TOS Review: PeopleKeys

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew has been reviewing many products from PeopleKeys. I received The Children’s Profile for ages 9-13. I used this with Liberty, age 10. We spent just a few minutes on the quiz, and then had great fun delving into Liberty’s emerging personality traits. She is a good mix of two different traits – fairly common – and the information regarding her personality was amazingly accurate.

Once we completed Liberty’s assessment, we had to delve into the DISC personality assessment world. It’s fascinating! While personalities are growing and changing at young ages, it was still pretty easy to see certain traits in each of our children. The more I read, the more their habits and actions and personalities made sense. I can’t wait to see who they become as they get older – while I got a glimpse into who they are and who they will become, only time will tell.

The DISC assessments offer huge insights into people and how they operate. I found out, after I got this review and it was the talk of our home, that a good friend uses these assessments in his business, with his employees, with his family. Given the chance to pick his brain, we spent several hours discussing personalities, the portions of the DISC graphs that relate best with one another, and how to interact with each of my children better based on what I know about them. Looking at the other products offered by People Keys, I can see how they would be only helpful in discovering learning styles, career choices, colleges, and more. Fascinating.

I have to say, I’ve done quite a few reviews this past year. I’ve tried a lot of great products. This one, though, definitely created the most buzz in our home. Learning what makes Liberty who she is has been amazing – it’s like peeking into her quiet, timid (SC personality!) brain and getting the inside scoop into how she thinks. With this dear daughter, who rarely voices how she really feels, this was pretty cool. It has me looking at my other children and noticing their personalities more, and with that knowledge comes understanding. Even Pierce (nearly 2) has an emerging strong D that has me seeing him and his determination and driving personality in a whole new light. Even parenting gets a little easier when I understand why they do what they do!

All of that to say… definitely look into PeopleKeys and the DISC assessments. You’ll learn so much about personalities, you child – even yourself. It’s pretty amazing to see how, while each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made, unique and in God’s image, we’ve been created with order. God is a God of order, and our personalities are uniquely ordered as well.

The Children’s Profile is $15 and is available here. Check out this and many other DISC personality assessments and related products on the PeopleKeys website. For reviews from other members of the Review Crew on this and eight other PeopleKeys products, visit the Review Crew Blog.

 

 

TOS Review: Logic of English

Many members of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew have been reviewing Logic of English for the last month or so. Sterling (6 and in 1st grade) received and has been working on Foundations Level A. We received the softcover student workbook, hardcover teacher’s manual, Basic Phonogram Flashcards, Rhythm of Handwriting Cards in Cursive, Phonogram Game Cards, the Logic of English Student Whiteboard, and the Rhythm of Handwriting Quick Reference in Cursive.

I chose Cursive for Sterling since he’s not yet studied it at all. Foundations A was written for ages 4-7, and Sterling falls squarely into this category. Once we began, I realized Sterling had mastered certain aspects of this level, but not all. That part was a little bit frustrating. Sterling is a fluent reader of nearly every word he encounters, but hasn’t studied cursive. He loved figuring out if sounds were voiced or unvoiced, and while I can’t figure out how this will be helpful in the future, it did make a fun little game during our school day. Logic of English is written so that the student is never spending more than a few minutes with each little section – something Sterling really appreciated. He didn’t get bored.

Logic of English teaches cursive by learning strokes that are repeatedly used in cursive writing. While both Sterling and I had to keep looking at the flash cards that were part of the Foundations package to see which stroke they were talking about, Sterling easily learned how to do them with a fair amount of ease. Within days of beginning he was writing his first letters and was so proud of himself. I’ve been quite happy with the speed it moved him along – early success is key for this perfectionist son of mine. While I think that Ruby (5 and in kindergarten) might have benefitted more fully with this program since she’s still a beginning reader, Sterling is enjoying learning to write in cursive. We had zero tears, zero frustration – rather unheard of for Sterling and his desire to do things perfectly the first time or give up completely. With small steps starting him off easy but moving him along quickly, Logic of English has been a great in teaching cursive. If I had started this with him earlier, before he was reading well, he could have benefitted far more from the other parts of the book – but he still enjoys those parts, so we’ll keep at all of them.

I especially like how it introduces sounding out words and putting them together – I’ll definitely be using this with my younger children as they approach learning to read and write. Learning to put the sounds they say together to form words has been a struggle for several of my children, and I think Logic of English would likely eliminate that problem all together.

All told, the materials I received retail for $144. The student book and Teacher’s book are sold separately for $38 and $18 respectively, and the Foundations reusable materials I received are an $88 value.

To read more reviews on this and other Logic of English levels, visit the Review Crew Blog.

