The Value of Museum Memberships

For Christmas we gave the family a membership to the Natural History Museum, hubby and I felt that not only would this gift have value for the entire year, but that it would open their minds and give them some amazing things to view and see and do.  When we mentioned this to our friends and family, a few individuals actually felt that we "cheated" our children out of a gift because "no child wants to go to a museum and learn when they could be playing and having fun". 

I would first like to clarify that just because museums are for learning, does not mean they are not also fun.  Second, our children were elated to get the museum membership because they truly love exploring all the wonderful exhibits that are offered and learning about some amazing things!  Of course as a homeschooler I find museums to be wonderful teaching resources, and the kids really do enjoy them, especially the dinosaur bones and gold panning exhibits at our local museum. 

Now all that is well and good, but what fun is a museum really you ask?  Well, two days after Christmas, our museum held a special members only event in the evening after usual museum hours.  Our Museum welcomed Astronaut Joe Acaba to come and speak about his recent mission to the International Space Station.  He offered a very nice, yet brief presentation, and then opened up the field for questions.  He answered questions from children and adults alike and carefully chose his answers based on the age of the individual giving the question. 

If a child asked "how fast does the space station move?"  He answered "really, really fast," and then proceeded to give an example that the child would understand.  If an adult asked the same question then his answer was given in miles per hour and length of time to orbit the earth.  By the way the space station makes it's way around the Earth every 90 minutes, which means the sun rises and sets every 45 minutes on the space station.  How's that for confusing? 

After his presentation and Q&A session he did not immediately run off and disappear, nope, he stuck around and signed autographs for everyone in attendance!  Since only myself and my two older boys attended (I wasn't sure a 3 year old would sit nicely for the presentation), I asked him if he would kindly sign one for my little guy and he most happily obliged.  In addition to autographs he was also kind enough to pose for photos with everyone that was interested!  He was so kind to the children, and so willing to be part of whatever was asked of him that evening, he didn't have a "look how special I am for what I've done" attitude, but rather a "I'm a lucky guy to be doing something I love and I want to share that with you" attitude.  He was real, down to earth (har, har), and pleasant. 

She snapped the picture before B had a chance to fully get his smile together, 

but he really was happy to be there!

This was a rare opportunity for my big boys, and without our membership it would not have been possible!  They both loved listening to the presentation and learning about space travel, but even more they loved having the chance to post for a photo with a real astronaut, and get an autograph.  I intend to take their photo from that night, as well as the autographed photo and frame them nicely for a special reminder of this night when they were just kids, that was all made possible by a museum membership. 

Birbitt thinks making memories with my children is the best thing ever, and museums really are a valuable thing!

Attention Homeschoolers - Great deals ahead!

For all you homeschoolers, and educators out there in blog land I just wanted to take a quick minute and let you know about a great deal. For us as homeschoolers we can never seem to have enough books and my boys LOVE to read!

About a year or so ago I was told by a friend about the Scholastic BookFairs Warehouse sales, and I must say it was an instant hit! I can get my children's favorite books for up to 80% off the original retail prices! Even better, is that they use volunteers for the sale! That's right, volunteers like you and me! I take the opportunity to volunteer my time at these sales, and in exchange Scholastic offers the volunteers vouchers for free books!

Sure I know we homeschooling mama's don't have much spare time, but for me I just love being surrounded by so many books and it's a great chance for me to get a little mama time and do something great for my kiddos at the same time!

So go ahead over and check them out see if there's a location in your area and check out the great deals! So tell me what are your favorite books for your children?

Birbitt Thinks loves a great deal, and I hope you do too!

Birbitt Thinks was not provided any compensation for this post, and all opinions are strictly my own.  

MailPix - Personalized Photo Gifts review and giveaway

I don't know about you, but I just LOVE a nice Photo Gift!  Not just to give to others, but also for me!  I love looking around my home and seeing memories of my family!

That's where MailPix comes in.  I was given a chance to review several items from their store, and I chose a nice variety that I'd like to tell you about here. 

First I will say that I got Christmas Cards from them, and while I can't seem to get a good pic of them they truly are beautiful!  The photo portion is just beautiful and the colors are spot on!  The greeting card portion is so pretty, and looks exactly like it did on the website.  They have cards for all occasions at reasonable prices!  

I also got photo prints from MailPix as well, and again I don't have pictures of them but they are good quality prints, on Kodak paper, and the colors are just right.  If there was any issue with the photo at all, it was on the part of me the photographer!  I was very pleased with the quality of their prints, and the price is just right for my budget! 

Ok, now for the part you are all waiting for, the photo gifts!  The first gift item that I chose was a calendar for both myself and my Dad.  I chose the transparent 12 month 2013 calendar and selecting my photos couldn't have been easier! The images came out very clearly,  and look on the calendar exactly as they did on the preview, so if something wasn't right it was fully my fault! 

The next gift item I chose for review was the keepsake box with photo tile.  Now this one, the tile is beautiful and looks exactly as my image did, however there is a small gap between the tile and the wooden box.  It's a beautiful gift, but that gap sticks out to me and bugs me a little.   But the inside is very well done and it would be a great gift!

I also chose two beautiful snowflake ornaments.  These ornaments are ceramic, with a round photo in the center of the snowflake, the photos are super cute and well printed onto the ornament.  The ornament itself is not so heavy as to weigh down the tree branches, but it is heavier than a standard ornament.

I also chose several picture magnets for my refrigerator, to hold up all their great artwork, and they are beautiful!  I got the smaller wallet size magnets and the image is the full size of the magnet and it has a glossy finish.  These are just the right size for mailing in a Christmas card to family and friends as a small gift!

Next is a photo puzzle, which I chose as a Christmas Gift for my children to assemble together.  The puzzle comes in a tin, with puzzle pieces around the side and the top is the image on the puzzle.  I have seen photo puzzles before and been disappointed with the quality of the puzzle pieces or the image printed on the puzzle.  I did not assemble this puzzle, however the pieces are more durable than I've seen in the past, and they are slightly glossy, and it appears as though the image is going to be nice and clear on the puzzle.

