Kregel Publications - Andrea Carter and the Trouble with Treasure

Author: Susan K. Marlow Binding: Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8254-3352-8 Price: $7.99
When innocent horseplay temporarily lands Andi and her friends in jail, they decide that a trip into the mountains will leave their troubles far behind. Accompanied by big brother Mitch and armed with a map showing old gold diggings, they can’t wait to strike it rich. What could be better than two weeks of camping and horseback riding? But instead of gold they find heaps of trouble—trouble that leaves Mitch gravely wounded. Andi needs help fast. But who can she trust? And what good is a bag of gold when her beloved brother lies near death in the middle of nowhere?

The Crew had the privilege to review Andrea Carter and the Trouble With Treasure. It was fun to join Andi and her friends in all their misadventures and to see how they would get themselves out of trouble in whatever situation they found themselves in. I was especially excited about how they handled things when they were held captive by the mean deputy Hugh Baker.

I think any young girl would love this book and probably the entire series. I find myself wanting to read the other books in the series because this was such a fun book to read. I also loved the character Jenny in this book. She reminded me of a childhood friend of mine that was always wanting to do wild and crazy things that most girls wouldn't even think of doing. It's perfect for the girl that is not into all the typical girly girl fiction books.

Visit the Kregel Publications to get your copy of this fun novel as well as other amazing books that this publisher has to offer.

This book was provided free to me by the publisher as part of my membership in the TOS Homeschool Review team, the opinions are mine after I have reviewed this product with my family.

All About Reading - What Am I?

My youngest loved the first book that we reviewed from this series and was even more excited to see another one arrive for review. He is still a beginning reader, so I reviewed the book and also had my 3rd grader read the book as well. Once again the reader has very exciting stories that grab a child's attention and get them into the book.

I also am becoming quite fond of the black and white illustrations as well as the boys seem to get into the story rather than getting wrapped up into the pictures. Before this series, I had always purchased our borrowed books from the library that were colorful and bright to try to get Josiah into the story. Now I will be a little more careful about judging a book by it's cover or illustrations.

Check All About Spelling's website and purchase your copy of this amazing reader for $19.95.

This book was provided to our family as part of our membership in the Crew. The review is mine after my boys and I have had a chance to review the book during our daily lesson plans.

Children's Bible Hour Ministries

We absolutely loved this series that was provided to us as part of our Crew membership!! The stories are so captivating and relevant today's children.

My favorite was the Braving the Storm story. It was really relevant to our family who has also been going through a hard time with my husband's railroad furlough and how we had to struggle with our finances and had to give up a lot of things to be able to stay in our house and make it month by month.

My son's favorite, was Seventy Times Seven. He liked how it talks about forgiveness and thought it was a very important thing to learn about. He said it is important to ask for forgiveness when you do something wrong like the boys did when they broke the window.

The books come with an audio CD which makes them even more entertaining for younger children. I really loved this series and it will be something that will be cherished for a long time in my family.

The Seasons of Faith series have been adapted from the classic Children's Bible hour radio scripts. I had never heard of the Children's Bible Hour so these were absolutely new and exciting to our family

The softcover books retail for $10. When you use the code FREESHIPAPR15 between March 17 and April 15, 2010, you can receive free standard shipping with the purchase of the 4 book set. There are also free study questions available for parents and teachers.

Here is a little bit more information about each of the books from the back covers:

The Seasons of Faith illustrated books encourage children to learn about their faith in God. Based on CBH Ministries' treasure trove of radio scripts, these stories teach core truths of the Bible so that kids can easily apply them to their lives. Each book focuses on a season of faith-development.



Spring: This is a time when people experience new life in Christ. Faith develops and Christians begin to share the Salvation message.



Summer: The season when faith grows under God's love and care. Fruit is witnessed and triumps are gained through applying His Word and striving to be the best we can be in Christ.



Autumn: Times of struggle and temptation, peer pressure, making mistakes, and scary transitions happen in this season. Even though it might seem like nothing good can come from this time, God has promised us He will be there. He will teach us how to forgive.



Winter: This season is the most difficult. Deep struggles, mourning, trying to make it through difficult times, or the death of a loved one can pull us away from God. He teaches us to lean on Him for comfort and peace.

