Lots of Helpers

Product Review—Thinkwell

November 19, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have never requested a math curriculum to review before. We have been using the same curriculum for math ever since Esther started school, 15 years ago, and I have been very happy with it. Lately, however, I was thinking about what to have Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence do for math next year, and coming up with nothing I felt like they would be able to do. Then, I had the chance to review a math course from Thinkwell, and decided to have them do the diagnostic tests. We were offered one year of either their 6th to 8th Grade Math, or their High School Math; there are 20 math courses altogether. After I scored these tests, we watched the solutions for some of the problems that Mr. Intellectual got wrong, and he liked the way they were taught. Both boys were happy enough with what they saw of this course that we decided to request it, and they will use it for their main math course next year. They have each spent a week and a half working with it this month, so we could see how it works in order to write the review. (We normally spend a much longer time on a review item, but we were not given access to this one until two weeks into the review period, and then those two boys went to stay with friends several hours away and help on their farm for a week and a half.)

Mr. Intellectual chose to do Geometry. His results in the diagnostic test indicated that he could do either Honors Algebra I or Geometry. He is just finishing the Algebra I course with our normal curriculum, but he hasn’t done Geometry before, so he thought that sounded interesting. He’s really enjoying it, and says he is learning things already, even from just the first chapter, Fundamentals of Geometry. Here is a screenshot of the titles of the other chapters in this course:

Mr. Diligence has just finished his 8^th grade math, and his diagnostic test results indicated that he was ready for Algebra I, so that is what I chose for him. He is doing well with this course, too. Here is the table of contents for his course:

Each chapter is broken down into a number of subchapters, and a subchapter tends to be one day’s assignment. Here are the subchapters for the first chapter of Algebra 1:

Clicking on a subchapter title takes you to the actual lessons—here is the first one.

The student is to work his way down the page. First, they watch the video lectures, in order (and Mr. Diligence quickly discovered that, for the lecture to show that it had been watched, he had to go back to the original screen to load the next one, instead of just going from one to the next).

There are worksheets to go along with each lesson; what works best for my boys is to print the worksheet before starting the lesson, then do the exercises that go along with each lecture before going on to the next lecture.

After watching all the lectures, doing the worksheet and checking it with the answer key, they do the “Thinkwell Exercise.” This is an assessment with multiple-choice answers. There is an option to print the exercise so it is easy to work the problems on paper, and then choose the correct one on the screen. One of my boys likes to do that; the other does them mentally, most of the time! Each question is graded immediately. The correct answer is given, and whether you got it correct or wrong, an explanation is given as to how the correct answer can be found.

At the end of each subchapter there are two review worksheets, and then a quiz, which can be taken as many times as the student wants to, and each chapter has a test at the end. The test can only be taken once, but there is a practice test which can be taken as many times as you want to.

The lectures average 2-5 minutes long. The teacher discusses his topic thoroughly, and to the right of the screen are several text boxes illustrating what he is talking about. He also writes on a whiteboard to illustrate his points. His voice is quite nice to listen to—something I appreciate! The boys have found it a bit hard to hear, though, either because it is on the quiet side or because my old computer’s speakers aren’t the best anymore, so they use headphones. That seems to solve the problem (and cause less distraction for others in the room!).

I found it fairly easy to figure out how to use these courses. This sidebar is very useful in going from one page to another. The daily schedule can be found in the Resources tab; quizzes and tests are on the Assessments tab.

To see how my sons are doing, I found that I can log in to their account and click on “My Grades” at the top of the screen. It shows me at a glance how well they have done with the Thinkwell Exercises. I have encouraged them to do the exercises a few times if they are struggling with something.

I am quite favorably impressed with what I have seen so far of these courses! It looks like just what we have been needing. Mr. Diligence commented that he finally understands one of the concepts taught, which is something he had been doing in his 8^th grade math but didn’t understand. I am thankful to have been given the opportunity to let them try a different teaching style. If you have children who are struggling with their math, it may be worthwhile to try out Thinkwell. They have quite a range of courses available—look at this list! They offer a 14-day free trial, and diagnostic tests. Either of these would be a good way to determine if this math course will work for your family.
Thirty people are reviewing this company; read more reviews by clicking on the picture below.

