NZ Filbruns

Book Review—The Nutcracker’s Suite

December 8, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book

Book: The Nutcracker’s Suite
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian Christmas Historical Mystery, Fairytale retelling
Release date: November 26, 2021

“Time to dance, sugarplum.”

A painter at the Meyer’s Toys factory, Clarice Stahl, knows something is strange about the way so many men come and go through Mr. Meyer’s office, especially one in particular.

Then murder strikes a little too close to home and uncorks a barrel of secrets.

When mob king, Mario Topo’s, enforcer goes missing the race is on to prove he’s behind the murder. Police and mobsters alike are after Milo Natale, and he who finds Milo first might determine the enforcer’s fate.

A race through the city, a new friend… or more… a new life in the offing. Milo and Clarice must find who killed Topo’s man and why before the police arrest him for murder or Topo’s men bump him and Clarice off, too.

This next book in the Ever After Mysteries combines “The Nutcracker Suite” with a murder mystery set in the heart of 1920s Rockland.

My Thoughts:

As a rule, I avoid murder mysteries. I don’t like reading about murder. However, if Chautona Havig writes a murder mystery, I’ll read it because I haven’t found very many books by her that I don’t like. Her most recent book in this genre is The Nutcracker’s Suite. It is based on the fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which I haven’t read, so I have no idea how closely or loosely it follows that story!

There are so many fun elements in this book. I really enjoyed reading it. Finding unknown family, adjusting to many new things, avoiding the rival mobs and figuring out how to run business honestly in a corrupt world. Milo is fun, too—he stutters and mixes up his words all the time! I also liked how feminine and ladylike Clarice is. Bottom line? Although this is a murder mystery, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will help to finance Esther’s website.

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 at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More From Chautona:

Here Are Several Fun Facts & a Secret about The Nutcracker’s Suite

You’d think that while writing a book based on the fairy tale of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, I’d have heard “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” in my head as I wrote. Well, I guess for a brief moment I did, because at some point, someone actually says that. “Dance, sugar plum!”

But Tchaikovsky isn’t who played in my head as I wrote. Over and over, word after word, my fingers did their bourres and glissades across my keyboard to one, rather unexpected song. “Ballerina” (I prefer the version sung by Buddy Clark. You can listen HERE.)

However, there are so many elements of the original ballet’s story in mine. I thought I’d share a few of them.

Let’s talk about the cast of characters.

Clarice Stahl is our “leading lady.” It’s kind of obvious where I got her name since the original character was Clara Stahlbaum.

Clarice works for Mr. Dieter Meyer, the owner of Meyer’s Toys. He gives her the job of painting nutcrackers. So, it’s not too difficult to see the connection to Uncle Drosselmeyer who gives Clara the nutcracker, no?

All of 1925 Rockland is in the clutches of mob king, Mario Topo. For those not fluent in Italian, can you guess what “topo” is in that language? Remember… he’s the mob “king.”

But I think my favorite name of all is Emiliano (I call him Milo) Natale (Christmas in Italian… just sayin’) who is known as “the nutcracker.” He’s an enforcer for Mr. Topo, and that means he squeezes people until they crack and do what Topo wants. Let’s hope he repents!

Yes, I had a boatload of fun coming up with this stuff! How’d you guess?

I have a secret to confess about this book. I’m writing this post when I’m only about a quarter of the way done. I went to get the synopsis for this tour and went, “oops!” You see, I forgot that I’d planned to make Milo going missing a big part of the plot.

Guess who has to flex? I’d better get back to it. They need to figure out who killed our victim… and why. And before Clarice is next!

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

November 2021 Photos

December 5, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Can you believe it’s December already? Here are the last of our photos from November.