It's a great way to teach values to your children in a fun and illustrative way. I recommend you add them to your home library.

This series was provided to our family for review as part of our Crew membership. The review is mine after having a chance to enjoy these books with my sons.

All About Spelling - Beehive Reader

Our family received the Beehive Reader by Marie Rippel from All About Spelling.

My five year old son, who has just started reading, was in seventh heaven with this book. The stories are exciting and fun and perfect for a beginning reader. What excited him the most was that it had several different stories in the same book and that it was the same size as his older brothers' chapter books.

The illustrations in this book are amazing and bring the stories to life. This was the perfect addition to our children's library and I highly recommend it to any family that has a young reader.

The book is $19.95 at the All About Spelling Website

This book was provided to our family as part of The Old Schoolhouse Review team. The opinions expressed in this review are mine after our family reviewed the book and implemented it in our daily homeschooling activities.

Kregel Publications - Review of Bertie's War

In the fall of 1961, the world goes crazy-and takes a young girl with it Bertie wants to be a good kid, but her fear keeps tripping her up and she finds herself tumbling into embarrassing, and sometimes dangerous, situations. By the time Bertie enters seventh grade in the fall of 1961, it seems like the whole world has gone crazy-and taken Bertie along with it. As news of the Cuban Missile Crisis throws the nation into a panic, Bertie will be forced to confront her fears face-to-face, both at school and at home.

The Crew had the amazing priviledge of reviewing Bertie's War by Barbara Blakely. This book was about the time period in which my mother was a young girl so it was great to kind of see what it would have been like to had a childhood during the Cuban Missile Crisis and all that was going on during that time. Roberta, Aaron and Tami and their parents are captivating characters in this book and you want to keep reading to find out what exciting adventure is next in Roberta's world.

This book was provided to our family for review in participation with the Old Schoolhouse review team. The opinions are mine after reading this book.

The book was provided to us by Kregel Publications and can be purchased for $7.99. I encourage you to browse the website for more books as well as there are books for everyone in your family!!

GET YOUR COPY OF BERTIE'S WAR HERE!!

ABC Teach - A Homeschool Worksheet Heaven!!

When you are a homeschooler it's sometimes hard to find a worksheet for unit studies or to supplement your children's curriculum. You spend hours searching the internet trying to find that perfect worksheet or diagram to fit the lesson. ABC Teach is the perfect website for moms like me who want a one stop shop to find all the worksheets that we need.

While I have been using the FREE worksheets from the website for years, I had an opportunity to try out a full membership as a part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Crew review team. I was absolutely amazed at how many worksheets and resources were available at my fingertips!!

There are worksheets for every grade level and subject. I even found worksheets for reading books that we were doing this year which was extremely helpful as I was not going to have to sit down and write out my own worksheets. The ABC Tools section is even more helpful as you can use their customized worksheet generators to make your own personalized worksheets.

A yearly membership to this site is $40.00. A big savings from having to buy several workbooks to supplement your child's education.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Sarah Books - Sarah's Wish

Take a journey into the world of the Underground Railroad with Sarah's Wish. The Author Jim Baumgardner had me absolutely captivated with the story of Sarah and her plight to find a new family as well as talking about a part of the Underground Railroad that had not been in a lot of the historical fiction books that I have read. I had read many books about the southern plantation owners or books that talked about things from the slaves perspective before, but this book shows you a child's perspective of helping to hide slaves on their way to freedom. I can't wait to read the next two books to find out what happens next to little Sarah and the amazing other loveable characters in this series.

Sarah's Wish, is currently on sale for the amazing price of $9.99 and this includes a special autograph from the author for the recipient. What a very special birthday or Christmas gift for the young girl in your life. You can also get all three books in the series for $39.95.

Visit the Website Here

This book was given to me by the author to review for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Review Crew. The opinions expressed in this article are my own after reviewing this book with my husband and children.

Goodnews Express from Passkeys Foundation - Thanks, But No Thanks

We recently reviewed The Good News Express - Thanks, But No Thanks by Tony Salnerno. Your child goes on an adventure with Finney who learns that being thankful is very important when he goes into a land where everyone does not say "thank you". It's a great way to get across the point of being thankful to your children in a fun and creative way.