$6th to 8th Grade Math (Pre-Algebra) and High School Math (Algebra to Calculus) {Thinkwell Reviews}$

October 2019 Photos

November 9, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are the last of my photos from October! This year is almost over already—how can that be?

One more bubble picture, from when that was the fad. This is Mr. Imagination.

Gayle and all the children except Miss Joy went fishing one Saturday. They didn’t catch anything except a blackberry vine, and they lost some hooks and the handle of a reel—but they had fun!

Little Miss wanted to dress her baby sister one morning, so I let her try. She discovered it’s a little harder than dressing a doll! Mr. Imagination helped her.

The cow and calf enjoyed the sunshine a few days after the calf was born during a rainy spell.

The boys were trying to make a stack of people. Mr. Sweetie climbed onto Mr. Diligence’s shoulders, but when Mr. Imagination got on, the stack collapsed.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination made these fish out of silly putty. The fish are playing with a ball, and the top of the frame is the sea.

Simon bought a new backpack, and Mr. Diligence wanted to try it out. He got Little Miss to climb in, and gave her a ride. She loved it!

This enormous dump truck is used in mining, likely coal mining. It is not licensed for using on the road, so they had to haul it this way.

Mr. Imagination was quite impressed with the length of this potato sprout when he helped his daddy plant potatoes a few weeks ago!

We enjoy watching episodes of MasterChef together, and Mr. Imagination has been inspired to create pretty food. This was a “dessert” he made one morning. He has pieces of banana and orange, and he made a sauce with mashed bananas and cream.

Miss Joy at a little over two months. She lives up to her name most of the time, and is a joy to have in the family. As I type this, she is sleeping snuggled up on my chest.

Some friends gave us a praying mantis egg case. We were fascinated to watch the baby insects hatch! Esther took a video of it, then sped it up 8 times.

Book Review—Goldtown Beginnings Series

November 5, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

When we were offered the chance to review the first two books in Susan K. Marlow’s new Goldtown Beginnings Series from Kregel Publications, I jumped at the offer. We have read a number of her other books; I reviewed her Circle C Stepping Stones series a couple of years ago, so I knew my younger children would be excited to get these. Sure enough, they were! Little Miss (age 4) was thrilled when she saw them the day they came in the mail, and she spent a lot of time studying the pictures. She also made sure she was on hand to hear the stories each day when I read the books aloud!

Book 1, Jem Strikes Gold, 8-year-old Jeremiah has a problem. Every week, he and his 6-year-old sister have to deliver pies for their mother, who bakes them for the restaurants and gold miners in Goldtown. That wouldn’t be a problem, but the rich boy in town likes to cause trouble for them—and one day most of Mama’s pies are ruined! Then, Strike-it-rich Sam comes home from a prospecting trip with a golden dog. Jem hasn’t found any gold in his claim, but will Pa and Mama let him keep the dog? And what will Jem do about the pie problem?

Jem’s Frog Fiasco, book 2, presents Jem with an altogether different problem. A café owner wants Jem to catch frogs for him. This sounds like an easy way to make some money! The problem with this scheme, though, is that Mama wants Jem to take care of his younger sister Ellie, and when he is mean to her because she makes it hard for him to catch the frogs, she runs off and hides. Can he find her?

I liked almost everything about these books. As with Susan K. Marlow’s other books, these do well at attracting young readers. They are very simply written, but very interesting. They appeal to the 6-8-year-old range especially, but as I said before, my 4-year-old loved to hear them read aloud. The 10-year-old enjoyed them, too. The one thing I noticed that I didn’t like so well was Jem’s exclamation, “Roasted rattlesnakes!,” used 2-3 times per book. I liked the way Jem tried to please his parents. He loved his little sister, even though he was annoyed with her, and admitted his wrong in not watching over her as he should have. I also liked that the stories, though fictitious, are set in a real place and time—the California goldfields during the Gold Rush. Just by reading the story, we learned how gold is panned and that it was rare to actually find “color.” This is a series I will be watching for, so I can buy the rest of the books. We were all happy to have received these books!