I can’t do it all.

I can keep the house really clean. I can teach my children their schoolwork. I can cook a pretty decent meal. I can take children to the zoo, I can get groceries for the week. I can wash the laundry and get it folded and put away.

But if I get a good day’s school in, the laundry falls by the wayside. We’re scrambling to finish up school and chores before supper. Supper might be pasta and a jar of sauce. If I get the house good and clean, school doesn’t happen. If we head to the zoo or the store, the house magically falls apart while we’re away.

I can’t do it all.

The verse “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” haunts me. All things? Me? It’s not happening. I don’t have enough hours in a day. I don’t have enough energy.

I. Am. Exhausted.

So I dug into Philippians 4:13 just a bit more. What am I missing? Why can’t I do it all?

And then I found the verses before (an including) 4:13.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Just like that, the word contentment comes up. And reminds me: exhausted might just be what I am called to right now. Struggling might just be what I’m called to right now. I’m not perfect. I can’t do it all. But in all things, I am called to be content. So I’ll wade (and waddle) along, striving to do this whole wife and motherhood the best that I can. And when I can’t, I’ll remind myself: I’m not called to a perfect house. I’m not called to gourmet meals. I’m called to walk with my God, serve my family, and honor my husband.

He just might have to find his clean socks in a basket in the living room, though.

TOS Review: Time4Learning

Sterling (6) has been working on the Time4Learning website for many weeks now. As part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve received a six month subscription to their website to try it out. Sterling is in first grade, and that’s the level I put him in at Time4Learning as well.

I have to say, at the beginning of this review, I wasn’t so sure. Getting Time4Learning set up wasn’t hard; Sterling didn’t have a hard time figuring out how to do it – I just wasn’t so sure this was quite up our alley. I tend to keep our school off the computer. I’m not opposed to them using it, I just like them to learn without electronic devices. In today’s day… I’m strange.

So Sterling jumped in, unsure if he liked it, having to be reminded to use the site, and anxious to get off as soon as his first little lesson was finished. And then. One day, he asked if he could do what he’d done the day before, because “That was fun!” Progress. I didn’t have time to search out his finished lesson, so I encouraged him to try another, and lo and behold, that was pretty fun too. I’m not quite sure how much he was learning – I pulled his reports and he scored 100% pretty consistently. I wish I’d done that sooner – I’d have moved him up a bit to keep him better challenged.

I love all the reports. I can see how much he used Time4Learning, how well he scored, what he did… it’s all there. He definitely appreciated the Language Arts sections better than Science or Math – the Science I was a little disappointed in, honestly. I dug around a bit, but unless I’m missing something, he was quizzed without having the opportunity to learn the material first. He did fine, but I had to explain a lot to him. That was the one and only time, though, that I had to look over his shoulder as he worked to help him out. If I’m going to have him learning on the computer, I’d like for it to be independently. It’s nice to have something that doesn’t require anything of me! Time4Learning did a pretty good job of that.

In the end, Sterling really enjoyed using Time4Learning, and it’s been really nice to have something to send him to do, something that’s learning, when I’m busy teaching one of his siblings. With a classroom of four, with four grades, I struggle keeping them all busy all the time. I get one started on a subject, get another started, get another started… and child #1  is finished and waiting for me to help with another subject. When that happened with Sterling, I sent him to work on Time4Learning. It bought me some time, he was still working on schoolwork and staying in “school mode” (as opposed to heading outside – where I’ve lost him). It is a good addition to our current routine. I’m not sure if will replace anything we’re already doing, but I think it could, if you wanted it to teach some of your lower level subjects.

Time4Learning for PreK-8th grade is $19.95 per month. Additional students are $14.95. High school levels are $30 per month. No contract is required, and they offer a 14 day money back guarantee. Sign up here.

To read other members of the review crew’s thoughts on Time4Learning regarding this and all the other grade levels offered, visit the Review Crew Blog.

Mornin’!

Gus is not my early riser out the bunch, so when he was the 1st one up the other day and it happened to be the day I tried to sleep in, he wasn’t impressed. I drug myself to the coffee pot at 6am to see him dancing to the radio in the living room. He stops, looks at me, and asks me why on earth was I still sleeping? “Its light out mom, and I hit you, and you still didn’t get up!” I never even knew he tried to wake me. Apparently I needed the extra sleep that morning…

We went to town yesterday for the county fair. We were all pretty excited for the change in pace. Matthew even got the day off from work. We got to hang out with friends, watch the horse races, the team branding, and the ranch doctoring. The best part? Nobody remembered to put pants on the baby.

