Switched on School house Giveaway

Sadly, I'm not the one holding it but thought I would share on my blog that there is a giveaway for the Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega curriculum for an entire grade's worth of SOS.
I sure hope I do win. Marilyn really likes it and it would be a blessing if we actually won this for her for the upcoming school year. I had ordered their new 2012 State History SOS for her and she loves it. She tells me its to fun to be schoolwork.   I would be beside myself if we won it.

Homeschool Giveaways is holding the giveaway. So good luck everyone.
http://homeschoolgiveaways.com/2012/04/giveaway-switched-on-schoolhouse%C2%AE-complete-5-subject-set-350-value/comment-page-37/#comment-49149

Horizons PreAlgebra Review

Wow , its been a while. I seem to have been neglecting my blog here. In defense though I will say we have been so super busy between schooling and getting ready for our trip to Cincinnati that I just haven't had much of a moment to type anything on it. But I'm going to make a short , quick review of the Horizons PreAlgebra that we are currently using.

After trying very hard to get CLE math to work for Marilyn, I found there just wasn't a way around it. Marilyn dreaded doing math everyday. I would hear the gamut of excuses.. its to long, there are to many problems, I get it ,but when I do the work I don't get it. So after using two Light Units from the 700 series ( which she tested into by the way) , I knew I had to search for something else. My gut was telling me to use the same requirements I had with her when I first started homeschooling. Those requirements were pictures, color, and focusing on one thing at a time. So in the beginning we used BJU math and she did very well with it. It was cute and fun until she reached 6th grade. All of a sudden BJU math wasn't like it was in the beginning. Then after that began a quest to find a good program for her. What I did know and learned last year when she attended private school was, that Saxon did not work for her. She could not wrap her brain around the incremental approach at all. She can only focus on one topic at a time. Thus went my round and round with her teacher that you can't make the curriculum fit the student if it just doesn't fit. Anyways so I came across Horizons math. I have heard about it, read about it, but never really used it. I figured it was the same type of math like Saxon or Christian Light , but just in color form. Well, its not. Horizon is colorful, and even at this level, though there aren't those cute pictures like there are in the lower levels, its still colorful. They start with teaching one topic at a time, then review past concepts. So its almost like mastery with spiral all in the same breath. This has been what I've been looking for in a math program for a very long time. Either math was mastery or spiral, but never both. What does the program come with? You get the student book, teacher manual, and resource book which contains tests, exams , and worksheets as well as formula strips.

 What do I like about the program?

 That it is spiral, and focuses on one concept all at the same time
 Its colorful.
  It definitely takes PreAlgebra to a whole other level. Not only does it teach PreAlgebra but also Geometry, and the beginning of Trig. I do not know of another math program that introduces Trig into their PreAlgebra program. I maybe wrong but this was the first I've encountered it. That it keeps Marilyn's attention and she really likes it. She says it explains a lot more than the CLE Light Units did. I'm not sure about that, but that's the way she's felt about it That the lessons are two pages long. They are not overkill. Just enough to introduce the new concept to work with your student on the front, and then one page for them to do on the back on their own.
That all the solutions are in the teacher's manual. They break them down step by step so you can see where you may have gone wrong if the answer is wrong.
That the student manual contains after every ten lessons an optional college prep test. Students see where what they learn will be on the test and gives them plenty of practice before the real thing someday.

 My cons:
 The teacher manual, of course.  I will admit if this was a few years ago I would have complained about it quite a bit. Saying  that it doesn't give you that hand holding you need, especially if your a parent that has a tough time with math like I do. But fast forward to today and you have websites such as Youtube, Khan Academy, and Hippo Campus that really you don't need hand holding from a teacher manual anymore. The only downside is if you are a family that doesn't have a computer and needs that hand holding.


 My next con is : Horizons currently goes to Algebra 1. Their Algebra 1 book will be out this fall. I'm thinking though that we won't be into Algebra 1 until sometime next year. So I'm praying they come out with more levels in the meantime.

My last con:  The fact I never tried Horizons sooner

 What makes Horizons special for Marilyn???
 1. They focus on one topic at a time. They still review previous topics so they continue to practice them.
 2. There are two pages per lesson. Marilyn hated the fact that the CLE lessons were so long. Granted they probably have the same amount of problems in both programs per lesson. Horizons seemed to magically condense the lessons to two pages.
 3. There is color in the back ground. This seems to make all the difference in the world to Marilyn. One day I asked her what the difference was. Math was math. Her response was, " Mom, the color helps me concentrate." So magically with color its made all the difference in the world to her,and
4. She can write in the book. Its something she'd much prefer to do when she can, especially with math.