The last item is probably my favorite item of all, a photo blanket!  This item is just beautiful!  The image came out very clearly, it does not have that strange pixelated look that happens sometimes when you blow up an image too far, the colors are natural and look just like the original picture, and the image covers the whole blanket!  I was expecting a blanket with a white border, not sure why but I was, and when this arrived I was so much more pleased that I thought I would be!  The Fleece blanket is a very thin blanket, which for me living in the desert is perfect, so do keep that in mind if you are giving it as a gift.  My favorite part of this blanket is being able to sit on the sofa after the boys have gone to bed and still be able to snuggle with them, even if it is just their picture! 

The ordering process was very easy, I simply created an album and uploaded all my imaged to that one album, then when I was ready to order an item I simply click on the image I want, drag it over to the work space, set it how I want it to appear, and add it to my cart!  Easy as Pie!  Once my order was complete all I did was check out and wait, and the items appeared very quickly in my mailbox!  I think from the time I ordered to the time the last package arrived was exactly one week, not bad at all during the Christmas Rush! Overall I say great job MailPix for delivering great quality items at affordable prices, and making the process easy to accomplish! 

Birbitt Thinks if you are looking for a great photo gift at an affordable price, with a simple ordering process...then MailPix is the place for you!  And just to prove it to you MailPix is giving one lucky reader the opportunity to try it out for themselves!  One lucky Birbitt Thinks fan will get their choice of photo gift item from MailPix!  All you have to do is enter below, and sit back and wait to see if you've won!

Loading Entry-Form...

...
Birbitt Thinks was provided products in exchange for this review, however I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are strictly my own!  MailPix and NOT Birbitt Thinks is responsible for fulfillment of the prize, and Birbitt Thinks is not responsible in the event your opinions are different from my own. 

A true family Christmas!

If you have children you know their excitement over Christmas, the lights, the decorations, the family, the fun, and the presents.  As a mom I want my boys to know there's more to Christmas than just lights and presents.  I want my boys to know the real reason for Christmas, I want them to keep their eyes focused on Him during this busy season, and to remember their spirit of giving rather than getting. 

We are homeschoolers, and as such we have great flexibility in our school scheduling so I like to fill the month of December with activities and mini lessons that will do exactly that!  I thought there might be others out there that would like these activities as well so I'm going to link you all to some great sites full of awesome inexpensive and free materials, as well as give some ideas we've seen or used over the years.  I hope it will be a blessing to you and your family.

One of my favorite resources for preschoolers is Hubbard's Cupboard, and she has an entire month of Advent activities for you to enjoy, complete with a paper chain so children can remove one link each day to reveal a Bible verse, and activity to complete.

My favorite places for mini lessons, and unit studies is currclick and they have some great resources for children of all ages in their Christmas section!  If you like them on Facebook or sign up for their newsletter you can find out when all the sales and specials are, which will save you money.  Of course all their resources are so inexpensive anyway that even if you miss a sale you'll still find a great deal!

If lapbooks and ebooks are more your style check out Knowledge Box Central for some great Christmas theme projects!  Their downloads and E-Books are mostly $5.00 and $10.00, and you'll find some great stuff over there.  If you prefer you can pay a bit more and get the printed kits that you only need to assemble. 

If inexpensive crafts are your goal well I have got the place for you!  Oriental Trading has some amazingly cute and remarkably simple Christmas Crafts for great prices!  They have crafts, decorations, party supplies, candy, ornaments, costumes and MORE!  We have made lots of Oriental Trading crafts over the years, and this year even Twiggles got in on some of it!  Their crafts really are simple, and they come with all you need to complete them!  The only downfall, if there is one, is that everything is sold in sets of 12 or more. With crafts though that's rarely a problem, we just invite others over to craft with us!

Here are some other great Christmas Ideas:

Set up your family's nativity set, and each night while your children are asleep hide the baby Jesus, then when they wake up it's a game to see who can find him. - The lesson here is to teach littles to keep their eyes on Jesus, to stay focused on Him! 

Do an advent calendar, you can find many online to make and they don't need to be expensive, but instead of candy each one can hold something to remind them of the real meaning of Christmas (like a cross, a star, a manger, three wise men, etc.). 

Help your children learn to help others, choose an angel from the angel tree and let them do the shopping, if you know a family who is struggling this year take your children shopping for that family, let them put a dollar in the big red salvation army buckets, have them choose a toy and then donate it to toys for tots, volunteer at a soup kitchen, buy donuts and pass them out Christmas morning to the homeless, the possibilities are endless.  The lesson here is to teach your children to be thankful for their blessings, but also to learn to bless others, this is not something children will learn on their own it needs to be taught. 

Decorate the tree together, let your children choose special ornaments to put on the tree each year, if your child has made an ornament let them choose where to put it make this time a special family time.  It doesn't matter is your tree is perfect, or if there are two red bulbs next to each other, or if there's a small blank spot, what matters is you did it together.  If it bothers you, you can always move ornaments around later or add to it after they are in bed, but be sure not to move their special ornaments! 

Get a collection of Christmas and Winter themed books, you can often pick these up at thrift stores for just a dollar or two each. Be sure you have 25 of them!  Then wrap them, and place them under the tree.  Each day beginning on December 1st let your children choose one book to unwrap and then read it together, you could read the whole thing to them, or take turns reading whatever just do it together!  We even read one on Christmas morning before we open presents! 

Make decorations, you can make snowflakes from paper, paint Christmas trees from hand prints, wrap picture frames into presents on the walls, whatever strikes your fancy but do it together as a family.  Make Pinterest your best friend for Christmas crafts with kids - you can view my pinboard for some ideas too! Make gingerbread men from felt, or Stockings from paper, use window paint to decorate your windows. 

Build puzzles, for most people it's too Cold in December to go outside and play so instead why not spend the time building puzzles which can be glued together and hung throughout the house to remember for years to come!  Sure for little ones you'll have to start small, but as your children get older you can get bigger and bigger puzzles! 

Bake cookies!  I have such fond memories from my childhood of Mommy pulling out the baking supplies the day after Thanksgiving and bringing out her recipe file of Christmas cookies and each day we'd make 2 or 3 or 5 or 6 batches of cookies!  We ended up with popcorn tins full of cookies which we could keep in the garage since it was so cold!  We'd give cookies to my teachers for Christmas, leave a tin in the mailbox for our mailman, hand them out to Sunday School teachers and friends and family, no one came to our home during the holidays and left without a tin of cookies! 