Just one look at the book and my boys were scrambling to the computer to get the disk in to listen to this book. My eight year old loved the songs and especially liked the fact that he could read along with the book while the CD was playing.

There are four books in this series:

The Birthday Gift - This book emphasizes the importance of giving and sharing.
The Special Wish - This book teaches children to value people more than things.
Thanks, But No Thanks - This book as mentioned above talks about thankfulness.
The Cheerful Grump - This book teaches about having a good attitude.

You can get all four of the books with cd's for $20.00 or an individual book and cd for $7.50.

Visit The Website for More Information

You can also find out what other TOS Crew Members thought of these books by visiting The Old School House Crew Blog. Just click on the button at the top left of the blog to see reviews of this book as well as many other great homeschooling products. This book was provided to my family at no cost as part of my membership of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine review Crew. The opinions expressed in this article are mine after reviewing this product with my children and husband.

Guardian Angel Publishing

We received free e-books to review for Guardian Angel Publishing. I actually am coming to like the concept of e-books especially with our overflow of books throughout our house. I have started organizing my e-books and worksheets by subject on my computer which makes my "computer library" much more organized than the shelves and crates of hard copy books in my home. The Sum of Our Parts: No Bones About It by Bill Kirk, had a lot of facts that were fun for my boys, however the graphics and drawings in this book were not impressive and pretty simplistic.

Stubby's Destiny by Dixie Phillips was my favorite of all the e-books that we reviewed. Follow the story and his dream to carry a king...little does he know that God has a very special plan for him.

Andy and Spirit Go to the Fair by Mary Jean Kelso was an outstanding book teaching children about how even someone in a wheelchair can achieve their dreams. Andy is a lovable character in this book and I loved how he persevered and won the event even through the taunting and laughing of members of the audience.

Hamster Holidays by Cynthia Reeg was a great book that goes through the year and uses color coded words to emphasize nouns and adjectives. I particularly liked this book as sometimes it's hard to fully explain to your child the difference between a noun and an adjective. This visual tool is perfect for a child that is struggling with that particular concept.

Earthquake by Susan Berger was once again a very factual book about earthquakes. While the graphics and illustrations were much better the the book about bones, it was still hard to compete against the other science books in our family library.

The books are very reasonable on this site. You can download a PDF file of a book for $5.00. A CD of a book runs around $9,95 plus shipping. If you are wanting a printed copy of a book, they run around $10.95 plus shipping and handling.

Visit the Guardian Angel Publishing Site!



These books were provided at no cost to our family as a part of being a member of the review team for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Crew. The opinions are mine after reviewing the products with my children and husband.

Journey Through Learning

I never thought I would get into the lapbook craze. All my friends talked about it and lamented about how much fun they were and how their children got so much more out of unit studies. I clung onto my textbook theory and kept doing things the "traditional" way.


Then my mom who is a public school teacher joined a "teacher share group" and started copying all these amazing things for these folder book things and I thought wow these are kind of neat. Then I received an opportunity through The Old Schoolhouse Crew to review Lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning and my eyes were opened to a new world of teaching.

I have a child that is a very strong visual and active learner so these books were perfect for sparking his interest in learning. They came as e-books which for us is very convenient as we do not have a lot of storage in our house.




The first e-book that we reviewed was Parables of A King. This was the boys all time favorite as they love to dive into the Bible and learn more about God's word. I love how the book breaks each parable down into segments and each parable gets it's own "section" in the lapbook.

Autumn is the perfect lapbook for the beginning of the year. As the leaves start to change color and weather starts to change my children start to ask all the "why" questions. This lapbook helps them to understand all the changes of the season.

What boy does not go crazy about crocodiles and snakes!! My oldest was a big huge Crocodile Hunter fan and he was excited about this book that had so many fun and amazing facts about the reptile kingdom.

Amphibians was my favorite lapbook. I love frogs and thought this was a fun study for children of all ages. It brought back memories of my brother and I collecting a bunch of tadpoles in a bucket and watching them change to frogs. There is something about the life cycle of a frog that totally captivates the interest of children.

The Desert is a really fun lapbook that explores the fascinating world of deserts. Explore the animals and people of the deserts. I loved the Camel section!! My brother was stationed in Iraq twice and shared all kinds of facts about camels that were fun to add to the unit.