Doing some yard work last, CT stops and asks me what I am doing. I informed him I was pulling weeds so my chokecherry tree might grow a little more. I stopped pulling weeds to look up at him and find him completely naked in anticipation of his nightly shower. And then I watched him pee on the tree I was weeding around.

Gus went to work with Matthew the other day. I woke him up at 5:30 and informed him his brothers horse was being saddled for him and get some jeans on. I shoved him out the door with a breakfast burrito in one hand and another for his papa in the other hand. He was thrilled.




Getting to go to work with papa and all the day workers makes up for having to get up in the dark. I suppose I can understand why.

So… male.

One day last week, I fought with a new hair pony that had a bow attached. The girls and I discussed how it was cute, but so hard to get the bow to lay correctly.

The next morning, Sterling came to me, all excited.

“I fixed it!”

The bow was in two pieces, and the pony made a third. He’d completely removed the bow from the pony, leaving me with a pony… not all that dissimilar to the other 25 ponies I own.

Why? Why did he feel the need to ruin the bow and hand me a plain old pony? Because it had not been working properly. And… he fixed that.

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Today, Sterling hollered from the bathroom that he needed more toilet paper. Ruby grabbed four rolls – three to fill the obviously empty extra roll holder I keep in the bathroom, and a fourth to replenish the one on the dispenser. When she got to the bathroom, she found the roll holder full and the dispenser empty. She asked why he hadn’t grabbed one from there.

“I thought those were just for decoration!”

Seriously? We decorate the bathroom with extra tp, but we don’t use those? Since that extra roll holder has been a part of our bathroom for several years, not always full, how observant is he? And how often has he made do with what was on the roll and been the culprit of the child who fails to change the roll?

Just for the record, Sterling is six. Ruby will be five on Tuesday. Ruby understood. Sterling obviously had bigger things to think upon than the upkeep of our hygiene materials in the toiletry department.

It amazes me how entirely male Sterling is. Fearfully and wonderfully made, eh?

Learning.

Someone told me once that, to have a large family and remain sane, one must have a good sense of humor. I’m always rather enjoyed the funnier side of life, but children have slowly taught me to see things that way on a far broader basis.

When Pierce pooped on the floor at the eye doctor’s, it was horrifying. But, now we laugh. And I’m certain he’ll hear about that one when he’s older. And when he gets married. And when he’s potty training his own son.

When my then two year old asked, in a Baptist (ie. dry) congregation why she wasn’t allowed to take communion, followed by “Does it have ALCHOHOL in it?!” in a very loud voice, I was mortified. We didn’t share all the same convictions, but that didn’t mean we needed to offend everyone in that. But… now we laugh.

So now, I’m trying to remember to just laugh. Skip the embarrassed and go straight to enjoying my children. It’s all I can do, anyhow. Embarrassed doesn’t get you very far anyhow. Anger doesn’t either. In an eye-opening moment, my dear baking-loving daughter brought me a broken (6 year old!) rubber spatula in two pieces and a dollar, I wanted to cry. Am I seriously so stinking uptight when she legitimately broke something that she felt like she needed to bring money to help replace it when she showed me what she’d done? Hello mirror. That reflection is looking pretty stinking ugly right about now.

When Pierce bit Charlotte and ran for the bug bite medicine, I scolded. And then, I laughed. Because who would have thought of that?!

When I’m rushed for time and my dear, fun-loving Ruby decides that the train she needs to color for math needs stripes – about  30 different colored stripes – I’m learning to go with it. I’m doing my best to back off from the hurrying up and slowing down to try to enjoy life. Including the most colorful trains you ever did see in one math book.

When Sterling left his 2 week-old crayon box out in the sun one afternoon this week, we examined what wax does in heat, what colors melting on colors looked like… and then I handed him a new box of crayons. It’s just not worth getting crabby about. (Contrast this to the melted crayon he was required to scrub off the sidewalk this summer and you’ll note progress. I hope.)

When naked Sterling, fresh from the tub and 20 months old, plopped himself down on the frozen turkey my sister had just removed from the freezer but it had yet to make it off the floor and into the sink to thaw… Sterling saw it as a perfectly sized stool. And then he froze. On two counts. But oh, we laughed. And laughed, and laughed. Do you know how good that feels?!

Motherhood, it turns out, is pretty stinking funny. Embarrassing, certainly. Humbling, definitely. As iron sharpens iron – but, I’m learning, play dough in the carpet does a pretty good job of sharpening iron too.

How do you want to be remembered when your children are grown and gone? I’m aiming for easy-going, go with the flow, laugh-instead-of-cry, grace-extending, and quick to forgive. And slowly, with God’s grace, I’ll learn from my mistakes and get better at this.