See the Light Art Projects {Mosaic Review}

  I love to color, paint, play with play dough, going to art museums and the likes.  Maybe because I am a mom, who knows.  However, I don’t know a lot about paintings, artists or anything of the like. I am not that great at drawing either.  I classify myself in the category of people who can’t draw a straight line WITH a ruler!    I was intrigued when I was given the opportunity to review See The Light Art Projects by Mosaic Reviews.  Anything that teaches art to someone like me has to be beneficial, right? 

This set of 9 DVDs was created by Master Artist Pat Knepley and would be a great addition to your homeschool or co-op.  Mrs Knepley uses her soft voice and friendly personality to go thru the step by step lessons that your child is to be working on.   Each lesson in the set focuses on one particular artist like Winslow Homer or Georgia O’Keeffe and includes history about the artist and their work as well as definition to clarify the techniques.  I received Peaceful Seas which is one of the DVDs in the set.  It uses water colors and focuses on Winslow Homer.   What all did I get from this? 

Biblical reverences?

    Of course!  I loved how with in each lesson the Bible was referenced.  Art is an reflection of God’s beauty.  The world and everything in it was created to his images and likenesses.  Mrs Knepley opens up her bible and incorporates a short verse or story to help remind us of this with each lesson.

   

                             Adaptable?

             To use with the  elementary aged kids use the video lessons and project time.  To switch it up for the middle school aged kiddos you can add a trip or two to a museum or an artist report.  For the older high school kids you would incorporate the artist report as well as the museum tours.

                                                                          

            Can I use this for high school credits in my state?

      You can use this curriculum in ANY State!  In order to count as an art credit you must have 60 hours of instruction.  The Art Project program provides 70.5 hours!  When you add the museum trips and reports you are adding the additional class time to meet the 120 hours to satisfy your credit requirements.

                                                                        

                    What else do they offer?

    As well as the 9 art project program they also offer Art Class which is a 9 volume art class that provides progressing, hands on tools to learn everything from basic art skills to advanced techniques.  You can also check out their online resources.

                  What is all this going to cost?

You can purchase each art lesson for $14.99 or they have bundled together all 9 lessons for only $99.00!

                           Click here to check out there prices on the Art Class.

                       Where can I find out more info on See The Light Art Projects?

  Website            Facebook

                                                                   

 Check out what others are saying at Mosaic Reviews! 

Here are my kiddos pictures!

 

      

Tasty Tuesday: Pot Roast

  I love cooking in the fall and winter for many reasons.  First of all, you can keep your house warmer with the oven on for longer periods of time.  I just hate to be cold!  Second, it seems as if your recipes stretch farther.  When you are making chicken and then make soup with the left overs, or chili one night and then chili spaghetti the next it makes it easier in this house to stretch the budget a little farther, this is always a good thing when you have 2 teenage boys in the house.   So I decided to share a delicious pot roast recipe with you.   I think that there are two secrets to making a good and tasty one.  First of all you need to find a roast that has a lot of marbling in it.   Usually when I buy meat I look for the leanest and I trim the visible fat before cooking.   I think that the fat in the key in adding flavor and keeping it moist.  Next you need to carefully sear your meat before you put in in the pan, you don’t want to char it!  
               
   I use about 3 Tbsp. of olive oil and about 1 Tbsp. of garlic to add additional flavor.  It takes about 3-5 minutes per side to get it to a nice brown color.  Essentially you want to caramelize the meat.  Once this is finished I place my roast in the roasting pan and preheat my oven to 300 degrees.  As that is preheating I take my 8 washed carrots and 8 washed potatoes and cut them up and place them in the skillet.  At times I add additional olive oil and or garlic.  I just go by looks this time.  You don’t want to stir fry the veggies I want to slightly brown them in the olive oil juice that was in the skillet.  I keep them in the skillet for 3-4 minutes stirring frequently until they are glazed and browning.

oops one got away and is trying to hide there by the skillet!  Once the veggies are slightly brown you take them and add them to the roasting pan with the meat.  I then use 4 cups of beef stock.  I use what ever I have on hand.  I frequently buy bullion and containers of stock when on sale or I have a coupon to have on hand for a quick soup or stew recipe.  Once you have your roast and veggies in the roasting pan take a large bowl and measure out 4 cups of water. Add one Lipton soup mix and stir a bit.  Pour over the meat and veggies.  If I am making a larger roast or more veggies I add another soup mix packet.