The amazing thing about these books is that takes learning to a whole new level. Rather than just reading a book (as I have normally done with my boys), you take an active learning approach. It also gives your child the opportunity to share what they have learned with Grandma and Grandpa as well.

You can instantly download these books from the website for only $13.00. If you want a CD they are $14.00. Do not have a printer? You can get the printed version for $21.00. I know this family will definitely be getting more of these amazing books!

Visit the Journey Through Learning Website!!

Nature's Friend Magazine

Nature's Friend is the perfect magazine for any Christian or home school family. Through amazing photography, graphics and stories, this periodical gives you a Christian perspective to all the wonders of God's amazing creation.

My children have learned about owls, woodpeckers and swamps. There is a drawing challenge each month and your child can send in submissions of their photography, drawings and poetry to the magazine for publication.

We have been receiving Nature's Friend for a couple of years so we were excited to have the opportunity to review a new feature to the magazine. Nature's Friend is now offering a new Study Guide with the magazine.

This supplement has more articles, activities and more for your children. This Study Guide is perfect for families that like to do unit studies or for checking your child's reading comprehension. There is a special feature to enhance creative writing. Children can also submit their photographs and learn new photography tips from professional photographers.

The best part about the Study Guide is that if you add it to your subscription, it's already placed in the center of the magazine!! I especially like that as you do not have to figure out a way how to keep the two together when storing them.

A subscription to the magazine is only $36.00 a year. You can add the Study Guide for only $2.00 per issue (or $24.00 per year).

Visit the Nature's Friend Website

We Have Fallen In Love With A Dog!!!

Who would have thought that a simple book about a dog on the ranch would bring so much fun and joy into our home. My boys fell in love with Hank and all of his wild and crazy antics.

Hank the Cowdog is a children's book series written by John R. Erickson. Erickson began his literary career in 1967 while working on ranches in Texas an Oklahoma. Hank and Drover are the actual names of dogs that he worked with while working as a cowboy, farmhand and ranch manager. In 1982 he quit his ranching career and launched his publishing company Maverick Books.

His stories definitely reflect the atmosphere and fun that happens on any farm or ranch. It brought back a lot of memories for me of my grandfather's farm and all the fun times that my brother and I had. Farm or ranching life is never boring and Erickson's books reflect a lifestyle that many children never have an opportunity to experience.

The boys absolutely loved the book The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse and how even after he was in so much trouble after accidentally tripping Sally May, he ended up being the hero in the end. They especially loved how a cat named Pete is incorporated into the story. Some of the things that Pete did reminded the boys of our cat Sophia. I had boys rushing to get ready for bed so that they could hear the next chapter of this fun and exciting story. These books sell for $4.95 on the Hank the Cowdog Website.

We also reviewed the Tornado Race and Chase game which is very similar to the childhood game Sorry. My five-year old absolutely loved this game and wanted me to play with him every day.



The only trouble that a younger child might have with this game, is the spinner. To fix this, all we did was add a die to the game and allowed players to either roll the die or spin. This worked out very well for younger players.



This game fold up into its own box which makes it absolutely perfect for taking on trips. I hope to take this with us the next time we go on vacation to entertain my boys who often whine that they have nothing to do. It also comes with a cassette tape which has an audio recording of The Case of the Swirling Tornado. This game can be purchased on the website for $12.99. I highly recommend it if you travel a lot or have children that love to play board games.

The last item we reviewed was a fun CD "Tales and Tunes from Hank the Cowdog". It had Story excerpts from 10 of the books and 9 original songs. Our favorite song was a song called "It's Not Smart to Show Your Hiney to a Bear". This CD is perfect for playing on long trips or when your children need time to settle down between classes and is available on the website for $3.00.


Visit the Hank the Cowdog Website today and play games, meet the author and shop the store for games, cds, books and so much more.

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie Review

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

This book happens to be one of my favorites for children. It reminds me so much of my boys and how if you give them one thing then they will ask for another and so on and so on!! My little one is infamous for this. He pops in our room in the morning and asks you to get up. From the time that he gets you up until the time he lays his sweet little head in bed, his requests are unending.

My preschooler absolutely loves the book. I wonder why!!