The first weekend of the month, on Mr. Diligence’s birthday, we drove across the mountains to attend a friend’s 21st birthday party. Mr. Diligence turned 16, so I’ll start calling him by his name, James. He is excited to be working full-time, and, Lord willing, will be starting an apprenticeship in the new year. Anyway, this picture was taken on the way over. The boys in the back of the van thought they were tired! James is on the bottom, with Mr. Imagination to the left and Mr. Sweetie on the right. Now, of course, since James has his license, you won’t catch him in the back—at least willingly!

This was taken that evening. After we sang Happy Birthday to the 21-year-old, her mother cut a slice of cake and put a candle on it for James, and we sang for him.

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This may actually have been taken in September or October—I’m not sure. I just found it on Gayle’s phone recently. It was taken in Waikari, near the church we attend when we’re over there. Near the church is a public restroom, and these concrete sheep are in front of it.

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Mr. Sweetie went with Gayle and some friends to the sea one day, and Gayle took this picture of him.

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Someone found a crab that day.

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Simon often picks up vehicles for his boss. This was a day he had driven an hour to pick up a farm vehicle to be fixed, and stopped by home for a few minutes before taking it to the workshop.

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Elijah was laying on the couch reading one evening when Princess decided he would make a perfect place for a nap!

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Elijah saw this pretty flower when he was doing a job in Westport one day, and took a picture to show me. It sure brightens up an otherwise uninspiring fence!

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Science and Carpets

November 28, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I started going through a new science textbook with my three schoolchildren in October (sure seems strange to only have three in school! Technically, there are four, but Mr. Diligence is now working almost all the time, since he turned 16.). We are working through Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics, from Apologia. I’m finding it quite interesting. I think I may have done some chemistry in high school, but I really don’t remember for sure—and if I did, I don’t remember it! The children are struggling to understand what we’re learning and to enjoy it, but they love the experiments!

This experiment was to show how substances of different densities react. We mixed differing amounts of salt into these cups of water, and then put some into a straw. It was a lot of fun to figure out how to do this.

One jar held salt water, the other plain water—the egg floated in one of them.

What things float and what things sink?

Each of the children got to fashion a boat from a piece of foil. Which ones would hold up the most coins?

Mr. Sweetie was the winner! He shaped his foil over a bowl.

Elijah is enjoying his apprenticeship as a floor layer. One job he did a couple of weeks ago was to lay carpet tiles in the dining room/lobby of a seven-story hotel in Greymouth. He was given this diagram to follow. It is supposed to symbolize the Grey River, the sea, and the mountains. I was in town several days later, while he was working on the upper floors, and stopped in so I could see this amazing floor. It was still under plastic to protect it while renovations continue, but even so I could tell it is beautiful!

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Here is a picture Elijah took from an upper floor. What a view! That is the Grey River, emptying into the sea in the distance.

Review Crew—Blue Ribbon Awards

November 24, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Every year, the Homeschool Review Crew asks for votes on favorite reviews. I didn’t manage to get my votes in this year, but when I looked over the list of reviews we did this year, I realized this was our best year yet! I wrote 20 reviews, and 9 of them were for products that I liked well enough to continue using or use again. The Crew just posted their list of Blue Ribbon Awards, and I noticed that several of the winners were also among our favorites!

I have been pulling Superstar Spelling out periodically to help Mr. Imagination practice spelling. I like that I can make up my own spelling lists for him with it, using words that he misspells in his regular work. When he’s using Superstar Spelling, he’s definitely more careful with writing his answers!

Teaching Textbooks turned out to be a perfect fit for Mr. Diligence for this, likely his last, year of high school. He did Geometry, and the video lectures worked well for him. By the end of the year, it was taking him two hours to work through one lesson, but he maintained a 92% average all year. I remember struggling with Geometry, even though math, in general, was easy for me, so I was very glad to have a course that worked so well for him. Teaching Textbooks is a math course that I will be happy to pay for in the future, for high school math. Teaching Textbooks was voted the favorite Middle School resource this year by the Crew.