I will say  that  my only pet peeve with the Horizons math is that it  only goes to Algebra 1. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that they will come out with more levels by the time we need them, or BJU math will have to be our next math curriculum again whether Marilyn likes it or not. I know with families its always different strokes for different folks. I avoided Alpha Omega for a long time. We started out with their Lifepac curriculum for Marilyn's other subjects when she was about kindergarden. She hated them with a passion. Now she looks back on it and asks me why she hated them because she loves them now. She even likes their Switched on Schoolhouse program too. I think the lesson learned is that you will never know what will work for another family, and what may be awful to you may be that families saving grace. In conclusion we've ended up with a Happy Marilyn. That's all that matters.

A love for Sonlight

Yes, everyone its that time of the year again! The new homeschooling catalogs have been making their debut in my mail box this month and its time to get awed and confused all at the same time over which to chose and who to buy from.

When I first started homeschooling 8 yrs ago ,I will admit, there was not this many options for homeschoolers. We had gotten our first computer, and the internet was not as wide and vast as it is today. I knew of Calvert, Bob Jones, Moving with Math , and Alpha Omega. I'm sure there were more, but again, in my limited knowledge of the internet , and plus you have to pay to use AOL , there just wasn't much out there.

By the time Marilyn was 6yrs old all of a sudden a boom of homeschooling curriculum became available( not quite like the boom there is today though). I learned about more when I no longer had to pay for dial up internet. By this time I had been using Teach Your Child to Read in a 100 Easy Lessons ( 100 EZ Lessons for short) and Marilyn HATED reading. We bounced back and forth with starting and shelving the book, trying it again, hitting a wall and then again shelving it. So I began to believe that we just didn't have the right program. Then I learned about Sing, Spell , Read and Write. I bought it used and it was terribly, horribly, boring and Marilyn hated it. It was nothing like it looks today. To this day I wonder if we had all of the program but I'll never know. Then I learned about Rod and Staff, she hated it with a passion. It wasn't colorful, no bells and whistles so to speak. So it wasn't until I refound Ace School of Tomorrow did Marilyn's reading start to take off. I'm not sure it had to do with the program itself or if she finally matured a little more and it started to click. Whatever the reason was it worked. During that curriculum hoping I found my oldest child refused to pick up a book and read it. If you've ever been to our home we have lots and lots of books. Not to mention we go to the library on a consistent basis. So it was a very horrible experience to see my now 6.5 yr old refuse to even pick up a book let alone look at one.

So if your wondering what this has to do with Sonlight, well I'm getting to the good part. I learned about this curriculum, I don't remember how, but I found it and it looked great. So many books, history, science, read alouds. This curriculum was to good to be true. I felt like I was in book heaven. We could never understand why Marilyn didn't like reading in those early days. I read to her since she was a baby, she always saw us reading the newspaper, books etc. She even loved her Dr. Seuss books so much that she committed them to memory. So in desperation I pulled together the curriculum , because it was way to expensive for us to buy from the company. I pieced mealed Sonlight and began on our journey. To be honest to this day I thank Sonlight for Marilyn's now love of reading. I catch her reading books all of the time now, and even at the ripe 'old' age of 14 she still loves to be read to. It was a rought start at first. Marilyn wasn't interested in any of it, but I stayed the course and I'm happy I did. In the end of my persistence we prevailed and Marilyn began to pick up books and beg for me to read more.
Thankfully I never had this problem with my middle two girls. I think it was because they listened in on the stories that we read everyday from Sonlight.

Of course Maggie wasn't born then though and I'm finding myself drawn back to Sonlight once again to give her that same love that her sisters now have. Granted Maggie is VERY advanced and she reads VERY well, but she really doesn't seem to have that love of books. I think to her at this time its all about learning to read and it seems cumbersome to her. I'm not sure, but there's something about Sonlight that makes them LOVE books if that makes any sense.
I remember those early days with Sonlight. That was the time I fell in love with homeschooling, and I feel that I need that back.

Granted I did have my quirks about it, the IG was tough for me to follow because my girls LOVED the stories and just wanted MORE. So I found I had to readjust what I was doing with them with the lessons. I never did get the hold of their LA. It just never made sense to me and there was no real flow for us. I still wonder at times if it would work for us now that I'm a 'seasoned' homeschooler. It just was a different way of learning. and honestly my girls learned from Sonlight.

The pros were obvious. We had plenty of sitting down and cuddle time. We learned so much , even from the K level (they didn't have a Prek level back then). My daughters developed a love of reading they still have to this very day. What more can you ask for?

So now for about the third time this week since my catalog game a few weeks ago. I'll be cuddling up in my sofa chair. Drooling over the magazine, and wishing we could afford to just buy all those wonderful books, and not ever have to step into the library to get them. I'll dream of those early days when we just sat on the couch and just cuddled and read. Amiss all the stuff going on here right now with preparing for Maggie's surgeries and fundraising. I still know that life goes on and we need to get ready for another school year.

