Happy Thanksgiving!!

A TOS Review of At Home In Dogwood Mudhole book

First off let me say that working on this last review is a sad experience for our family, it's the last review that we are doing for The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew. I will give an update on our reasons for retiring from the Review Crew in another post. Nothing bad, just life changes for us.

Now on to the review of At Home In Dogwood Mudhole: Volume One, Nothing That Eats, by Franklin Sanders. I got the softcover version that retails for $22.95, some of the other TOS Review Crew received the Kindle version that retails for $16.95. The age range for this book would be teen-adult.

I started reading the book and just could not get into it. LOL...by a long shot. So I handed it off to the homeschool husband and to the homeschool young man. They both loved it.

The book is set from 1995-2002, written by Franklin Sanders owner of the Moneychanger, a gold and silver bouillon seller. The book is a collection of monthly newsletters for the Moneychanger.

The guys thought the book was kinda like a snapshot of all the little adventures that they had setting up their farmstead. It was written like a journal, seemed like the author picked a topic and just started writing about it. Seemed like a grouping of letters written and then published in a book.

Homeschool husband is pretty cheap so he would not have spent $22.95 on the book, but he would have checked it out for free from the library. He did admit that he got $22.95 in entertainment value from reading the book. It was so good that he took it to work everyday to read on break.

Alright ladies start thinking about getting your hubby this as a Christmas gift!

My homeschool husband who went to college for English liked the way that he phrased stuff (I think that this is the reason I did not like the book). Just flipping through the table of contents you come across interesting chapter titles such as "Combustion Engines Are The Work Of The Devil", "One Disaster At A Time" (here homeschooling husband thought he had coined that last term!) LOL and "Demon Cow".

Homeschool husband says "They were Y2K preppers, They were like "I hope things don't go bad, but we will prepare just in case." Their extra food did not go to waste, they fed it to the pigs (stinky rice story that GROSSED me out when homeschool husband and young man described it. They wanted to get back to the land and the farm, they had been away from it all for about two generations. So they had made a lot of mistakes, killed a lot of animals (we have experience in this, we had lost about a dozen meat birds by accident. It happens to the best of us!). Husband thought that family was religious conservatives and they help found a church that had been meeting during the book. Homeschool husband loved the MRE's mixed with rice, as the author seemed to be a chef for pigs. lol.

Being a Southerner and a Civil War history buff, it’s obvious that his sympathies lie with the south in general. His story telling was able to open a window into his thought and feelings surrounding being a southerner.

The homeschool young man says "I like the chapter 'Shootout at Elmwood'."

Being that my son is a Civil War Re-enactor he was THRILLED to read that the author and members of the Sanders family are also Civil War Re-enactors. Although the author and his family are Confederates, the homeschool young man will not hold that against them :O) Homeschool young man also liked that fact that the author mentioned hotels and restaurants that he liked in the book, along with phone and addresses.

The Sanders family also does cemetery walks with Franklin Sanders acting General Nathan Bedford Forrest. A Lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877). Yet another plus from the homeschooling husband too!

Things my guys were not thrilled with was the IRS scandal and the fact that the author ended up in jail a few times.
 

If you like reading At Home In Dogwood Mudhole, volume one, Nothing That Eats, then you might like volume two Best Thing We Ever Did and volume 3 has yet to be finished but is called The Sage Of Dogwood Mudhole also by Franklin Sanders. There is a free shipping code just for TOS readers! Enter in TOSFREE in the discount field when ordering. How great is that??

So all in all my guys thought that At Home In Dogwood Mudhole would make a great birthday or Christmas gift of the man in your life. I am sure that some ladies might enjoy the read, but I sure did not.

Come see what my fellow TOS Crew Reviews thought of the book.
 

 

Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Review for K-6th grade

Having seen Apologia Educational Ministries, INC at the vendor hall, heard them speak at homeschool conventions, having drooled over the Apologia curriculum and having done a review for them in the past while on the TOS Review Crew, I was thrilled to be asked to take part in this review. Once the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics, a homeschool science curriculum showed up in the mail, homeschool young man was ready to start. Our son was just going crazy over the color pictures, upcoming fun experiments and the activity pages in the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal!! Due to a shipping error we were sent the wrong notebooking journal by Apologia, they offered for us to keep the wrong one and then promptly sent us the correct one. I was excited to be able to use the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal. I've never had chemistry or physics so I thought it would be a great way for me to pick up on some of the materials so I have at least a foundation in those two subjects.