My younger children loved One More Story. They spent a lot of time for awhile listening to books on it, and Little Miss was asking if she could use it again a few days ago. I like the selection of older, wonderful picture books on this site.

We’re still working our way through Sparkling Bits of Writing, from Creative Word Studio. I really like this creative writing course! Lessons don’t take very long, and they are quite varied. Each one is fresh and new, and requires creative thinking! We’re doing a lesson, on average, once a week.

We’re also still working through Project Passport: Ancient Egypt from Home School in The Woods. We started using this course in June, and are up to Stop 13 by now. We’re doing a stop about once every two weeks at the moment, which seems to be about right for us. I am liking the variety of activities that are used to teach about different aspects of Egyptian life, history and culture. Home School in the Woods was voted the favorite history/social studies resource by the Crew.

The Fallacy Detective is a very good book. We haven’t quite finished it; the goal was to read one lesson each evening, but after I got the review written we let life get in the way. We read one this week, though! It has made a difference in the way several of us think. We were talking to a friend a month or so ago, and twice during the conversation, as she was relating things other people had said, we identified fallacies. We also, now, more easily notice and identify fallacies in things we hear in the newspaper and from the government. This book is the favorite elective with the Crew.

Little Miss is still enjoying Beginning Thinking Skills from The Critical Thinking Company. We’re almost to the end of it now. She most enjoys the pages we can do on the computer; the ones that I print out for her to do something with are less popular, because they require work. She likes figuring out the puzzles.

I’m planning to use the Wagon Wheels Progeny Press guide again when Miss Joy is old enough. The trick will be remembering we have it! I really like that kind of study. Progeny Press was voted the favorite literature resource of the year by the Crew.

MathRider will continue to be used as extra practice for math facts, too. Even the speed drills and flashcard practice built into our regular math program isn’t enough to really get my children fast with their math, so I’m hoping MathRider will be a help. This was the favorite math supplement with the Crew this year.

From other years, there are a few review products that really stand out. We reviewed Let’s Go Geography twice, in 2017 and 2020. We’re still working our way through that course, a lesson every couple of weeks. We’re using Page a Day Math here during our summer break, for more practice with basic facts. As a family, we’re working our way through Experience Astronomy from Journey Homeschooling—we only have a few lessons left. I think everyone is finding it very interesting! We just finished going through Bible Unearthed from Drive Through History. When we first did the review, those of us who are at home every day went through most of the lessons; later, we started watching them in the evening so Gayle and the older boys could see them. Grammar Planet was also a winner. Elijah and Mr. Diligence both made it through the entire program, and I’m planning to buy it for Mr. Sweetie next year.

I’ve always had trouble fitting in “extras” like history and geography. A couple of months ago I changed tactics and, instead of trying to fit them all in every week, we’re rotating through them. We’re using Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics for science right now; it has 14 lessons, which are each a chapter of the book. We spend several days or a week working through one of those chapters, then do a writing lesson from Sparkling Bits of Writing. Then, we spend three days doing a geography lesson from Let’s Go Geography, then another writing lesson. Next, we spend a few days or a week doing a lesson about Ancient Egypt, and then another writing lesson. Then, the cycle starts over. So far, this is working well. We get in all the extras I want to do, and are able to focus on each subject for an entire lesson, but don’t get burned out on one subject. I don’t know if it would have worked with my older children, but with the three I’m teaching right now, it’s fairly popular!

To see what other programs or products won the Blue Ribbon Awards, check out this post. Also, if you have a blog, public Facebook page, YouTube channel, or Instagram page, and want to join the Homeschool Review Crew, fill out the application here. New members are always needed as families age out!

Little Girls!

November 21, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It is so much fun having two little girls in our home. After having a lot of boys, I especially enjoy the girls. Miss Joy is old enough now that the two of them play together a lot. Playing house is now a thing in our home, something we rarely, if ever saw, while we had lots of young boys. This day, they had most or all of the dolls, doll clothes, and soft toys in the hallway, and were doing puzzles while holding their dolls.