Get a plain wreath or small tabletop Christmas tree, and just place one thing on it maybe a ribbon, or a star, whatever you find meaningful.  Display it proudly, and take it down and save it at the end of Christmas.  Then next year, pull it out and put on that ribbon or star, and add one more thing, maybe some garland, or a holly branch.  Then put it away at the end of Christmas.  Do this each and every year your children are home with you, and by the time they grow up and start families of their own you will have a beautiful wreath or tabletop tree full of memories!  Your grown children might just come home and see it and say "hey Mom remember when we put that figure skate on the tree, right after Suzie learned her first jump"!

Make memories to last a lifetime, take lots of pictures, make a scrapbook just of Christmas each year!  Make it a tradition to look over past years, before beginning your Christmas time celebrations each year, let your children help decorate the pages.  It may not be what you had in mind, but you made memories, you taught important lessons, and you made a lasting impression on your children!  Those are the things that matter!  You could even make a scrapbook of the Christmas story, starting with Mary and Joseph as they go to be counted, and continuing through Jesus' birth, and the wise men as they come to bring gifts, etc.  The possibilities are ENDLESS! 

Whatever you choose to do, make it meaningful, do it with joy and love in your heart, and share the true reason for the season with your children!  As you decorate your home to celebrate all things Christmas, don't loose sight of what's important and don't forget that your children are watching you and learning from you how to be adults! 

Birbitt Thinks Christmas can be lots of fun, and a great time for learning!  Let's keep our eyes on the Lord this Christmas season, and make our days meaningful!

Let's Talk Water Bottles - Review

We all know that drinking pure water is good for us right?  I mean of course we do, since our bodies are about 70 percent water!  That means that the quality of the water we put in our bodies is important, but what we don't often realize is that the container you place your water in is just as important.

Plastics are potentially dangerous since the chemicals in the plastic can leech into your water and contaminate your pure water.  BPA free plastics are better, but still not perfect especially if the water is warm.  Aluminum isn't good since it is a toxic metal and the bottle must be then coated with a plastic "lining" which can erode over time and we won't even know it.  Stainless Steel is a really great choice, but we need to be careful of the quality of our stainless steel!

Enter Green Virgin Products! Yup, that's right the same great company that brought you soap nuts, all natural deodorant, and Peppermint and Moringa Soap is also bringing you high quality, stainless steel drinking bottles for water!  Not only are the bottles of the highest quality, but they are pretty too!  Also Green Virgin Products sells a neoprene sleeve for your water bottle to help keep the water cold longer, and to prevent the bottle from getting slippery from condensation!

Green Virgin sent me one of these awesome bottles in the 750ml size, along with a neoprene sleeve, for my review.

Now just look at that bottle, isn't it pretty?  I just love the slogan that Green Virgin Products uses "Because Our Children Deserve a Pristine Planet"!  See that clip on the right side?  You can use that to attach your bottle to your belt loop, or your backpack, or anywhere else that's convenient for you!  And it also has just under that clip a woven handle for easy carrying and holding.  This bottle is the perfect size for most people and uses, it is the most convenient size for carrying and holds about 25 ounces of water, which is great for a morning jog or a walk around the block, or just for an afternoon at the park!

Now I liked the bottle so well, that I just had to go and order even more!  Now I drink a TON of water, so I ordered myself the 1200ml bottle which holds about 40 ounces of water.  Here you can see the size difference, as well as what the bottle looks like without it's neoprene cover.

Now we have a complete family set, with sport bottle tops for the Birbitt Thinks kiddos, and regular tops for the adults.  These bottles will last us nearly forever, as they are sturdy and well made!  There is no aftertaste to our water and because they are stainless steel we are able to add our essential oils to our water for drinking!  Actually Mr. Birbitt Thinks has taken this bottle to work for his water every day, with the neoprene cover since he works with computers, and has decided it is much better than his  double walled cup and straw.

Now you can purchase your own here the smaller bottle is $8.95, the larger is $9.95 and the neoprene covers retail for $3.95.  These bottles have a lifetime guarantee against defects in manufacturing, and are a perfect choice for everyone in your home.  They even have a smaller baby sized bottle that is 350ml or about 11 ounces that would be perfect for small hands!

Birbitt thinks that Green Virgin Products has it right, and these stainless steel water bottles are great for everyday use!

Cook'n Recipe Organizer Review and Giveaway

In the Birbitt Thinks house we prefer to eat mostly fruits and vegetables and only have cuts of meat 3-4 times a week, and we eat mostly organic food finding really yummy recipes is hard work.  Most traditional recipes just don't work out for use very well, because either there's an ingredient that I don't like to use or they aren't hearty enough to create a filling meal with.

As a solution to this problem I scour the internet for delicious recipes that I can use in my own kitchen, well the end result of this has been that I have pages and pages of printed internet recipes that get lost and I have to go back and hunt for them again on the internet, or I have a pile of recipe bookmarks and Pinterest pins that I'll never be able to use when I need them because they just aren't organized! 

Well, of course I have found a solution and I want to share it with you all! Meet the Cook'n Recipe Organizer with this simple download you can not only save, but also organize your favorite internet (and written) recipes!  That's right, you can organize all of your recipes with Cook'n!  Just look at all the features you get in one simple download:

Enter Your Recipes Easily Using Quick-Fill
Type Ingredients You Have On-Hand to Get Recipe Ideas
Sync with iPhone & Android for Easy Access in Kitchen
Drag & Drop Your Recipes to Make Custom Menus
Auto-Generate Shopping List by Aisle to Save Time
Capture Recipes From Your Favorite Websites with One-Click
Calculate Nutrition of Your Recipes to Help You Eat Healthy
Print a Family Cookbook to Share with Friends
Scale Recipes to Easily Adjust Serving Sizes
E-Mail Recipes to Family & Friends
Free Updates! - Recent Updates

In addition to all of this Cook'n Recipe Organizer comes with a 200% money back guarantee!  If you aren't fully satisfied, which I know you will be, then you will get your money back AND Dan Oaks will buy you the recipe software of your choice.  How's that for confidence in his product huh?  

So let me tell you what Cook'n has done for me, I have been able to go through my bookmarks and get all those recipes into the software, organized in a way I'll always be able to find my recipes when I need them, AND generate a shopping list based on selecting the recipes I wish to prepare that week!  For this busy mom, the time I have saved using this software has been priceless.  