On the author’s website, there are downloadable activities to go along with each of the books. These activities include language arts, history, and geography projects, as well as just fun things like mazes. There are also coloring pages to download. When Little Miss learned about them, she wanted one immediately! I made her a coloring book with the pages, which are simply the illustrations from the book. If you have beginning readers in your home and need more books that they can read, that will catch their interest, check out the Goldtown Beginnings Series! The learning activities that are available would make an easy way to get some other learning in, as well.

Jem Strikes Gold & Jem's Frog Fiasco {Kregel Publications Reviews}

Birds

November 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve been seeing wood pigeons around here quite a lot lately. They are huge, beautiful birds. For awhile, they were landing on the tiny ends of branches on the neighbor’s tree, just outside our living room window, and eating something on the tips of the branches. There must have been tiny berries; I really don’t know for sure. They would often hang upside down, pecking at whatever it was. One morning, the sun was shining on the pigeon we saw, and I was able to snap these photos.

A pair of plovers nested in the middle of the park across the street from us. The person who did the mowing left a large area uncut around the nest. We were privileged to see the babies the day they hatched—three tiny balls of fluff! A few days later, one of our cats followed us across the road when we went to milk the cow in the paddock next to the park. The cat caught sight of the baby plovers—and grabbed one. Simon took off after her as she raced back home, and was able to rescue the unhurt baby and return it to its distraught parents. The last we saw of the family, they still had three babies, but they seem to have moved on to a safer place.

These birds are more prosaic, but we are glad to have them! We bought 70 day-old chicks in June, and Mr. Diligence raised them. We kept 20 to supply us with eggs, and sold the rest. He wants to try this again next year. He didn’t make a lot of profit, but since he has no other income he’s grateful for even small amounts. We’re enjoying having grass-fed eggs again! It’s been a long time.

Turkeys, Cows, and Projects

October 26, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have a small breeding flock of turkeys that we kept when we moved here. Last year, we kept the tom and two hens in a run that Mr. Diligence built, and they hatched out 10 babies. After they hatched them, we moved the adults into a small movable pen and let the young ones have the run. We were given some more turkeys after that, from ones we had given to our friends when we moved, so we added the females to our breeding flock. For several months, we discussed what to do with the turkeys for this year’s breeding season. They multiply best when they are allowed to free-range, and the paddock we were given for the cows is a turkey’s paradise. There is open area for them to forage in, and brush in which to find hiding places for nests. We asked the owner of the property if we could put the turkeys there, and he agreed. The next problem to solve was how to feed them, and catch them when we need to. Mr. Diligence built this hut with a slide-out feed trough. It works for feeding them! We were hoping that they would go in when they were fed and we would be able to trap them with the side doors. Unfortunately, they must not be hungry enough for that to work—they don’t come for feeding! We’re hopeful that we’ll get babies in another month, though, as most or all of the hens have disappeared. We’re hoping that they are sitting on nests.

This cat followed us all down when the men took the feeder down. She gets quite upset when she goes so far from home, and keeps yelling at us to turn around and go back!

After the feeder was put in place, the boys carried the turkeys down.

Just a couple of days later, the cow calved. We weren’t expecting the calf to come just yet, because she hadn’t bagged up. He was born nearly two weeks early, and was quite tiny, but very healthy and he’s growing fast. The cow started bagging up within a day after calving, and only a few days later was producing quite well. We’re very much enjoying having milk and other dairy products in abundance again!

Mr. Intellectual got the idea this winter to build us a picnic table. His daddy helped him draw up plans and figure up the timber he needed, and he worked at in in his spare time. We enjoyed one meal outside at it so far, and expect to use it more this summer!