Miss Joy loves to write and draw. She often spends a lot of time writing long letters or stories like this. The most recent example had a lot of circles, carefully drawn in the lines.

She discovered Little Miss’s pick-up-sticks. Her way of playing with them is to dump them on the floor and then carefully lay them back in the box.

I glanced out the window one afternoon this week and saw Miss Joy walking down the street in front of our house (it’s basically a driveway), telling Grizzly to follow her.

Product Review—I Know It

November 16, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We finished our math books for the year early, in October, and we won’t be starting our new books until February, so I was happy to try I Know It to fill in the gap so that Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss won’t forget everything they’ve learned! I Know It has math lessons for grades K-5, so it worked perfectly for us right now. It is intended as a supplement to any math curriculum; I just picked lessons that reviewed or reinforced concepts that I felt each child needed a bit more practice with before we drop studies altogether for the summer.

I Know It is very easy to use. We were given a Family license. With this license, there is only one login/password for everyone in the family, and when we login, we simply click on the picture with our name. I like that, because it can be tricky to have a different password for each child! It’s very easy to switch users with this system. There are two ways to approach lessons. You can let each child choose their own lessons, or you can assign lessons. I chose to assign lessons, which is also very easy. I simply got onto my page, browsed through the topics and looked at the sample problems, which appear when I hover over a lesson. Then, if I want someone to do that lesson, I click the check to the right of the lesson title. A box pops up which allows me to assign the lesson to any or all of the children. I can also choose how long the lesson stays on their home page, how many problems I want them to work (1-40), and whether they need to redo the lesson if they get less than a certain percentage correct. Then, click Assign Now, and the lesson is on that child’s page for them to work through when they next login! After I showed each of my three students how to use the program, I didn’t have to help them much at all except for assigning more lessons when they had completed the ones I had already given them. I did find out that Mr. Sweetie can’t remember what add, subtract, and multiply mean. He gets them mixed up! Oops. (I think he’s slightly dyslexic.)

The parent dashboard gives all sorts of reports about the children’s progress. One tab shows fun graphs of what they have accomplished. Another shows the lessons they have worked on and the scores they got. Obviously, one of them is struggling with decimals!

Children are given immediate feedback for each problem. If they got it right, a banner shows up across the problem, saying “Good Job!” or something like that, and the robot in the lower right corner of the screen does a dance. If the child doesn’t like the robot, it’s easy to switch to an emoticon or nothing by clicking the arrow beside the robot. Mr. Sweetie, doing 5^th grade work, was automatically given the emoticons, because the program figures that older children like them better. He was delighted, however, to figure out how to get the robots that the others had! If the answer is incorrect, the correct answer is shown and explained—and the robot acts very disappointed.

Little Miss enjoyed this program. She did very well with it; school is easy for her. She just finished 1^st grade, so that is the level of lessons I assigned to her. She found all that I gave her quite easy, especially since directions can be read aloud so she didn’t have any trouble understanding them. Mr. Imagination didn’t have any trouble, either; he just finished 4^th grade, so that’s the level I assigned to him. The first day or two, he had to learn the terminology that was used. He was working with place value, and the wording was different from what he was used to. He soon picked up on it, though, and had no more trouble. Mr. Sweetie, however, had a lot of trouble. I assigned him to work with decimals, and it turned out to be adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with decimals, which he struggles with. He has just finished 6^th grade, and I gave him 5^th grade work, but it was still quite a challenge for him.

I Know It is a great way to supplement a math curriculum. It does well at giving more practice in areas in which a child is weak, and for keeping in practice through holidays. Each lesson, except the decimal ones Mr. Sweetie struggled with, took about 10-15 minutes to complete, so it’s a quick, easy way to keep up skills. Click the image below to see what other families have to say about it!