Now I did find a few recipes that didn't capture easily for me, but it wasn't a problem I just entered the recipe manually and it still works great.  Seriously this is probably the best software I've ever seen for storing recipes and making the available when needed.  When a friend asked me for my recipe for squash au gratin, I was able to easily pull it up in cook'n and click the email button to send it to my friend and the best part is that unlike other recipe software programs I've tried my friend didn't need to have the software to view the recipe!  

Now in addition to all of those great features, you also get access to additional cook books that you can purchase, and even get one book free with purchase of the software. Seriously, what could possibly be easier?  Now you can purchase your own copy as a download or on CD for only $79.95, and that includes EVERYTHING, all future updates, access to all features in the software, and a free cookbook of your choice!  

But the best part is that readers of Birbitt Thinks are getting a special deal!  If you order your copy of Cook'n after reading this review and use coupon code cookngift you can get 50% off your order!  That is HALF-PRICE, now what could be better? Now don't forget to head on over to their Facebook page for their weekly giveaways!  You can also visit them on Pinterest and Twitter. Did I mention that Cook'n software would make a great gift for the foodies on your list?  

Oh, and because the product is so wonderful, and because I know you are going to love it, and because Mr. Dan Oaks is such an awesome guy ONE lucky reader is going to get their own Cook'n software download for FREE!  That's right yet another awesome Birbitt Thinks giveaway, and you won't want to miss this one! 

So if you want your own copy enter the rafflecopter below, but if you just can't wait that long well use coupon code cookngift and get yours for half price!  If you are entering the giveaway please remember to do all 3 required entries, and for even better chances come back and do the daily entries as well! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Birbitt Thinks was provided a free copy of Cook'n Software in exchange for this review.  I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are solely my own.   

Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review

I was recently sent a quart of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to review.  We here in the Birbitt Thinks family love coconut oil and use it for so many things!  When I opened this jar the first thing I noticed was how strong the fragrance of coconut was, and I loved it!  I couldn't wait to make something with it, so the first thing I made was coconut granola.

Coconut and Cranberry Granola Recipe:

8 cups of rolled oats

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (homemade is great!)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  

Combine in a large bowl the oats, wheat germ, coconut, and pecans.  Divide this mixture onto two baking sheets and bake for 5-7 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Cool down enough that you can handle it, then return it to the bowl. 

While you are toasting the oats, combine the coconut milk, coconut oil, brown rice syrup, and honey in a saucepan.  

Cook over medium heat until it boils, boil for 2 minutes, and then remove from heat.

Add Vanilla, pour over the oat mixture and stir until fully coated.

Again divide between the two baking sheets and spread evenly.

Bake for 8 minutes in the oven, or until you can smell the yumminess.

Cool, then mix in the cranberries and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Everyone in the house LOVED the granola, even my husband who doesn't care for coconut loved it!  Of course this oil can do more than just granola!  The next thing I did was to use it for frying pancakes, those pancakes were so delicious, they were nice and moist inside, had a light crisp outside, and didn't need any butter or syrup!  

One of our favorite uses for coconut oil is on popcorn, because once we add the coconut oil there is no need for anything else on it.  So I popped up a batch of popcorn in our air popper, drizzled on some melted coconut oil and served it to the family, they ate it all up!  

Now let's not forget that coconut oil isn't just for your food!  Another thing I did with Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil was to make my favorite sugar scrub.  Now I don't measure my sugar scrub ingredients, so you'll have to bear with me a bit.  In a bowl I combine organic brown sugar, coconut oil, dried lavender, and a few drops of Lavender Essential Oil (I exclusively use Young Living essential oils).  I am looking for a scrub that holds together, but isn't overly soaked in oil and this one was perfect.  I store mine in a cleaned out jelly jar, but you can use any air tight container you have.  I usually keep mine about 2 weeks or so, but have kept it longer on occasion. 

As you can see Coconut Oil is truly one of the most versatile oils you will ever use, and this Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil is the absolute best I've ever tried, and I don't ever want to use another coconut oil again! 

 

Win 1 quart of Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil!

Tropical Traditions is America’s source for coconut oil. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is hand crafted in small batches by family producers, and it is the highest quality coconut oil they offer. You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

You can also watch the video they produced about Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil:

Tropical Traditions also carries other varieties of affordable high quality coconut oil. Visit their website to check on current sales, to learn about the many uses of coconut oil, and to read about all the advantages of buying coconut oil online. Since the FDA does not want us to discuss the health benefits of coconut oil on a page where it is being sold or given away, here is the best website to read about the health benefits of coconut oil.

Birbitt Thinks coconut oil is wonderful, and would love for you to win your very own jar.  Simply fill out the rafflecopter form below and you just might be the lucky winner!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: I received one quart of coconut oil from tropical traditions in exchange for my review, I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are strictly my own. 

Nerf FireVision Review

I was recently sent a Nerf FireVision football set by BzzAgent for my reveiw.  Having boys and living in the desert, I was eager to give this a try!  See when you live in the desert often you don't get to go outside and play in the summer time until after 6pm when the sun starts to go down and the temperature drops below 110.  Even now in October it's still in the high 90's during the day, but in the evening it is so much cooler.

So the idea with Nerf FireVision is that even when the sun is setting you can play football because the visors have small LED lights on them in two colors, red and green for spotting team members, and the ball has reflective material on it to make it appear to light up.  Here are a couple pictures from them learning to toss the ball to each other:

Overall I think Nerf has a great concept here with the FireVision, I mean the boys think it's super cool, it makes it easier to play ball outside in the summer evenings, and it's fun! My only complaint with this particular set is that the green LED lights are more difficult to see on the ball than the red LED lights.  Also as you see in the pictures above the reflective material will reflect any light including my camera flash!  In case the pictures aren't doing it for you, I had the hubby shoot a video of the boys playing with the Nerf FireVision at the park!





You can purchase the Nerf FireVision sets where you normally purchase Nerf products, and the sets come in football and basketball currently. In addition you can purchase the light up visors separately so you have enough for forming teams.  Our football set came with two visors and the ball, the basketball set comes with one visor, a ball, and a hoop.  The football set retails for $19.99, and additional visors for just $5.99.  You can purchase the basketball set for $14.99, and again just $5.99 for additional visors.  The FireVision is recommended for ages 6 and up. 