Simon bought this van a few months ago, hoping to fix it up and resell it. The rust needed to be repaired before it is legal to be on the road again, so he got started on that awhile ago. He ground off the rust and repainted it. To do so, he needed to take out the front windscreen. He got it out with no problem…but cracked it putting it back. Oops. That added quite a lot to the cost of the project! He’s learning a lot!

Product Review—Creating a Masterpiece 2019

October 22, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About a year and a half ago, Mr. Imagination began asking me to buy him an art course. He wanted to learn how to draw better. I bought one, but it wasn’t what he had in mind, and he only did the first couple of lessons. He keeps drawing, though, just figuring things out on his own. When the review of Creating a Masterpiece came up, I asked him if he was interested—oh, yes, he very definitely was! So, we signed up and were given a one-year subscription to the online Drawing Program. We had hardly any of the materials needed, so he couldn’t get started for several days till the pencils came, but as soon as they arrived, he was off.

Each lesson is presented in a series of several short videos, with the teacher, a lovely, grandmotherly-type woman, showing each step of drawing a particular picture. Mr. Imagination (age 7) and Little Miss (age 4) both loved watching the videos and drawing the pictures. I loved that they could do the lessons on their own! With a new baby in the house, I don’t have time to sit down with them for art lessons. They were both able to come up with some very good artwork, for their age. Little Miss liked the picture of the pumpkins so well that she drew several more later, without watching the videos. She frequently requests to do an art lesson.

This was the first lesson they did, a cartoon-style giraffe. Even Mr. Sweetie did this one! They were told they could draw just the head and neck, or more of the body if they wished—just have fun. Mr. Imagination drew the entire giraffe. I love his picture!

My children have mainly focused on the pencil drawings, both regular pencils and colored pencils. Because we have no ready access to art supplies locally, I ended up ordering the vellum paper we needed for charcoal drawings from the United Kingdom, and it took awhile to get here. (For those who live in the United States, it will be easy to obtain the supplies; she has links on her website to exactly the items she recommends.) Mr. Imagination hasn’t tried much with the charcoal yet, but I expect him to before too long. He did do quite a few of the other drawings—we had quite the display on our living room wall for awhile, till he took some down to send to a grandma!

Here is an assortment of the other pictures Mr. Imagination drew. I like the wide variety of techniques that are taught with just pencils! The one with white pencil on black paper is a seal, by the way.

I am highly impressed with Creating a Masterpiece. The lessons are presented very clearly, with each step explained and shown. The teacher’s voice is easy to listen to, and it is obvious that she loves art, which is inspiring. I think I could even draw a nice picture by using her lessons! If you have a child who wants to learn to draw, I highly recommend this course. It can be used by all ages, from preschool, as Little Miss has proven, to adults who want to learn how to draw better.

Below are some of the lessons available to us; Mr. Imagination has tried most of these.

This is what one of the lessons looks like. You simply click on a video to get the next steps in drawing the picture!

Click on the picture below to read what 70 other people have said about Creating a Masterpiece!

Learning to Draw {Creating a Masterpiece Reviews}

Miss Joy

October 20, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any pictures of our baby! These are mainly for Grandma and the aunties, so if you aren’t in that category, feel free to skip this post.

This was her second time away from home. She screamed for about a minute after we started off—and suddenly fell asleep with this adorable pout on her face!

Four weeks—one of the first smiles.

A month old, wearing a dress from a special friend who drove four or five hours each way, with another dear friend, to share our joy in our new baby!

Five weeks, and getting fatter!

Five weeks

Little Miss loves having a baby sister! Here she was having a party; the cups were the party hats!Six weeks. Esther captioned this one something about hiding from the world. She likes to have her hands near her face when she sleeps.

Six weeks—just another cute picture!Esther tried many times before she was able to get a good passport photo. Keep your hands down, baby!

Getting fat and still very happy!

Seven weeks. Obviously, the love between Miss Joy and Mr. Sweetie is mutual! (Or maybe she just thinks he’s funny!)