Children Playing in Water–Videos Then and Now

November 14, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I remembered a funny video Esther took in September 2010, so we found and watched it. It made me laugh again, just as in the past! The baby is Mr. Sweetie. Seth is in the yellow shirt on the bike. Simon has a yellow and brown striped shirt, Elijah has a blue striped shirt, and Mr. Diligence is the cute little fellow in the maroon shirt. They sure have grown up since then!

This was yesterday, with Little Miss and Miss Joy starring. Puddles were made for children!

Book Spotlight—Dishing Up Devotions

November 11, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

About the Book

Book: Dishing Up Devotions
Author: Katie J. Trent
Genre: RELIGION / Christian Living/Devotional/EDUCATION/ Home Schooling
Release date: October 26, 2021

Homeschooling is a challenging journey that’s often misunderstood. The thirty-six weeks that parents have to educate their homeschooled children don’t just come together magically. There are lessons to plan and oversee, records to keep, routines to follow, and kids to motivate. It can feel overwhelming as the teaching parent—usually Mom—tries to tackle both the educational and spiritual aspects of the children’s lives while also keeping up with household tasks such as cooking and laundry.

Dishing Up Devotions: 36 Activities for Homeschooling Families infuses faith and fun to strengthen family relationships while nourishing the teaching parent’s soul.
It features thirty-six weekly devotions, faith-building activities for the whole family, and baking recipes connected to the weekly character theme.
Author Katie Trent’s goal is to take the stress out of homeschooling with a devotional that the whole family will love through:

Encouragement from other homeschooling parents
Biblical lessons even toddlers can understand
Interactive family activities
Delicious baking recipes related to the weekly theme

Homeschooling just got easier—and deliciously fun!

My Thoughts:

I read through this book in a hurry, because I didn’t get it until a few days ago. It is encouraging; this author is a homeschooling mother and knows what we need. The activities that she suggests to reinforce the week’s theme look like fun. The recipes look delicious, although I personally don’t make that type of desserts. Children would love them, though! If I had a print copy of this book, and was able to take more time with it, it would be more useful to me. If you are a homeschool mother and need encouragement, this might be just the thing for you!

About the Author:

Katie Trent is a homeschool mom and the director of a Christian homeschool community outside Phoenix, Arizona.

She has a decade of experience in counseling children, teens, and families, having worked as clinical director of two mental health agencies and as an elementary school counselor before transitioning to homeschooling and writing.

Katie and her husband James have over twelve years of pastoral ministry and church planting experience.

Through writing, blogging, and speaking, Katie loves to inspire women to grow their faith, strengthen their families, and simplify their homeschool journeys.

Katie received her B.A. degree in social work from Boise State University and her master’s in social work from Northwest Nazarene University. She has written for The Christian Journal magazine, blogs, and several websites.

More From Katie:

Homeschooling is more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. These thirty-six devotions are fun for the whole family, and tasty. It is just the right flavor for a busy family.

—Robert BortinsCEO, Classical Conversations

JOY BOMBS (GLUTEN-FREE)

Ingredients

½ cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

½ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 cup walnuts, raisins, or toffee (optional)

Glaze (if desired)

1 ½ – 2 cups powdered sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. cinnamon

2-3 tbsp. milk

Directions

Thoroughly cream shortening, sugar, and eggs in large bowl. Stir in evaporated milk and vanilla.66 Dishing Up Devotions

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Links may be affiliate links, and if you buy a book through them, Esther will be paid a few cents.

Book Review—Speak Now

November 10, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 4 Comments

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book: Speak Now
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Fiction / Christian / Romance
Release date: May 30, 2013

Some say you only love once. They’re wrong.

Ask Jonathan Lyman. Still grieving for his wife, he walks into that wedding with no idea his entire life is about to change. It was just supposed to be a simple—oh, who am I kidding? It was supposed to be a typical, lavish, family wedding.

But there’s nothing typical about falling in love with a woman walking down the aisle. So to speak.