Birbitt Thinks this is a great toy for the kiddos, and would be a perfect addition to your holiday shopping list for the young ones in your life.

KidSafe Email & Amazon Cash Giveaway

YAY! IT’S A GIVEAWAY!

Birbitt Thinks has teamed up with DenSchool to giveaway one free year of service from KidsEmail.org AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card to TWO lucky winners! Good luck to all of the entrants.

Do you have older children just begging for some independence?  Are you concerned about their safety online?  Have your kids asked you about having their own email account yet? Are you still telling them no? KidsEmail.org is a email monitoring service to keep your children's email account safe. With a variety of setting options, you can have emails sent to you for approval first and block certain content - even if it comes from a "trusted" contact!  Try KidsEmail.org free for 30 days, and see if it's right for you.  No credit card required!  So what have you got to loose, except worry?  Don't forget to enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win a one year subscription PLUS a $25.00 gift card from Amazon.com!

Stop by DenSchool to read their full review.

Birbitt thinks that keeping our children safe is our number one priority, I love anything that gives them that big kid feeling, while still making sure they are safe! 

Disclaimer: Birbitt Thinks was not compensated for participating in this giveaway.  Birbitt Thinks is not responsible for prize shipment/delivery.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let's talk Toddlers!

I'd like to break for a moment, and talk about toddlers:

You know those wonderfully active, getting into everything, following you around the house all day insisting you read to me or play with me, always hungry, I'll do it by myself, don't leave me, sometimes napping, mostly potty trained, always talking, never still, cute little innocent faced toddlers.  Like this one:

Click here to view these pictures larger

Let me tell you about this toddler of mine...
He's cute, and funny, and smart, and silly, and cute, and sassy, and energy filled, and creative, and he's so much work, but you know what?  He's worth every single minute of it! This crazy toddler of mine, he makes me laugh, smile, and cry, he makes me chase him when I'm tired, he snuggles with me when he's tired, he makes me laugh hysterically when something is funny, and he melts my heart with four simple words "I'm Wuv You Mama"!  He asks for kisses and hugs, he always wants "UP", can do it all by himself thank-you-very-much, unless it involves eating and then "I'm need help", he loves things all in a row neat and orderly, and he doesn't like his vegetables!

My wonderful toddler wakes up in the morning, and tip toes out to the kitchen where he climbs into the cabinet for the peanut butter, digs in the drawer for a spoon, and then sits on the floor happily munching peanut butter from the jar!  He quietly opens the fridge, gets himself an apple, and quietly quells his early morning hunger and thirst.  He knows what will wake his dear mama, and he knows that if mama is awake he'll have to eat a proper breakfast, so he's quiet as a mouse until his tummy is full and then he loudly rushes into my bedroom and proclaims "NEED Baby First".

This toddler of mine, pushes every boundary I have set for him, pulls on every string of his Daddy and Mine hearts, wears down every thread of our patience, brings humor into everyday things, and tests every limit known to him, he challenges himself each day, and needs constant reminding of just how he's supposed to behave...and you know what???

I LOVE HIM!

 Not only do I love him, but I love every minute of my crazy days with him and I thank God that I have 3 wonderful, healthy, handsome, and down right zany children!  I am blessed beyond measure, and thankful that the Lord felt me worthy to raise these three boys!  I always thought I wanted a girl, but now I KNOW that I was meant to parent boys!  

Tell me, what do you love about your toddler?  If you don't have a toddler, tell me what you loved about your child when he/she WAS a toddler.  If you don't have children, tell me what you love about someone else's toddler!  I wanna hear it all, the good, the better, and the best...that's right there's no bad here, so lay it all out for us!  

Birbitt thinks...TODDLERS ARE WONDERFUL! :)

Meet Isha

I believe that I mentioned that just before our move we got a new puppy.  We had intended to wait until after we moved and got settled, but I had seen a picture of what was listed as a border collie mix puppy on our local Craigslist board, and they were only 6 weeks old at the time so I figured she'd be pretty laid back until after our big move.

Now the story of bringing home this puppy was a crazy one, full of excitement and mishaps.  My friend and I decided to go up together, because her husband was out of town and she thought the adventure would be fun.  So we drove the hour and 15 minutes to the town where the puppy "foster-er" had the litter.  When we arrived she had two bins of puppies, the bin with the puppies shown on Craigslist and the bin with another darker litter which she also claimed were border collie mixes.

The boys and I went straight to the bin of lighter puppies, and played with them all trying to decide which puppy would be ours.  I was instantly drawn to one particular puppy, but I wanted to be sure she was truly the right puppy for us.  She was our puppy and we chose her to come home with us.  My friend also chose a puppy, from the other bin, and he turned out to be a huge little guy once he started growing. 

So we all got in the car, 2 adults, 2 children, 2 toddlers, and 2 puppies and headed back home.  My friend decided that she needed puppy supplies and so we needed to stop at the pet store.  She moved the car over a lane and suddenly we heard this horrible noise.  She had blown a tire, and so she called for roadside assistance and they came but could not release the spare from underneath the car.  So a tow truck had to be called, which proved to be interesting since there were 6 people and 2 puppies in the car and the driver could only carry 2 people in his truck.  It was eventually decided that he would tow the car with us in it.

So we arrived at the tire store, and were told it would be a 45 minute wait for the tire to be repaired.  Luckily there was a Wendy's nearby where we got water for the puppies (one who cried the entire time since leaving the foster), and some food for the now very hungry children since it was 4:00 and we had left at 12:30.  After filling the bellies we went back for the car, which was ready, and then to the pet store for supplies. 

We arrived home at 7:30 that evening, so what should have been about 3 hours ended up taking all day.  I very seriously considered naming the puppy Calamity Jane, but decided against it since I didn't want her entire life to become a series of mishaps.  We instead called her Isha, which means woman, and we all know women are strong, independent, intelligent, and loyal (all the qualities we wanted in a dog). 

Here is a picture of Isha the day we brought her home. 















Isn't she just so cute and tiny?  We loved her and all her fluffy puppiness!