IPad 2 Giveaway

The one thing that Maggie and I had been working on last week was learning about wants and needs. We need food, clothing, and shelter to live and survive, but we want things like a baby doll, candy, a video game.These are things that we do not need to survive.

So when I came across this giveaway I found that this is a need and not a want this time around. You maybe thinking to yourself, well how is that a need? It doesn't help you survive does it? Well, not in the sense that if we don't have an IPad 2 we would die or anything like that. But in a sense we really need something like this at our home. It would be great for homeschooling that's for sure. I could leave my poor 14 yr old daughter's Ipod that she got for Christmas from grandma and grandpa, alone and quit putting lame educational games on it. But it would also help if we had it for Maggie too. I would love to have something like this when we travel to Cincinnati to keep her mind off of things with our upcoming two month stay. I would also love it for home because it would keep her busy when we do her medical procedures everyday and it would lessen the tension between her and her big sister , because big sis really feels that little sis might mess her up her Ipod.
It honestly would be a godsend if we won this Ipad 2 for our home on so many levels.

But in good will I want to share this website that has this giveaway too to everyone else in internet land. It wouldn't be very nice of me if I kept it all to myself. He, he. http://livingmontessorinow.com/2012/03/20/ipad-giveaway-sponsored-by-montessori-compass/

Time 4 Learning and Monkisee Reviews

Its been a while since I last posted here. We've been super busy with homeschooling, fundraising, and Girl Scouts and Religious Ed Classes. Whew, what a mouth full!
Can't say we sit around at home all day long. We are a busy homeschooling family that's for sure.

Our fundraising efforts are going. If anyone out there thinks fundraising is fun and easy , well they are wrong. We are about 30% of our goal and we still have other things to do on the side like our Chick Fil A Fundraiser. We also made cake pops that sold like crazy. Maggie's story has been put on local radio stations and will hopefully be getting the word around in our local paper. We've made flyers and posted them. So its definitely a lot of work but so very much worth it. I have learned new things while doing this. Like for instance recruiting help. It is almost next to impossible to raise money and do it all by yourself. Ever more so when you homeschool, are a Girl Scout Leader, and teach religious Ed on Sundays. It this has definitely taught me to reach out to others more.

Our fundraiser is still going online and we hope that the numbers continue to rise before we leave for Cincinnati in May.

In the meantime I need to get back to writing on my blog here. I have two reviews that will be coming up very soon.
The first one will be our new Monkisee review. Maggie has now watched it several times and its time to write about it.

The next review I will be working on will be the Time 4 Learning review. I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Valentine's Day Challenge

Wow! Can I say how happy to see that are now at 6% of our goal? It can be fun and frustrating to slowly see that ticker move up closer and closer to what we need to make our trip for Maggie's surgery. This is definitely a big undertaking to do that's for certain. Its not easy to do fundraisers at all, and its even harder to ask people for money. But in the end you have to do what you have to do to get the best medical care for your child that's for sure.

So we've decided to set up a Valentine's Day challenge for everyone out there in blog land.

Maggie loves Valentine's Day. She loves to cut out hearts:


She loves chocolate:


So what more could one ask for?

So our Valentine's Day Challenge is this: For every $14 you donate to our Go Fund Me.com fundraiser we will put your name in our Starbucks raffle.
If you love coffe, you'll love this fundraiser.
The prize will be a $25 Starbucks giftcard, a Starbucks cup and a bag of Starbucks coffee for you to enjoy.


So what are you waiting for? Visit and give today. So $14 will put your name in the raffle, $28 will give you two chances, $42 three chances and so on. Also no worries info for snail mail donations is on the page as well.

What more could YOU ask for? You'll be helping out a great causing and possibly winning a great prize for yourself!

Our family fundraiser

Wow, time surely is flying by for sure. It was last May that we were at Cincinnati Children's talking about surgery for Maggie.
Maggie is our youngest child. She is 5 years old and born with a condition called VACTERL Association.
VACTERL Association is not a disease, or a syndrome but a condition where the child is born with random birth defects. All children with VACTERL are born with different anomolies. They are all like snowflakes. Each one is so beautiful and so unique with what they have. We usually identify what our children were born with by the letters in the acroynm VACTERL. A child is diagnosed with VACTERL when everything else has been eliminated and they have three out of the 7 letters. Sometimes its also known as VATER Syndrome as well. Its much better to use the term VACTERL instead of my child was born with Vertebral, Anal, Cardiac, Tracheal, Esophageal, Renal(kidney), Limb.,
Instead I can say Maggie was born with VACTERL and was born with the letters V, A, C, R, and L. We, by the grace of God bypassed the Tracheal Esophageal part. Though Maggie does have a mild form of dysphagia ( so she chokes on things easily).