The homeschool young man is interested in becoming a physician. (this is the reason why this homeschool Momma will not be re-joining the TOS Review Crew for the 2013-2014 school year. The homeschool young man has been accepted to a medical school's physician prep program, so our days are going to be a little busy with this program, so I would not have the needed time to devote to the wonderful TOS Review Crew.) So in preparing the homeschool young man for a ministry in medicine, I've got some tough subjects in my future as a homeschool Momma. Chemistry and Physics SCARE ME and can keep me awake at night if I am not careful! lol. When this review came out, I saw that it was for K-6th grade, but thought this would be helpful to me, so I applied and explained my reasoning. I was so excited when we were approved for the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics review.

While completing this review, I noticed that the materials were right on this tired, old homeschool Momma's level and of course too low for my freshmen homeschool young man (remember that Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics is for K-6th grade), but he still enjoyed it. Sometimes it's fun for our homeschool kids to have something that is educational, yet easy.

 

There were so many concepts in this homeschool science resource from

Apologia Educational Ministries, INC that were a great foundation for homeschool young man to learn before stepping into their high school series on these subject. I think it is important to learn some concepts as a younger student, they might not fully understand them or know exactly how to put them into practice. Nevertheless, when the full scope of learning comes about, there are some foundational materials in the brain already and I think it helps things come together in the end.

The Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics book is a very nice hardcover textbook, which could be used by more than one student. Textbook is $39.00 (hardcover) and is authored by Jeannie Fulbright. You all know me and how I like bright colored pictures in my textbooks, you have got those in the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics, and LOTS OF THEM! Nothing less than what you would expect from a quality homeschool science curriculum like Apologia Educational Ministries, INC. "Engaging text, many hands on demonstrations, projects and experiments and exciting articles." Your child will make bouncy balls, lava lamps, smoke bombs (COOL!) and mini motors. There is a list in the back of the book for needed supplies for the experiments. They are all pretty easy to locate. I will give you a hint though, for ease of doing the experiments in our busy homeschooling lives, I would shop around for a supply kit, because I find it is MUCH easier on me if I actually have everything bagged up for me, for each experiment, otherwise I find it an effort to drop what I am doing and drive to town to buy X. It is so much easier for me to say, "We will do this tomorrow." Well, ya know what? In our perfect world tomorrow NEVER seems to come! So homeschool Momma, treat yourself to a pre-made kit of supplies.


The homeschool Momma's notebook was the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal it was just right for me! There were coloring pages, short vocab crossword puzzles, lapbooking (homeschool young man liked those, but who does not like lapbooking? lol). Very easy to do and great graphics as usual from Apologia Educational Ministries, INC. This notebooking journal for the young grades is just $24.00, you can use the hardcover textbook without the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal, but I do not recommend it. The notebooking journals add so much to the learning process that I personally think that they are essential.

The homeschooled young man used the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal also $24.00. The older kids notebooking journal has many of the same things as the Junior Notebook does, but at a higher level of difficulty. The fun and economical aspect of Apologia Educational Ministries, INC is that you can buy one textbook for your family and then just buy the needed notebooks based on grade. For one low price you can teach science to all your children together, while each works at a different level in their notebooks. How easy is that on the busy homeschool Momma's schedule!



You all know that I like to get the most bang for my buck when it comes to education. When I think of skills learned by using Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics I think of public speaking (telling me back what was learned), reading/oral reading of daily work, writing skills, Bible and so much more! I love how the textbooks are written in an easy to read fashion, the text really flows as the student reads. The suggested use is 2 days per week, for this review we were asked to do 4 days per week. In our homeschool we do science 5 days per week, so it was manageable for us. We enjoyed the sections on atoms and energy, we had not studied either of those in the past. As a homeschool Momma, my favorite part was the fact that the answer keys were easy to use! Homeschool young man loved the puzzles in the book, I had thought he would like the experiments, but it was the vocab puzzles that he liked best. 

 

The only thing that I thought about regarding this review that was negative is that I think that there is a LOT of notebooking activities for the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal. I would not get bogged down with the notebooking at this young age (K-3rd), I would let them pick and choose what to do in the notebook, UNLESS you would be trading out handwriting class, for them writing on the copywork pages. To me the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal would be just the right amount of work for a 4th-6th grader.

 

YET AGAIN, ANOTHER QUALITY PRODUCT FROM

Apologia Educational Ministries, INC.

Click below to see what my Crew buddies had to say when they wrote their reviews.

Moe

   

Come join the Schoolhouse Review Crew!!

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Moe