After a few weeks we determined that she was a Border Collie, Jack Russell Terrier mix which wasn't exactly what I wanted and really was something I never wanted but we loved her and so I decided to stick with her.  So far it seems that while she is a very hyper dog she is still a very good dog and we are happy with her.  We have since discovered that she also has some beagle in her. 


Here is a picture of her now, at 6.5 months old. 













She's still so cute, but not so tiny anymore!  She's also no longer  fluffy, and she's MUCH stronger now.  Her puppy biting stage has gone, and she's mostly obedient.  We still love her very much, and she makes us laugh at how she hops and bounds everywhere instead of walking and running.  Toys are much harder to find for her now since she likes to chew them apart and pull out the stuffing and squeakers.

Birbitt thinks puppies are such wonderful little things and bring laughter and joy to a home in a way no other animal can! :)

A New Chapter or Perhaps a Continuation of an Old One?

I have news, I have enrolled in online college classes and will be spending the next 4-6 years working towards the completion of a Bachelor's Degree, and possibly a Master's as well.  There is a wide range of time to complete these classes because it may be possible for me to double up on some classes, or I may have to spend my time working through one 5 week course at a time.  I am hoping that I will double up on  enough classes to complete both degree programs in no more than 5 years, however I am prepared to spend the full 6 doing my classes if I must.

I have several ideas of how I want to put this education to work for me, and the best part is that based on my degree program, and my plan I will be helping to provide for my family financially without having to sacrifice the things that are important to me.  I suspect that some of the discussion questions that are assigned each week will likely spark some interesting blog posts, and I am quite excited to get started.

I will be spending the first couple of weeks in an orientation course, and then I will take two introductory courses, and then I get to work on my general education requirements.  Some of my courses I am quite looking forward to, as they sound quite fascinating, and I hope that they are just as interesting as I think they will be.

I am quite confident that I will do quite well in my classes.  I plan to work on my classes mostly in the evening after my husband gets home from work, and potentially when he is sleeping and I am sitting up trying to sleep.  I will sneak my course readings in while my older boys are working on their homeschooling, which can provide me with a great tool for keeping them focuses.  I have set up an area in my bedroom where I can have quiet and space to spread out my work and complete assignments, and I have the full support of my husband, who says he will take the children to the park during his days off if I need some quiet time to get a difficult assignment completed.

I am a bit nervous about writing papers though, as the school requires all my work to be in APA format, and I have never before used that format.  Thanks to the great expanse of the internet I was able to find lots of information about it, and I am confident that I am teachable and can learn this at least well enough to submit high quality assignments.  My school also provides many resources for me, so I believe I have all the information I need, it's just a matter of applying it correctly.  I did discover in a quick English Assessment that I really need to brush up on my punctuation skills as I do not put commas in the proper places, and forget semi colons (honestly I don't have the foggiest idea what a semi colon is for other than making smiley faces).

I put this here, because I do best on accomplishing something when I write it out, and tell others...so I am telling all of blogger land!  Thank You for listening to me ramble about it.

Milk Maid

We have been buying soy milk as of late, because my husband does not do well with dairy and all of our boys seem to have a bit of eczema, which is most often caused by dairy.  Well, let me tell you that soy milk is expensive around here it's a bargain if we find soy milk for less than 3.00 a half gallon.  After much research online, I discovered that soy milk can be made at home and that is was fairly simple.  So I've made it a few times at this point and I thought I'd blog about the process and show some pictures so you can see how easy it is as well!

Step 1 is to purchase all your ingredients.  I am using: dried, organic soy beans, brown rice syrup, homemade vanilla extract, and water (I buy filtered water at a water store).

You will also need clean GLASS containers!  I can not stress enough that you need to use glass, plastic is too difficult to clean and sanitize, so please, please, please use glass!  I am actually using some beautiful glass bottles that once contained an organic lemonade.  The jars are simply beautiful and because they are glass with a metal lid they are super easy to clean and I even boiled them to sanitize!

Step 2 is to soak your soy beans.  The basic recipe calls for 1/2 cup of dry soy beans soaked in water for 12-24 hours.  I personally found that soaking them longer yielded more milk!  Here are some before and after photos of the soaked soybeans.  Also I find that changing the water at least twice during the soaking offers better flavor to the milk.
  

Step 3: Take your soaked beans and add them to your blender or food processor with 2 cups of water (my food processor is small, and so I had to do this in two batches).  Turn your processor on and blend it for 2 minutes, scraping your bowl down once halfway through.
 

This mixture will be frothy, foamy, and a bit chunky. Though your chunks need to be VERY small!


Up until now I have been showing measurements for just one recipe, however I actually made 4 times the basic recipe to avoid making milk daily.  So from now on I will give you the single recipe measurements, but what you see in pictures will be much larger than your actual results.


Step 4: Place your soy and water puree, along with an additional cup of water into a pot a bit larger than you think you need, as it will foam up!  For a regular recipe you could probably get away with a 2 quart saucepan, I am using a large stock pot because again I am making 4 TIMES the basic recipe!  So your soy is in a large pot and you now need to bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.

As you can see there will be quite a bit of foam on top of your milk.  It is a good idea at this point to have a cup of cold water on hand in case the foam gets out of control, if you don't need it you can add it to the pot after it comes to a full boil. Be sure to add this water into your pot once it comes to a boil if you didn't need it to control foam. 

 

Step 5: Once your mixture comes to a full boil, back the heat down to medium - medium low and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes.  Set your timer because this is crucial, 20 minutes.  Stirring occasionally to prevent the Okara from sticking.  During this time a thin layer of film may form, do not stir that into your milk, just skim it off!  

Step 6: Pour your simmered milk into a cheese cloth (or towel) lined strainer/colander over a container large enough to hold your finished milk.  Allow this to drain and cool for 20 minutes (or more if it's still too hot).

Step 7: Pull up your corners and squeeze out the rest of your milk.  I switched to another pot at this point just so you could see how much milk I got out of the squeezing process.

See how much extra milk was still in that puree?

Step 8: Sweeten and flavor your milk if desired, I am using 1 Tablespoon of brown rice syrup, and 1 teaspoon of home made vanilla extract.  Then pour your milk into your GLASS containers.

And now you can refrigerate your freshly made, preservative free soy milk and enjoy as you please.  It will stay fresh in your refrigerator for 3 days, I wouldn't try and keep it much beyond that because remember it is a fresh product and there are no preservatives!

