goal of The 7 Minute Life is to provide strategies to Prioritize, Organize, and Simplify your life at work and home. The 7 Minute Life Planner is a tool to help you to identify your purpose and goals in life and then to actually implement and do them. To get started you begin by thinking about your purpose by finding out what your values and priorities are. You then write these goals down and put them into doable action tasks. Finally, you work on these tasks daily.

The beginning of the planner takes you step by step with detailed explanations through each worksheet. These include: ranking your priorities, discovering your purpose in life, articulating what you love to do, your strengths, getting rid of mental clutter, setting 90 day personal and work goals, writing down action steps, making financial goals and life goals along with action steps, and writing down unfinished work tasks along with home tasks and repairs. Also included are pages to write down a list of people you want to stay connected with along with annual projects & tasks, undated 90 day calendar worksheets and monthly calendars, and meeting planner worksheets.


Next comes the Daily Progress Report which is a two spread page the covers 90 days. It takes everything you have worked through--values, goals, unfinished tasks, etc. and helps your structure them into daily activities and action steps. The page is broken down into these sections:

• 5 before 11 - to record your highest-value activities for the day
• "7-Minute Life" Connections - list 3 people you want to be in contact
• Make Daily Contacts - Contact to help your business
• Appointments - Track your appointments or how you spent your day
• Thank You Notes - Record hand written notes that you have written
• Voice Mail - A place to record all voice mails you have received
• Notes - a place to record daily information
• A place to track your intake of water, food, sleep, exercise, reflection, and reading
• A check box answer the question "Did I do what I said I would do today?"

When I first got the planner I spent a few days working through the descriptions and then filling out the worksheets. I will admit that I didn't find this very easy to do. I then began using the daily progress report. I was most successful with the "5 before 11" though I still struggled at times to get everything finished. I begin implementing the planner before we started school and I did really well getting my 5 items done before 11 and then school happened and I was challenged to finish up my "5 before 11" in the evening!

This planner focuses a lot on making contact with other people and though I am involved in a homeschool co-op, and am a pastor's wife, plus work a small job outside the home, I just didn't have that many people I need to contact everyday. Many times these portions stayed blank or I just used it to list other things. I found many of the different sections listed were either unnecessary or hard to implement for my life at this time.

 I will admit that I really struggle to use any kind of planner. I am always leaving it upstairs or downstairs or at home or--you get the picture, I'm sure. I will also admit that though I found this hard to use, I did enjoy the ideas that she shared and have been mulling on how I can make this fit my lifestyle better.

I had written down some 90 day goals I wanted to get done and yet looking through my planning I hadn't really implemented them into my day. I believe they areto be worked on through the "5 before 11" portion, but on my "5 before 11" list I was just putting tasks down the would keep life going smoothly.

I loved the idea behind The 7-Minute Daily Planner and even though I struggled overall with the planner I know that the "5 before 11" will be something I will rely on. I do think this is an excellent resource for someone who is working (whether at a workplace or home) and wanting to implement better time management into their daily life.

The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner is available through The 7 Minute Life for $24.95 (90 days). Also, check out the Getting Started video along with these videos which help in understanding and implementing this system.

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Under Drake's Flag Dramatized Audio CD (TOS Review)

My kids love dramatized audio books and recently we were able to to listen for review Under Drake's Flag from Heirloom Audio Productions.

In Under Drake's Flag we meet G.A. Henty who beings to tell a story to some boys about two young men, Ned and his friend, Gerald, who end up working on Sir Frances Drake's ship, the Pacha. During this time they experience many adventures including facing the Spanish Inquisition. Ned and Gerald go from boyhood to manhood and throughout this time their faith is tested and they have to learn to face their fears as they grow in God.

Under Drake's Flag is for ages 6 to adult and comes with two CDs (2 hours) in a case along with an abridged study guide. Even though we didn't use this, I found the study guide to be very thorough and thought provoking. This study guide is 12 pages in length and includes an intro to the CDs along with tips on using the Study Guide and some information about G.A. Henty and Sir Francis Drake. The sets of questions focus on Listening Well, Thinking Further, and Defining Words. At the end of the study guide is three short Bible studies that focus on Godly character, true manhood, and confessing.

