Hank The Cowdog

Have you ever heard of Hank the cowdog or Drover? Well in this house several years ago they were all we heard about. My older kids found this series of books and couldn't get enough of them. I was pretty excited when we got the package in the mail from Maverick books, AKA Hank the cowdog. I was looking forward to allowing my younger kids the chance to experience life with Hank and Drover.

Hank the cowdog stories are all about life on a cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle, as seen through the eyes of Hank the cowdog head of ranch security! The ranch animals all have amusing character and the adventures that Hank and his sidekick Drover get into are hilarious.
The book that we read was Hank The Cowdog: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse, Hank finds himself in some pretty funny situations like getting "dressed up" by the cousins, getting sick on bacon grease and all the while having to deal with "Tuerto" the one eyed horse. Now these stories are all told from Hank's point of view and that's why the stories are funny, as Hank see things from a different angle! As much as we have enjoyed this book and the others in the series, I would recommend a bit of caution for this story. Some of the language is that of a rough around the edges cowboy type character and some of the words used by this character are not what we would allow in our home, phrases such as "you moron" or "dummy" is not language we would encourage with our children. These words can be edited if you find them to be objectionable while you are reading aloud. You would not have that ability when listening to the CD.We also had Tales and Tunes from Hank the Cowdog to review. This is an audio CD that contains excerpts from 10 of the Hank books, plus 9 original songs. They are performed like and old time radio show with sound effects and each character has their own unique voice. Once your kids hear these recordings, they will want YOU to use those voices when you read out loud!

I have to say that these stories are not only fun they are funny. My 12 year old overheard the CD and pointed out the name calling issues (ie: moron, stupid, dummy) immediately. When I read these to my first group of children in our homeschool, they were a bit older and we talked about how this is a story and that we do not talk this way in "real life". This worked well for us and we did not have any issues. I will read aloud to the younger kids, with a bit of editing. Please realize that I don't want to "throw the baby out with the bath-water" These are wonderful stories, and I have used them and I will continue to use them.

The Tales and Tunes Cd will be for the older kids that have learned the ability to filter out the name calling.

Another product we reviewed from the package was the game Tornado.








"It's a race to be the first to get your three "characters" from the start to the finish. But watch out, your opponent is chasing you and they may send you back to the start. And landing on a tornado space can send you flying in any direction!The only safe place is a finish space. And in this fast paced game it's truly, never over until it's over!"

My youngest kids really enjoyed this game, they have played it many times, in fact the game has really cemented the concept of odd and even numbers for them. You can take this game with you as it folds up into a nice compact package with all the pieces stored inside.

The books are available individually as paperbacks for $4.24, or also in hardcover, and in sets. The Tales and Tunes sampler CD is available for only $3.00, and audio-book CDs are available as 2-book sets for $28.99. The Tornado Game is sold for $12.99.

If you would like to read what the other crew members are saying please click here