Our recent surgery coming up is going to be a BIG surgery. It will be several surgeries at once. By doing them at once it will cut down on the amount of anesthesia she'll be exposed to. Does it make me nervous they are going to do so much at one time? You betcha! My fear is if something goes awry we are going to be to busy trying to figure out what the heck is causing the problem. But in the same breath I have to put a little trust in Cincinnati because they do these types of surgeries quite a bit. Much more than most hospitals.

Anyways, this surgery will be the Malone (better way to do enemas ), Mitrofanoff(better way to catherize) , bladderneck with sling ( since she was born with stress incontience ), and her right kidney has to be removed due to the fact it lost its function by the time we actually made it to Cincinnati. It has started to grow cysts on it ,since it no longer function, and is now considered a source for infection and it recently has started to cause pain from time to time. So it needs to come out. The Malone surgery itself will be a bit more involved since she has her 'double colon'. She also has what is called a partial duplication of her colon. Meaning she has two colons. One intersects into the other. Making it like a two lane highway. So they will have to also divert the second colon into the one so that when we do her enemas that she will flush from one colon and not two ( like we are doing now).

So you see, it is very involved and will require more than one doctor to do it all.

In the meantime , since we are awaiting for our surgery date. We are doing some fundraising in the meantime. Traveling for medical care is not cheap at all. We are very fortunate that our insurance will cover the surgery. What insurance does not cover, is the hotel we'll have to stay at until we get accepted into the Ronald McDonald House(even then we'll still have to pay but just not so much money like we will when we stay at the hotel), it won't pay for food, while we wait for our stay at the Ronald McDonald House, and trust me, the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House is the most POPULAR place in Cincinnati for medical families. They even built more housing but still , its not enough, and we'll be on a waiting list. Knowing that we'll be there in the late spring/early summer means an even MUCH longer wait. I know of families that have been to Cincinnati right now during the winter and it has taken at least 10 days for them to get in. I also know that we will have to go down at least three days or more before the surgery because Maggie has testing to do before her surgery and I requested that we do this all in one trip if possible. So that extends our stay in Cincinnati by three or four more days.

Our insurance does not pay for gas for our vehicle to go down, and to use while down there.

And it doesn't cover any supplies or medications we may need to get while down there. Our insurance is not covered in another state. We learned this when we went to bowel management a few years ago. If there is a specific medication they will want Maggie on in the meantime, or if we have to refill a med that we already have. Ohio pharmacies will NOT accept our PA insurance, none of the pharmacies accept it. We were put in that position while we were down there and we had to start catherizing Maggie and needed a med so that she wouldn't get a UTI. We were not able to get it, went to every pharmacy,even the hospital pharmacy and their pharmacies did not accept our insurance. I really do not want to be put in that position again should we need a very important medication or have to refill the medication that Maggie already takes on a daily basis.

Raise Money Online

So to sum it up this fundraiser is to cover:

1. Hotel lodging
2. Gas for our vehicle to get there (trust us when we say that its NOT cheap to fill up a minivan for a long trip)
3. Food, unfortunately God made us that we need to eat to survive. So its not an option to skip it to save on money.
4. For any new or extra medications or supplies we may need while we are down there. Sadly our insurance does not carry over for these two things while out of state.

On top we are looking to be gone at least 4 to 6 weeks. Maybe longer. It just depends on how well things go, how well things heal, and what the doctors think. It will all depend on Maggie. We look forward to things going smoothly, but in the same breath, will always prepare for the worst of things too. One never knows.

Currently we are running two fundraisers.... An Online Tupperware Party for those of you that are Tupperware fans. They have some great selections for the fundraiser. So feel free to jump on and purchase some of these awesome products. A portion of the proceeds go to helping us reach our goal for our fundraiser.

http://order.tupperware.com/pls/htprod_www/!tw$shop.p_category

Raise Money Online

OR if it takes you to the main page of the Tupperware website. Click Find fundraiser and type in :Tracy Reed

Our second is the Go Fund Me website. This page is set up for those who aren't interested in purchasing Tupperware, and would much rather just donate money.
You can click the big Maggie picture in this blog or the button on the side of our blog.


We always appreciate any help anyone can do or give. Even if you take your time to spread the word around about our fundraiser. Its definitely difficult to do it all yourself. Not by my own wants but because I have to. Please feel free to pass on the links to these fundraisers to your friends, families, local churches, community centers etc. If you would like to create a flyer please be sure to email me first at : reedfamilypa@yahoo.com for permission first.

So we thank anyone who will give of their time or money to help us reach our goal. Of course we'd like to superceed our goal. But to me the amount set is a good one to reach for now.