Cara Laas is falling hard and fast for a man whose heart doesn’t want to let go of the past and is rushing to meet her in the present. At the same time. That she’s half in love with his children doesn’t help, either.

Their attraction may be their undoing, but is either ready for “till death do us part?”

She’s a master at making others comfortable. He’s never comfortable talking, but if he wants her heart, he’s going to have to speak—now sooner than later, if you don’t mind.

My Thoughts:

I first read Speak Now about six years ago. It was one of the few books by Chautona Havig that I actually bought—she gave me copies of most of her books! I was pretty disappointed in it at that time; it is focused on the romance more than a lot of her other books, and I prefer to have more of a plot than just romance. I signed up to review it now, though, just because I like Chautona so well, and read it again. What do I think of it now?

I appreciated the portrayal of a couple who were determined to honor God in their relationship and not sin with each other. I also appreciated Chautona’s carefulness to not arouse feelings in her readers with descriptions of kisses. The cleanness of her romances always favorably impresses me. I enjoyed the story this time through, although it still isn’t my favorite of her books. I may well read it again sometime, however—I really appreciated a lot of aspects of it!

I received a review copy of this book from the author, although I had bought it six years ago, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

About the Author:

More From Chautona:

All New Cover, All New Edits, Same Great Story?

The article condemned the overuse of dialogue. I did a bit of research, and my heart sank. It seemed dialogue was out. Lyrical prose was in. Great. Just what I needed.

I write a decidedly dialogue-driven story. Always have.

Every time I tried to shift character discussions into narrative, my prose took a nose-dive into a tank of boring info-dumping. Blech. Those characters wanted to talk. They didn’t want me to tell readers what they wanted to say. They wanted me to let them tell their story as they lived it.

Characters can be pretty demanding.

Then Jonathan stepped up. He didn’t talk—didn’t want to talk. In fact, he didn’t like it. Refused to do it. And yet… how could he hope to get to know a woman who fascinated him if he didn’t at least ask questions to get her to carry most of the conversation.

Research says that if you gaze into someone’s eyes for four minutes, you’ll develop a strong bond with that person. I suspect that’s what “love at first sight” is. Two people who foolishly keep gazing into a stranger’s eyes long enough to form that bond. Or something.

I also suspect that’s what happened to Jonathan that night.

So here I had a character who did not like to talk. And aside from self-absorbed people, most of us don’t like to carry an entire conversation alone, so the woman he met that night, Cara, wouldn’t enjoy chatting all by herself all night.

Look, I tried to make it less dialogue-driven and not all info-dumpy. I tried to keep it an engaging read without so much discussion. But the dialogue refused to go away. It wanted its place. It needed to be there.

So I caved, certain I was going to be a mediocre writer for the rest of my life.

I hated that book for so long. In fact, I never intended to publish it. Why would I put something out there so very bad? The articles, books, videos—all the things I’d read said I was doing something wrong.

Except one friend. Michele loved the story—begged for new installments. Pleaded with me to finish it. So, I did. For her. I published it, even. Only for her. And you know what? I still hated it.

Despite that book having the best scene I’ve ever written in it.

No joke. There’s a scene in there that I’m always amazed to realize that I wrote. It’s powerful and raw and oh, so poignant. And yes, there are words in it—spoken words by my characters.

A few years passed. I still didn’t like the book. In my mind, it was a failure.

Then someone said something to me one day. “You are so good at dialogue.”

Later, someone else said it again. And later, I heard it again. Here I’d spent all this time and frustration fighting against one of my biggest writing strengths. Because some article made me question the best way to write. When I did searches on writing good dialogue, guess what? I found rebuttal arguments that included references to books I loved. Oops.

To say my eyes opened, and I saw something new in that story might be overkill. If anything, I assumed that meant it was as bad as I thought.

I felt certain that was why I didn’t like that book. It didn’t have “my” dialogue. So I reread it, determined to figure out if I should rewrite the whole thing with more.