Homeschool Lounge Open House

Hi, Thanks for stopping by to read my THL open house 2009! My name is Cynthia I am a mother of 13 children and Grandmother of 2 with another grandchild to join us soon!
I just discovered the Homeschool lounge! It's a fun place to connect with other homeschooling mom's. This month they are having an open house so I am joining in the fun!
We call our school Ark Covenant Academy because our home is the ark that our children can run to from the trials of the world. Not that our home is perfect or overly peaceful or even free of trials, But we do love each other. Of course "the ark" is quite full when every one is home too, as there are19 of us! Our home is still full even with our oldest children out on their own.
This year for school the twins and my grandson (all who are 5 years old) will be joining in the mix this year! This means I will be teaching and learning with 9 children, both a blessing and a challenge. We are using a classical/Charlotte Mason approach and lean toward the eclectic. But this year we have chosen Tapestry of Grace volume 1 as our core curriculum.
I am really excited and have been planning up a storm and putting together our student notebooks. I love using lapbooks and notebooking pages to get our learning into the hands-on mode. The children are responding to the lessons and I find they retain the information easier, and enjoy the learning process using this method, because its FUN.
This year I really want to have a special time of encouragement with my daughters and spend some time going through some of the books I have collected over the years. Here are a few that I recommend and will be using:The Women God Designed, Raising Maidens of Virtue, Before You Meet Prince Charming and Beautiful Girlhood .I really want my girls to know that being a strong women of God is truly a blessing and a path worthy of following .I am amazed at the number of books that I have gathered together over these last few years. Life is busy in this household and sometimes "girltime" takes the back burner, Soooooo this year I am making time for just being together with my girls and learning about Godly womanhood, modesty and courtship with purpose!
I have not forgotten my little men either. We will be using Boyhood and Beyond with them. God desires strong Godly servant leaders in our boys.
We will also be using various curriculum that I review for the homeschool crew. We are blessed with a wonderful of curriculum to review this year, and we are all so excited! Please bookmark this blog and check it out from time to time so you can see how we are doing and pick up what I hope will be some valuable insights on all of the wonderful curriculum we will be experiencing!
I am still very busy with planning and organizing but we will be starting school next week. My ideas, schedules and plans do not always mesh with the reality of life! So I have to remind myself to stay flexible and make adjustments, after all, we are all "works in progress!"

The Home school Lounge has some awesome prizes for the open house. My choices are:
#1 Rainbow Resource $50 gift certificate
#2 Currclick $50 gift certificate
#3 Families with a Purpose $25 gift certificate

Classical Education

planning and more planning! that's what I have been up to. I love the idea of having everything all ready for several weeks in advance ( I gave up the idea of being 9 or more weeks planned out ) I am aiming for 4-6 weeks ahead. I am making student notebooks this year, they will have all their assignments, workbook pages coloring pages anything they will need to complete their week. I got the idea from The Counter- Culture blog. In Tapestry of Grace the idea is to help the children to become independent by keeping their own school planners so they know exactly what they need to do each week. I am really looking forward to helping my children learn to be responsible for their learning, not to speak about how much this will help me as I delve into the learning to read with three 5 year old boys!
I have also been really blessed and encouraged in reading The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I love the classical education method, how I wish I had known about this back when we started to home school 20+ years ago. This book has helped me to have a direction in all our schooling, not for just now but our years ahead as well. I have been inspired, given hope and excitement again for teaching my children. I was beginning to feel that I had forgotten how to bring the joy of learning into our days. I was also feeling a lack of direction and the "how" to keep doing this and do it well and right. YES even after home schooling for 20 years I found myself floundering, questioning how I could keep going as we were. I felt that I was not "doing enough". I have been in this place before and the only answer: SEEK MY FATHER GOD'S FACE. That is what I have been doing crying out to Father and asking him to show me the way for our family. He lead me to Tapestry of Grace and then to The well Trained Mind. He has supplied us with our way and the tools to follow that way. I am once again excited

Character Formation

I am heavily into planning our school for this next semester, we are using a new to us program: Tapestry of Grace. I was re -reading some notes from Marcia Somerville the author of TOG ,and she made a statement that really stood out to me
" Character formation is both
the foundation for learning
and the ultimate purpose for learning"
In all my planning of my childrens academics, the most important thing to remember is who they are inside. I wish for all my children to have the character of Christ. To think like Him, to act out of a heart like His in all they do. That means KNOWING Him. We can not imitate someone we do not know, or fallow someone when we are not watching.

Family Reunion picture

All together! Mom, Dad, 13 kids plus 2 beautiful grand babies, Aaron's beautiful, sweet girlfriend, and our wonderful beautiful new daughter-in love Maki ( Jacob's wife who is expecting their first this fall). I just love this picture personality abounds.

Father's Day Video

This is a song that Bruce wrote, Mikaela made the video for his Father's day gift.