Birthday Blessings

October 12, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 6 Comments

I have some wonderful children! I really don’t care if I receive any gifts for my birthday or not. It’s lovely to know that I am appreciated and loved, but they make sure I know that anyway. However, now that they are reaching adulthood, they are doing some incredible things for my birthday. Last year, they installed lights in the food-storage room in the garage, so I don’t have to find a flashlight when I need to get something from that room. I am appreciative every time I flick on the lights and open that door. This year, they topped that—when I didn’t think they could come up with anything I would like better!

My birthday was yesterday, and no one had any gifts for me. It was just a normal day, until after family worship—just at bedtime, actually. We finished our evening prayers, and the two youngest boys took off out of the room. They returned with:

A very interesting lemon cake that they had made without a recipe! It tasted fairly good, to my surprise. I was quite pleased with their thoughtfulness and initiative.

This morning early, the two oldest boys and Mr. Sweetie took off to town. I didn’t think much of it, because Simon goes to town on a Saturday morning every so often. They returned a few hours later, and brought a bag of kumara (sweet potatoes) into the house. I was surprised, and they told me, “We have a secret informant!” Last evening, Gayle had asked me, at bedtime, if the meal I made last night was my favorite. I told him I like it—but I like most of what I make! I had thought, while I was making it, that kumara would be good with it, but we didn’t have any. Apparently, he told the boys that I was hungry for kumara before they left!

The next act was to forbid me to go to the other side of the garage. I had planned to work in the greenhouse today, and pretended to fuss about not being able to go out there. Before lunchtime, however, they came in and told me to go out with them. I got to the greenhouse, and the first thing I saw was that the brick path was finished. The next thing I saw was:

A hazelnut tree and a lime tree! I wanted a hazelnut for a pollinator for the four we already planted, and the lime tree someone gave us froze this winter, so they replaced it for me. We’ll take more care with this one! Then, as I was admiring the trees, I suddenly got wet. Someone had turned on the sprinklers they had just installed along the ridgepole of the greenhouse! There are enough sprinklers to water the entire area, by simply connecting a hose to our outside tap! They had also tilled everything that needed replanting, so I got to play out there this afternoon and get some things planted. Isn’t this a beautiful place?

Freshly-planted cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.

The last of the lettuces we set out in April, and some of the tomatoes I’m growing for this summer.

My baby plant nursery, out of reach of the slugs, and the silverbeet (Swiss Chard) plants the neighbor dug out of his greenhouse and gave us. We’ll get a few meals off it before it bolts.

One of the sprinklers.

I love that brick path!

The sprinklers are on—Mr. Imagination likes to get wet!

Esther shared some photos with me that she took while they were doing the work. I enjoyed seeing them all working together!

They pulled out some of the bricks that were already in place, compacted the soil and leveled it, then finished the path.

The last step was to till everything again so it looked perfect!

Book Review—The Trouble With Nancy

October 9, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Book: The Trouble with Nancy

Author: Chautona Havig

Genre: Christian Historical Romance, Western

Release Date: July 18, 2019

NOTE: I WAS GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK BY THE AUTHOR. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN. LINKS IN THIS POST MAY BE AFFILIATE LINKS

Her reputation precedes her, whether the bad guys realize it or not.

Nancy Harrison has finally stepped out of her prissy box and tried to do something helpful–but did she go overboard in her first self-less act?

She can’t ride, she hates horses, and she’s terrified of being alone. What’s a girl to do?

Join the Pony Express, of course.

When Nancy Harrison’s family receives a tax bill they can’t pay, there’s only one option open to them. Her brother, Lewis, will have to join the Pony Express and earn the money that way.

It would have worked, too, if ruffians hadn’t attacked him and broken his leg.

She doesn’t want to do it, of course, but what choice is there? Lose everything or ride a stupid, smelly horse for a few weeks? Nancy decides that she’ll chop off her hair, take to the dusty overland trail, and prove that she isn’t a “flighty little thing.”