Pop the lid on and place in the oven.  I cook mine for about 2.5 hours.  I check it about every 45 minutes just to make sure that I don’t need to add more liquid.  Yep I do this out if experience.  One of the first pot roasts I ever made I put in in the oven and walked away until the timer went off.  Let’s just say that I inadvertently charred the meat and veggies!  Now, when your cooking time comes to an end take your roast out of the oven.  I immediately, and carefully take the roast out of the pan and place it on a cutting board to rest. While it is resting I remove all the veggies with a slotted spoon and make gravy with the remaining liquid.  I don’t have any pics of the gravy but I will share how I make it.  I must say that if you are making this the day you read this the gravy will be fat free , if you save it and make it later it won’t be.  Obviously I am kidding here   I don’t make gravy like this often so the butter doesn’t bother us.  So for the gravy you should have a second pot-medium size.  Place a half of a stick of real butter I the pan and melt it.  Add 1/4 cup of flour to that butter and stir.  It is going to get sticky  and you have to work fast so you don’t burn anything.  Once it is that sticky, pasty concoction you are ready to add  that juice/broth from the roasting pan.  Bring this to a boil stirring constantly with a whisk.  It will thicken nicely and you will have a great tasting gravy.
    By the time this is finished (or while someone else is stirring)  take your rested roast and slice it up and transfer it to your serving platter.  Doesn’t that look moist?  You really can pull it apart with your fork.  It falls apart.  It just looks nicer if you slice.

You can choose to return the veggies to this and drizzle a little gravy over it or keep the veggies in the bowl that they are already in.  Serve with a nice tossed salad and you have one tasty dish!  Hope you enjoy!

A Light for my Path {Mosaic Review}

My two favorite books of the bible are Psalms and Proverbs.  I have opened my Bible many times throughout my life to find comfort and direction with the words of these two books.  I was so thrilled when I was given the opportunity by Mosaic Reviews to review the book A Light for my Path. This book was written by Davis Carman and illustrated by Alice Ratterree, and published by Apologia.   This book comes across as a simple ABC book, however, as you will see it is so much more!  We read this book together many times snuggled in bed.  What a great bedtime routine!

     This book was written to teach the ABC’s as well as to teach your child about God through its four different purposes.  The first purpose was to be ready by parent and child snuggled together.  The second was to learn the English alphabet.  The third  was to instill in children a love and respect for God’s word.  Finally, the last purpose was to teach the Hebrew alphabet.

              Each page is artistically illustrated that includes either an animal or a plant.  We enjoyed looking at each picture and trying to guess what image was going to be on     the next page by what letter it was.  Each page is written with a different attribute of God’s word, for example the letter “S” is paired with steadfast and “T” is paired with true.  I think this is on of the things that sets this off from other ABC books.  Our personal favorite picture was the lady bug that was on the “L” page that listed light.  Our  least favorite was t he Narwhal on the “N” page.

  The Psalm is written in 22 stanzas, one for each Hebrew letter of the alphabet. These stanzas are listed in the back part of the book with it’s corresponding Hebrew  letter.  The English spelling so that you and your child pronounce the letter correctly. With the Old Testament being written primarily in Hebrew, this may be a good tool to help your child feel closer to the word of God.  Whether you use this book to introduce your child to the alphabet, God’s word or both, this book is a must have for homes with little ones. 

Now how can you get a copy of this book?  How much does it cost?  Where can you find it?

You can purchase the book from Apologia  for only $14.00.

Check them out at Apologia

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You can check out what others are saying about this book at Mosaic reviews by clicking here!




 

Tasty Tuesday_ Not your store bought caramel!

I absolutely love caramel!  It is one of my favorite ice cream toppings, only next to fudge.  Keep in mind I said next to, not a second to .  I also love Pinterest!  I saw a pin that talked about homemade caramel.  YUM!  With fall in full swing, I had to try it. I have to say that this is the second go round for the recipe.  We will see how this one goes.   The first time I used store brand.  It had a kind of sour milk taste to it.  In talking with a friend she said that she used the Carnation brand and it turned out great.  So here goes the second time.   You take a can of sweetened cream condensed milk.   

                                                                                                                                                                      Remove the label so that our crockpot doesn’t know what you are cooking.  Seriously it is easier to take it off than to clean it out when if comes off while cooking.  Then you just place it in the center of the crock and fill it with water to about an inch above the can.  Then turn your crockpot on low and you wait.                

And wait, and wait and wait.   This is why I chose to do it over night.  When you get up in the morning you have awesome caramel to put on your pancakes or cinnamon rolls or what ever you want!   Trust me, my friend when I say, it is  worth the wait!  When it is ready to come out the water in the crock pot is obviously  hot.  Get your tongs or a ladle or whatever you have with an oven mit an fish it out.  You do want to let it cool inside the can for a bit.  If not it will ooze out of the can when you open it.  I may or not have experienced this. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Viola!