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers .
I especially want to bless the fathers in my life, Bruce the father of our dear children, who works so hard to provide for us, and who loves us so deeply.
My own father whom I love.
My oldest son Ryan, being a father is the hardest "job , but THE most rewarding!
To my son Jacob, yes you are a father already, even though your daughter will not join us till latter,
may you anticipate with joy the job of being a father.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY to you.

Family Reunion

I am so excited for the first time in about 4 years ALL the kids are coming home! This is no easy feat as we have moved from Texas our home for the last 17 years. In our move to Arizona we left behind 4 of the oldest and 2 grand kids. Our third born is in the Navy and stationed in Japan with his wife and little one due in August.
This month we will all be together for a few short days. This is such a blessing and joy for this Mamma's heart! I am so excited to have a big family celebration. To get pictures of the extended family ALL together! How fun and I remember when the kids were younger thinking about when they were older married and with kids of their own what it would be like to have family get together..how time goes by, here we are with our first one and it was just a dream yesterday ..well many yesterdays :) sigh of anticipated happiness!

Happy Memorial Day

And I 'm proud to be an American,

where at least I know I'm free.

And I wont forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me.

Lee Greenwood

God Bless all our Military families! Today especially I pray for those families who have lost men and women to keep us safe here; Father God wrap your arms of love and peace around them, they are NOT forgotten.

Blessings

We are coming back from the world of sickness and as you might expect sickness can hit one of two ways here, either all of us at once or as I like to say, a slow meandering train, When one gets sick then when that one is almost well the next one gets "picked up" for the sickness train. :) Well these last few weeks the train has been rolling through the house! then as the last child was finally better the train decided to speed up and run Mom over! I was down hard for two days leaving 10 kids to "run" the house and take care of each other. Today I woke up feeling much better and took survey of my house and kids. The kids thriving and happy, the house well its still standing. The crafts supply cupboard is all over the house BUT I have beautiful cards. the dishes are done and put away, we wont mention the floor but I really do have LIGHT colored tiles most days! As I stood in the center of the house I smiled as I thought yes the house needs some cleaning the laundry mountain is high, but my blessing: the kids took care of each other they took care of me and I remember to look to the goal and not at the circumstances right now. Yes I am blessed.

Kids Say...

Kids say the funniest things. One of the children got in trouble and had to sit in a corner for a time out( names not used to save the one in trouble from ultimate humiliation as they said!) Well in this particular corner is a wooden bunny statue. OK the stage is set here is the conversation

Child 1: don't talk to " ? " he is in trouble and has to VISIT with the bunny!

so now Kaylee my 2 year old grand daughter will yell at the nearest child who even bothers her a tiny bit "go to visit meemee's bunny!"

now this has become the funniest thing in this house at the moment and you will hear the children tell each other "go visit with the bunny" often and the twins relish the ability to tell the child who has broken a rule to "visit with the bunny"

Time Flies

Today I am supposed to be planning...planning our school for next year, planning our schedules and chores. Instead I have been reading some E-books that I downloaded from The Old Schoolhouse Store. WOW! I have to say these books are EXACTLY what I needed! The First one a WeE book: Time Flies While History is Written by Deborah Wuehler. Time does fly NOW, now that the kids are older, now that I can look back on a "past" for our family, now that I am 50. In the beginning when the older ones were all under 10 the workload was all consuming I was not as purposeful in my direction. I want more for my younger ones. Like Deborah says, "I want my history to be better than my firstborn son's history. I want my children to remember a joyful mother of children and not a tired, worn-out nag" I so want this! This little booklet has helped me see how I can "start over" with purpose to rewrite our history, by recognizing my sins and move from failure to victory. As Deborah says, "since time really does march on and today turns into yesterday faster than we can keep up, we really should be making our priority one of knowing the word of the Lord." I agree with Deborah and she has written a powerful booklet that reminds us of the larger story- His Story. This booklet is a must read for all of us Mothers from those just starting families to us "older" Moms still writing our history with the younger blessings the Lord has given us. This E-book is on my night stand to re-read