Also available is a full complete study guide that you can have emailed to you. This study guide follows the same format as the abridged study guide, but there are a lot more questions under the Listening Well and Thinking Further sections along with a more Defining Words. The Bible Studies were very similar in both study guides. I would say the heart of the full complete study guide lies in the Listening Well, Thinking Further, and Defining Word sections. The Listening Well section asks simple questions about what was heard in the story where the Thinking Further questions brings questions that deal with character and Biblical applications.

My oldest son is the only one in the family who has read any books by G.A. Henty, so the rest of us  didn't know the storyline at all. We sat down as a family as spent several evenings listening to the CDs. (Had time permitted it would have been listened to all at once.) We were only a few minutes into it and by then my older kid's were totally engrossed. (My 6 year old daughter didn't really get into it, but listening to audios isn't really her thing right now.) 

The script is well written and included the right amount of humor (a big plus in our house) along with a lot of suspense and drama.  The dramatization of Under Drake's Flag was excellent and kept our interest the whole way through. In fact, it was so interesting that I had one kid go pull the book off the shelf so they could read the whole story for themselves. I also found myself intrigued with G.A. Henty and am planning on adding some of his stories to by TBR list.

At the end of the story the prayer of Sir Francis Drake, 1577, is read. I was very moved by this prayer and if I didn't get anything from the CD this prayer will stay with me for a long time. This prayer is also included on the CD case which will make it easy for me to copy down and put in a predominate place for reminder.

If your kids like dramatized stories or adventure stories you don't want to miss this great production of Under Drakes Flag which is available from Heirloom Audio Productions for $29.95 plus $6.95 shipping and handling and includes several bonus items.

Under Drake's Flag on Social Media:
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/UnderDrakesFlag

Happy Kids Songs (TOS Review)

I think most of people are aware of the importance of music and how it can enhance and help a child to learn. I recently had the opportunity to review Friends & Sharing, Happiness & Attitude, and Manners & Character, music audio entertainment products produced by Happy Kids Songs.

Happy Kids Songs focuses on teaching children important social, emotional, and character skills all through the power of music. This program is produced by Don MacMannis, who is a music writer and director for the PBS series, Jay Jay the Jet Plane. The themes of these songs along with the words address some of the most important issues the children ages 4-8 are experiencing.

I was able to review Friends & Sharing, Manners & Characters, and Happiness & Attitude. Each set of albums include 5 songs that are available for download. These can be burned to a CD or played on the computer, iTunes, or mp3 player.

Friends and Sharing include songs that discuss such topics as ingredients of friendship, reaching out to others, including others in play, being happy with a friend, sharing time together, and saying good-bye. Manners & Characters covers honesty, learning manners, appreciating differences, the Golden Rule, honoring others perspectives. Happiness & Attitude covers having an "I can" attitude, giving complements, handling limitations, happiness, being together and apart.

Also available is the Happy Kids Songs Workbook that includes hands-on activities, coloring pages and song lyrics to help the parents and child to learn how to apply the lessons taught through the songs. This book includes activities for all the the audio albums that Happy Kids Songs offer.

I used burned these songs on a CD for my 6 year old daughter, Delani. I am not sure why, but she took a great dislike to these songs. I tried having her listen to them while she played, while she went to sleep, or just playing in the background throughout the day and she would always ask to turn them off. Outside of her being an extremely opinionated child, I wondered if many of the songs dealt with topics that she has never experienced and she didn't find them relatable.

I have to admit that I could relate with her. While I think many of the topics covered are important for kids to learn they seemed to be lacking in depth. I want my kids to learn these life lessons, but I prefer these lessons to be taught with Biblical principles. Yes, I know that these could be used along with the Bible, and yes, I am aware that a few of songs were based on Biblical principles, but I found too many of them based more on today's psychology rather than the Bible. I will admit these music albums aren't something I wouldn't purchase for my kids, but I could see how they could be fun for a very musically inclined child.

That being said, one thing I really liked about the Happy Kids Songs was the quality of the music. I consider myself a music snob and find a lot of kids' music to be very bland. Not so with these music albums. The music is modern, upbeat, catchy, and overall very pleasing to the ear.

 Head on over to Happy Kids Songs to see what they have to offer. Friends & Sharing, Manners & Character, and Happiness & Attitude are available for $4.95 for a 5 song download or .99 a single song download. The workbook is available for $12.56.

Happy Kids Songs on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happykidssongs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HowsYourFam
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/4DrMacMusic