Check out this beautiful caramel!  It did make a difference when you tasted the store brand versus the Carnation brand to us. It also tastes better when you let it cool off.  It is hot!

Enjoy!

Math Mammoth {Mosaic Review}

  Math was always one of my favorite subjects in school! Unfortunately, my children do not have the same zeal for the subject.  Math comes easily to my oldest however he doesn’t like it.  The others hit all spots on the spectrum as far as liking it and not, it being easy and it being hard.  We have used the same curriculum with the exception of a couple of months for our second child.  My philosophy is if it works don’t change it.  Now my daughter isn’t picking up as quickly as her brothers with the math.  We all know that what works for one child will not necessarily work for the next.  When I was asked to review this curriculum by Mosaic Reviews I thought that maybe it would be a better fit for her.
  What is it?
  Math Mammoth is a math curriculum!  Math Mammoth has a few different options, allowing you  a complete curriculum or the Light Blue Series, work texts for specific topics, which is the Blue Series, and finally worksheets that come in grades 3rd thru 8th/9th that includes Algebra 1 otherwise know as the Gold Series. 
The series themselves:
   The Gold Series 
      This set consists of worksheets fro grades 3-8th or 9th that has 2 parts for each grade. Each worksheet focuses on one topic however has varied problems.  This series covers tops up to Algebra 1.  Each grade has a different set of 120-150 pages with problems that emphasize understanding the concepts and working the calculations.  You can click here to check out the different sets.  
The Blue Series
     Each of the Blue Series books focuses on a few topics only so they do not encompass the entire year.  They are a great addition to your curriculum or to help brush up on things over a break from regular studies.  Each work text is written with the instructions and student work in the same book. You could also piece these books together to make a complete curriculum based on topics, however they also have a complete curriculum that you wouldn’t have to piece together yourself. 

  Finally the Light Blue Series.
  This series is a complete elementary curriculum for grades 1-6.  Grades 1-5 are already aligned with common core standards.  (Grade 6 should be aligned by the end of the year).     Each grade level in the curriculum consists of two student worktexts, supportive material including answer keys, tests and additional cumulative reviews. The downloaded version also included an additional worksheet maker. You can click here to check out the different Light Blue Series levels.  Currently there is no Kindergarten or pre-algebra or above.  They are working hard to get those out during 2014.  
     As you can see Math Mammoth is very versatile and can help is many ways. Not sure what level to start on?  They offer free placements tests that you can check out here. Not sure what option you want?   Below you will see a comparison between the Blue and Light Blue series from the website.  

So what did I receive?  I received the Light Blue 2nd Grade Curriculum download, perfect to try with my daughter.  Now when it comes to school she is a self motivator.  It doesn’t matter if it is history, art, writing or math.  She asks daily if she can do her school work.  Such a relief from her big brothers who prefer lunch, recess and the end of the day as their favorite parts.  As far as the curriculum itself I like the layout of the curriculum.  They also give you several internet resources to help with the topics covered.  The colorful pages are fun to work on and with the downloaded version your child can do the pages right on the computer!  You don’t even have to print them out!   Check out this page.

  Do you see in the purple bar where it says add text comment? This allows your child to put the answers right there in the computer!  Then you can print them out for your records if you want to.  You of course can keep this little bit of info to yourself and use it as a reward or something of the sort as well .   My daughter loved to put the answers in the computer instead of writing them out. In having this curriculum for the past month or so the only thing that I have come across that I am not crazy about is the regrouping.  I do not like to do math in that fashion.  We have always skipped over that step and done it the old fashioned way, or the way that I was taught.

How much does this cost?

  Here is the pricing for the 2nd grade sets:

Downloads:

Full set grade 2: $37.50
(part A and B worktexts, answer keys, tests, cumulative reviews, a worksheet maker, and Soft-Pak)
Full set for 2-A: $18.75
(part A worktext, part A answer key, tests, cumulative reviews, a worksheet maker, and Soft-Pak)
Full set for 2-B: $18.75
(part B worktext, part B answer key, tests, cumulative reviews, a worksheet maker, and Soft-Pak)
Supportive materials $8.95
(Answer keys, tests, cumulative reviews, worksheet maker, and Soft-Pak. NO worktexts. Not needed when you purchase the full set.)

CD:

Full set grade 2: $42.50   (part A and B worktexts, answer keys, tests, cumulative reviews, a worksheet maker, and Soft-Pak) 

 

Printed copies can be purchased at Lulu or Rainbow resource.

Lulu:   spiral bound between $15.95 and $17.95

Rainbow Resource for $45.95 (printed books)

Where can you find Math Mammoth Math?

Website