Know what I discovered? I like the book.

Okay, Speak Now may never make my top-ten favorites of the books I’ve written. In fact, I guarantee it won’t.

But it won’t make the bottom ten anymore, either. In fact, it’s closer to top than bottom these days. And now it has a new cover, which I’m sure my daughter is pleased about. As the photographer for my original cover, she hated how I blew out the highlights on it. I loved the effect for that book, but with new editing, a few dialogue changes, and of course, that scene I love so much (and one tiny subplot that I never explored well changed for something else), it needed a new cover. And so I have it now. Introducing Speak Now 2.0. I’m so excited to share this book with the world.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—MathRider

November 9, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

One thing I am always on the lookout for is a way to make practicing math facts fun and easy. When we were offered a license to use MathRider recently, I jumped at the chance. This program makes it fun to practice facts. In fact, for the first several days we had it, Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination and Little Miss all competed to be able to play it first! The enthusiasm has lessened somewhat as the facts are getting harder, but they still enjoy it, for the most part.

The basic idea is that you and your horse Shadow go on a quest. You might need to find a flower to cure your mother, a gem that some monkeys have stolen, or the place to which a kidnapped princess has been taken. To meet the goal, you must ride your horse through a series of beautiful and mysterious lands, and the horse must jump one obstacle after another. The only way he can make the jumps is if you answer the math facts correctly before he gets to them. The faster you answer, the faster he runs and the more points you get, which means you finish the quest sooner. Each quest contains as many rides of 30 math facts each as it needs to so that you can get the number of points needed for that quest.

Players only answer facts for one function at a time. It is recommended to do the addition quests first, and then subtraction, followed by multiplication and division. Each function has four levels, and the recommendation is to do the Starter level first, then Intermediate and Advanced, finishing with Master. That last one appears to be just one ride. I’m the only one who has reached that level yet here, and it seemed that finishing was based on speed and accuracy. After every ride, you get to look at the map to see how far through the quest you have gotten. From that, you can see how much farther you have to go to reach the goal.

Each player has their own dashboard with statistics. The “top challenges” are the facts you have missed.

Except for one thing, I really like MathRider. I hadn’t been actively looking for a program to make math practice fun, but I am glad to have this, and we’ll be using it until we stop for our summer break, around Christmas. I like that the children can use this without any help from me, and I like that they are only racing themselves, not other children or the computer. I like that the program adjusts itself quickly to the child’s speed; Shadow walks or runs according to how fast the answer is entered. I really like the simplicity, yet attractiveness, of this program! I also like that the program is offline. You simply download the installer, install the program, and enter the registration key that has been emailed.

The one thing I don’t like is the magical aspect. In one of the quests, there is a wizard who gives you directions for the quest, and the ending is always somewhat magical. It’s such a good program otherwise, though, that we’ll use it for awhile anyway.

Little Miss really likes MathRider still. Mr. Sweetie says it’s “ok.” Mr. Imagination says it’s awful. He has tried the same quest six times and still can’t achieve mastery! I think all three are stuck on the Intermediate level of Addition. It is certainly exposing their weak areas! Mr. Sweetie, for example, doesn’t know 5+7=12 very well. Mr. Imagination has still been counting on his fingers to add, even though he’s in fourth grade; I noticed that by now, after a month of using MathRider, he’s not using his fingers as much. I think that, if we’re consistent with it, he’ll learn the facts a lot better.

Click on the image below to read other people’s reviews of MathRider!

NZ Filbruns

About the Book

Here Are Several Fun Facts & a Secret about The Nutcracker’s Suite

Let’s talk about the cast of characters.

Yes, I had a boatload of fun coming up with this stuff! How’d you guess?

About the Book

ABOUT THE BOOK

All New Cover, All New Edits, Same Great Story?

So I caved, certain I was going to be a mediocre writer for the rest of my life.

Know what I discovered? I like the book.

Thank you!