My finished milk.  Isn't it pretty?  My family loves this fresh milk, and to us all it tastes so much better than the store bought containers of milk.  Oh, and the even better part?  When I figured it all out, to make 3 liters of milk it only costs me $1.74!  That is a savings of nearly half the cost of store bought containers that also contain refined sugar, preservatives and sometimes even artificial flavors!


OK!  So for those of you who prefer a simple recipe I'm going to post that below so that you don't have to filter through my step by step photo tutorial.

Homemade soy milk:

1/2 cup dry organic soybeans
4 cups of water
1 Tablespoon brown rice syrup, honey, or any sweetener of your choice (you can also omit this if you like)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (again optional)

Soak your soybeans for 12 -24 hours, the longer you soak them the more milk you will get!  Remember to change the water twice during the soaking process!

After soaking your beans drain them and put them in your blender or food processor along with 2 cups of water and whip it around for 2 minutes.  Scrape your container down halfway through the pureeing.

Put this mixture in a large pot with another cup of water.  Turn it on medium high heat and bring it to a boil.  If it threatens to boil over add a cup of cold water to stop this, if it doesn't try to boil over add the cup of water after it comes to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium - medium low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Set a colander/strainer over a medium pot or stainless steel bowl and line the colander with cheese cloth, or a clean cotton dish towel.  Pour the simmered mixture over this and allow it to drain and cool for at least 20 minutes or until it is cool enough to handle. 

Bring up the corners of the towel and squeeze any excess milk from the Okara (that's the ground soybean that is left after milk making, and it is edible and full of protein!) and then sweeten and flavor your milk if desired.  Pour your milk into clean glass containers and refrigerate for up to 3 days!

Birbitt thinks that making soy milk is fun, and nutritious!  What more could a mama want for her children?

Family Pets

Most families that I know have at least one pet of some kind. This is true in our family as well. We have two cats, a black long hair we call Ebony, and a White and Orange short hair tabby mix we call Keeper.

However, my favorite of our pets are technically the boys' pets, but I think I play with them more than they do! We have rats! Yup, furry bodied, naked tailed rats. Up until yesterday we had two of them, girls that the boys called Ana and Kylie (I have no idea where the names come from, I just ask and they name). Yesterday though we did something that I think is FANTASTIC! We found a ferret cage for a great price, and I had been looking to get a larger cage for the girls simply because I think animals should have as much space as possible to call home. So, at the pet store I was purchasing a glass water bottle for them (they have chewed through 3 plastic ones in the past month), some fresh bedding, some pelleted food because all that was left in their mix was seeds, and a few chew toys (Rat teeth never stop growing and so they much chew them down or they will cause problems).

Well, those of you who know me KNOW that I almost never walk out of a store with only the items I intended to purchase, so while there we bought another little rat. The boys call her Hannah, and she is still a little nervous around people, but I'm sure my tempting treats offered each morning will earn her trust in no time at all. So here we were with a HUGE cage and only 3 little ratties in them. I was browsing online and found a family who was moving and looking for a new home for their two little ratties, I read on and found that they were females, so I contacted the family and "Yes, we do still have them, and we really need to find them a new home". I got the address (less than a mile from our home) and off we went. We arrived and the girls were just too cute not to take home, so into our shoebox they went and we headed home.

We now have 5 little girls in our cage, and two more will be arriving soon, as we are rescuing them from being snake food. Now don't get me wrong snakes have to eat too, but these two are just too cute to be snake food, and since the snake doesn't really care what the food looks like I think these two would be better served as pets. :)

I thought I would post a few pictures of our girls and their new palace, oh and in case anyone is wondering our Cats are terrible hunters and are actually afraid of the rats. ;) When the rats are on the floor playing the cats are high up on the furniture or they are hiding in my room. If a rat happens to get near enough a cat to sniff the cat screams and runs, literally screams and runs.


Here is the cage itself, 4 feet high! The three ratties you can see in the picture are Ana, Kylie, and Princess.










This is Hannah (the little black face in the corner), she's still very shy and likes to stay in the corner whenever possible. There is also a bit of Kylie in this picture.




This one is Kylie in the front and little Gayle in the back corner.






They all love this giant cage, and they all get along great. When I went in this morning with nutrigrain bar they were all at the front of the cage whiskers a twitchin' waiting for the treats they knew were coming, well, all except for Hannah who perked up a bit in her corner, but refused to come out. I gave her a piece in the corner which she happily took and ate. Princess kept trying to convince me she didn't get any and needed more, when actually what she was doing was taking the piece and running it to the back of the cage in the opposite corner from Hannah and burrying it, they are rodents after all and as such they will hoard food.

Sickness, Insomnia, and a touch of...

The past week in our home has been a week of sickness. It began when B got a cough, just a cough, so I figure no big deal, we'll handle it, in our own "strange" way. Well he got better almost overnight, so I thought we were in the clear. I was wrong, by Friday S was down for the count, he was miserable the poor guy spent all of Friday laying around the house (wherever the people were) and dozing in and out. Saturday Twiggles began to show signs of illness, so again treat in our own little way. Sunday he was MISERABLE! and the whole house knew it, he made sure of it. He spent all of Sunday sleeping on and off, eating almost nothing (the sum total of his food intake for the day is less than what he normally eats in one snack) and drinking only slightly more than he ate. Monday he began to drink much more, and eat a little more, and he was more active.

This whole time I'm filling the members of this household with orange juice as fast as I can, and spraying EVERYTHING with Tea Tree Oil and water (Tea Tree Oil is a natural antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, pretty much anti anything you don't want in your house) as much as possible to prevent the spread of sickness. Now come Tuesday everyone is back to normal, I thought, then Wednesday I come down sick, my head is in one place, my body in another, and I am just not right. I slept on and off Wednesday, while my dearest hubby cared for the children and tended to the house (oh how I love that man!). Here it is now Thursday morning at 4am and what am I doing?