But things go from bad to worse as she discovers that riding astride is worse than sidesaddle—especially when you’re not used to it.

Can’t she just go back home to balls, teas, and the hope of a suitor before her twentieth birthday? Sans her hair, of course, because that’ll entice the fellows. Sigh.

My Thoughts:

There is only one author that I love the writing of so well that I make sure I read everything she writes. That is Chautona Havig. She has a way of taking a common theme and putting a very different twist on it, or of taking an unusual theme, and either way she makes a very believable story with characters you feel like you really know. In The Trouble With Nancy, she has a girl disguise herself as a boy to ride the Pony Express. A girl pretending to be a man isn’t that unusual—but quite often, in a case like that, the girl saves the day by being smarter than the men around her, or something along that line. Not so in this case!

Nancy’s mother had a problem. She had just been informed that there was a tax owing on the home her husband left her when he died, and if the tax wasn’t paid, she would lose her home. Not to worry, said her brother-in-law; he had a plan. Sell the house to him, and move into his house. That was not her plan—but what could she do? Her son Lewis decided to become a Pony Express rider to earn the money to pay the tax—but then he was attacked and injured. What would become of the family now?

Nancy had always been rather a prissy, self-centered girl. She couldn’t ride, she hated dirt and heat. All she wanted was to get married—but she looked like her brother except for her beautiful hair. Suddenly, she knew what she had to do to save the family: Take Lewis’s place as a Pony Express rider! However, she found herself in deep water when things were different from what she expected—and she had to put up with smelly, awful horses that she could hardly stay on top of. Would she survive her trip across the country and back?

This is a beautiful account of a girl learning to put others first. I also love the way she learns about God and relying on Him. The spiritual lessons are woven in so gently that I almost didn’t pick up on them, but a few passages were real gems. After she reached home again, she was telling a friend how she learned to rely on knowing God was with her, but now that she was home, she felt distanced from Him. Her friend’s counsel to her was invaluable

I wouldn’t say this is one of my favorite of Chautona’s books, but it is a good one. It’s clean, light reading, and a fun adventure/mystery story. I read it when I wasn’t feeling good and needed to lay down, and just wanted something easy to read. If you like historical fiction set in the West, you’ll enjoy it.

About the Author:

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her on the web and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

Video Chat with Chautona:

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here. (Scroll down the page to see the stops.)

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

A Flooded River, and Mountains

October 5, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have had a lot of rain lately. One day, someone told us the river was quite high, so Esther and the younger ones walked down to take a look at it. It was up at least a meter higher than usual at that point. (Last week when we went down to the riverbed for a picnic, there was evidence that it had been a couple of meters higher than normal at some point recently!) We live about a quarter of a mile from the river, and could hear it roaring loudly from here. Usually, you can see a wide stretch of rocks here, going about halfway across the river.

Two weeks ago, we went “over the hill” to visit friends in Canterbury. Soon after we got over Lewis Pass, we had people feeling carsick, so stopped along this river for several minutes to let tummies settle down. It was so beautiful! Such a clear, blue sky and clean air, and the snow in the distance.

This was after we got out of the mountains, and I was looking back.

We enjoyed seeing this herd of Belted Galloways. Those calves were so cute! I wish the light had been better, but this was the best I could do for a photo.

We very much enjoyed two days of meetings with our church family over there. I took this photo just before we left, while I was sitting in the van feeding the baby. It was hard to leave!

Going home—more snow-capped mountains!

Several months ago, I wrote a review about a science program we were using. I just got an email that they have a new resource available, free. It looks really good, and a lot of fun. There are heaps of video lessons in it, and if they are anything like the ones we watched from this company already, we’ll learn a lot from them and be fascinated at the same time. I look forward to enjoying these soon! Go to the landing page for the Mighty Feathers Science Goodie to see what you think. If you like the course and want to subscribe to other topics, use this link, and enter the code loh12 for $5.00 off your purchase. I’d like to know what you think of the Mighty Feathers course, if you try it out!