I am on the computer of course because I now can not sleep thanks to the several naps I took Wednesday. I am on the computer blogging and searching. What am I searching for you ask? I am searching for books, yup books. Big suprise right? A homeschooler who is searching for books, that just never happens right? (note the sarcasm) Well I am not searching for just any books, I am searching for the books of my childhood, books that I enjoyed so much I want to share with my children, and you know what they are *gasp* educational! I was and still am an avid reader as a child, devouring any book placed in front of me. I always had a love of all things mystery when it came to fiction books, but then I also loved non-fiction as well, mostly science and space. So I am sitting up late into the night or early into the morning, depending on your perspective, searching for books from my childhood book shelf. If only I had the forsight to have kept those books, but as I got older I donated the outgrown, or unwanted books to local charities so that other children would have books to read and now I must search to find the best loved books once again to share with my children.

Care to share some of your favorite books?

What makes a mother smile?

I don't know about you but for me the things that made me smile before I became a mother are much less important to me now that I have three handsome little boys. I also find that things that never before would matter to me now make me smile.

Things that used to make me smile? A pretty new dress, a houseplant that has outgrown it's pot and needs to be moved, a blanket freshly dried on the clothesline (actually that one still makes me smile), a nice clean house, a meal freshly prepared and pretty on the plate, time spent working on a craft of choice, and of course many other things.

Things that make me smile now? A new baby (any new baby), smiles on the faces of my children, dinner being made on time and children who will eat it, the realization that my children do hear what I say, a little time to myself, and compliments from others on my children.

That last one is what I want to write about today. I am not a vain or prideful person, but when I take my children out to eat at a restaurant and am complimented on their behavior it makes me smile. It makes me smile because I know that as a mother I am doing my job of teaching my children the proper way to behave, it makes me smile because I know that as a child of God my children and I are having a good testimony for the Lord, it makes me smile because I know that I do not have one of THOSE children (you all know what I mean), and it makes me smile because I know that my children have heard me all these years of telling them what is ok and what isn't.

We were all tired Thursday after a hard week of apartment prep and such, and we decided to have a meal out at a local family owned restaurant (my favorite kind). Being that it is still technically winter (though I would hardly call 70 degrees winter) it means that our snowbirds are still here (snowbirds are those who live up north during the summer, and here during the winter, they flee from the snow) which means that almost every restaurant would be filled with snowbirds (of whom nearly all are older folks) and that when Hubby and I entered with our 3 boys eyes would roll at the thought of "noisy children" while they are trying to eat.

We all sat at the table, quietly looked at the menus and decided on our meals. We talked quietly while we waited for our food, and when it came we prayed and then we ate quietly. As the boys were waiting for their sherbet for dessert a couple nearby got up to leave and as they did the woman came over to tell me " You have a beautiful family, and your boys are so well behaved. It was a pleasure to eat dinner with your family nearby!" That brought tears to my eyes, and I thanked her and told her how much that meant to me. The boys finished their sherbet, and as they did another group sitting just next to us got up to leave and two of the ladies leaned over to tell me " We agree with everything the other lady said, your boys are absolute treasures, and you've taught them well." I again thanked them and again had tears in my eyes. Nothing in this world means more to me than my family, and being told that I've done a good job raising my children, that is just a joy for me! I love knowing that my family is welcome in public, and that I can enjoy a meal in public without spending the whole time fussing at my boys. At the same time though it makes me a little sad, because people wouldn't comment on how good my boys are if well behaved children in public was the "norm", if one saw a child every day behave in public it would never be noticed, but that is not what most people see in restaurants and stores, and so when a family sits at the table and behaves it is noticed and it makes me just a little sad for others, but it also makes me smile for myself and my family.

Maybe next time I will have the pleasure of sitting in a restaurant near one of you my bloggy friends and as we chat and laugh our children can quietly talk over sherbet.

First day back.

Today was our first day back to school after a month long Christmas break. I had been doing a lot of thinking over the break of what I was going to do with them to get them motivated to finish the year strong. I had decided to put our Science and History curricula up and away to be used next year or the year after, and to simply use Netflix and our local library to learn subjects that interest them. I decided that we would spend the remaining few months studying hard on our weak areas, so that by the end of our school year (March for us) our weak areas will at least be close to or at our goals.

For us focusing on weak areas means that we will finish out our Math book (not a weak area but we are too close to finished to give up now) in about 2 weeks and then drop math down to a couple of times a week just to keep ideas fresh. We will continue with a daily spelling test from our Sequential Spelling, we will get at least 5 lessons of grammar done each week including at least one writing assignment, and we will spend at least 30 minutes a day practicing our reading skills.

Math is not a weakness for my children, and I had planned to just keep going with math, but after much thought and prayer I feel that it is in their best interest to drop math down to a couple times a week. We will finish our math books because there are only 12 lessons left, and then I have a few books of random math activities we will pick from a couple days a week so they don't forget the skills they have learned this year.

Spelling is still a very weak area for them both, though I'm not going to up their spelling lessons we will just continue on as we have been until we reach the end of the book and then I will re-evaluate our spelling program and see if it really is what they need at this time. If there is no improvement in their spelling we will just have to figure out another plan for them.

Grammar has been a weak area from the very beginning, I think this is in part because we have jumped around so much in curricula trying to find one that both teaches what they need to know, and teaches it in a way they can learn it. I think we have finally found a winner because they enjoy Grammar now and they are learning, so hopefully those gaps and struggles will ease off because they are finally on a steady track with one curricula.

Reading is only a weak area for my oldest child, and I know without a doubt that with time, patience, and practice he will get better. I came across an old public school reading textbook, the kind with just a collection of short stories, poems, and excerpts from books and for now we are using that to boost his confidence in reading, and then we will probably move into Rod and Staff Reading for a couple of years. Once I have them both working well in both reading skill and comprehension I will drop reading curriculum and just give them good literature, to hopefully instill a love of reading and a love for the learning that comes from reading. My goal right now is to keep it light, keep it positive, and keep it (fairly) simple because I don't want them to hate reading. A child who reads for pleasure is a child that never stops learning, even if the child only ever reads fiction there is always something to be learned from a book!

These are my plans, for now...and today it all went well! They took a Latin test, to see how much they maintained over the break, and since I am satisfied with the results we will begin level 2 on Wednesday. We completed all planned subjects today, Math, Latin, Spelling, Grammar, and Reading in only 2 hours! I was impressed with their retention over the long break, and while I did find a few areas we need to go over again, I am overall satisfied with their progress and we are ready to tackle our weaker subjects for a few months and finish out STRONG!