Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day

I was given the opportunity to watch the “Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day” DVD created by the Institute for Excellence in Writing company. The DVD is essentially Andrew Pudewa presenting this topic at a conference of some sort, so it is visually nothing fancy, but it is jammed packed of very interesting information on generalized differences in boys and girls.




The DVD is priced at $10.00 and runs about 80 minutes. It is divided up into 3 parts…The 4 Forms of Relevancy, The 3 Laws of Motivation and The 2 Secret Weapons.

I found the information presented informative and highly helpful.
To peak your interest…who hears better, boys or girls? What types of words do boys use more often in writing and vice versa what words do girls use more often? How do boys and girls handle pain or stress differently? How do boys and girls see differently? Knowing these differences…we can then teach more effectively. The DVD also gives tips to motivate your child(ren) to do something they may not want to do. I would recommend this DVD or MP3 download (which is only $3.00) to anyone who is interested in gaining some additional wisdom about your children, especially those with boys.

I am always in awe of God and how he has created us not only as individuals, but also as male or female genders.

To read other TOS reviews on this product or the Phonetic Zoo click here.

Disclaimer---I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review.

Tiny Planets

I was given the opportunity to review the website, Tiny Planets.

{ Tiny Planets provides award-winning educational entertainment set in space exploration and discovery, inspiring creativity and critical thinking in youth ages 4 to 12.
Tiny Planets features the cosmic adventures of Bing and Bong, two whimsical aliens who travel the Universe of Tiny Planets together on their gadget-loaded plush sofa. With Bing and Bong, children are encouraged to think for themselves, assume social responsibility, take care of our planet and learn about the mysteries of space. }


Tiny Planets Home is your central location to access all our Tiny Planets web sites. The Tiny Planets online content has won two BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards – Interactive Best Entertainment Website and Best Children's Interactive. We're quite proud of that!


On Tiny Planets TV you can watch any of the Tiny Planets television episodes. This series was co-created with Sesame Workshop and emphasizes science education and early learning goals, such as social and emotional development, language and literacy, problem-solving and reasoning, knowledge and understanding of our world, and creative development. Tiny Planets is the only television program to be endorsed by Montessori Centre International, and it's been a favorite in nearly 100 TV territories around the world. Thank you Montessori!


My Tiny Planets is a new online community and virtual world based on science and space exploration that combines social elements and gaming to create an engaging space exploration experience. Children create an avatar (affectionately called their “Space Cadet”), solve galactic missions with Bing and Bong, sharpen their wits with fast-paced mini-games, navigate their spaceships and avoid wormholes, adopt and care for their own planet, and nurture exotic plants in a biodome, all the while racking up achievements and special badges for their accomplishments.


On Tiny Planets Fun your child can take a few moments to enjoy brainy puzzle games (like fractions, sound and seek, and symmetry), as well as coloring books and comics.


On Tiny Planets Books you'll find interactive story books for younger children featuring Bing and Bong, their friends the locals and the flockers, and all the endearing planets in the Universe of Tiny Planets. Read these books with your child, or teach your child to read on their own!


Tiny Planets Learning is our site for parents, homeschoolers, and educators. Here you'll find lesson plans that include educational activities and science experiments to do at home. Also, you'll see how every episode in the Tiny Planets television series maps to early learning goals. Some Tiny Planets parents have even created curriculum for their children using these creative resources!


Tiny Planets Labs is our playground for things to come! We participate in several EU University research projects, keeping us technologically sharp. When we create new games, we put them on our labs site to test them out. Let us know what you think!

So far, my older boys, ages 9 and 10, have played on the website. They have mainly played with the My Tiny Planets and Tiny Planets Fun…my 9 year old responded with “It’s Awesome”, when I asked whether he liked it or not. He especially likes making his journal and playing the games.

It is free to sign up and create accounts for yourself and your children…though I will preface to say that the website is not totally free. There are many aspects that are free, but there are some that you will need to purchase “keys” in order for you child to use all areas. The “keys” are relatively cheap…10 for $1.95, 25 for $3.95, 85 for $9.95, 250 for $25.95 and 600 for $49.95. Most of the games or activities cost anywhere from 5-10 keys, but as I said before there are free ones too. I will also mention that creating accounts for your children was a little difficult at first as I saw no explanation of how…but I did figure it out. You need to click on the small “create a cadet” link first, that will give you names to use for the cadet account and then ask you to give a password. I like the idea that my children’s names are not on the website. FYI---write down this information so it is easier to “add cadet” on the parent’s account, especially if you have multiple children, as you may forget what they are by the time you need them. After you have gotten cadet names and passwords for each of your children that will be playing, go back to the parent’s account to sign up. Once you’ve done that it will ask you if you want to “add cadet”, click on it and put the cadet name and password that you wrote down, at that point you should be able to purchase “keys” if you want. I personally have not purchased “keys” yet as they still have many things they can do before we need to do that.

I like that there is a lot to do at the website…that it has multiple arenas to play at or do and for a wide difference in age. I would recommend this site, especially for those with boys.

To read other TOS reviews on this product click here.

Disclaimer---I was asked to review this website and (I still need to contact them) I  will receive some “keys” in exchange for my honest review.

The resilensce of kids...

An update on my youngest who had the spica cast (basically a full body cast) from a broken femur...he got it off last Wednesday the 8th. Hip Hip Hooray! He cried the whole time and wanted to keep it on, but later that night he was all kicks and movement of his legs. I was all sentimental after he had had his bath and was in his jammies...I had almost forgotten what he looked like with footed pajamas on, so incredibly cute.

Yesterday, only 5 days after he got the cast off, he is walking, granted he looks a little limpy gimpy and doesn't go too far, but never the less he is doing great!

Good Morning, God!

I was given the opportunity to review this beautifully illustrated children’s book from Apologia, written by Davis Carman.




The book is reasonably priced at $14.00. It comes with suggestions on how you can use the book…

*simply read the book

*read the story then ask the questions and do the activities that are at the back of the book or just pick some of both

* if you want to do a mini-curriculum, you can read the story everyday and do the questions and activities that are for that day of the week you are on…for example on Monday you would read the whole book, but maybe emphasize Monday then ask the Monday’s questions and activities.

I can’t say it any better than Apologia already did…                     
{Good Morning, God is a story about a four-year-old boy as he goes through a week with his family. This book is designed for children age one to eight years old. Ideally, this book will help your child fall in love with our heavenly Father by thinking about Him from sunrise to sunset. The hope is that this book will introduce children to the simple and wonderful ways we can worship God daily and inspire them to enjoy the Lord with their entire being all through the day. The prayers for each day are meant to encourage your child to consider his or her relationship with Jesus and respond with childlike faith.}

I, so far, have just simply read the book to the kids and they enjoyed the simple and repetitive text. I do plan on doing the other suggestions as well…                                                              
The activities and questions are different each day, such as, draw a picture of a heart, read Matthew 6:19-21, take a walk outside and look at all that God created, read Philippians 2:5-11 or questions like, What does it mean to be made in God’s image? Or What are some ways you can worship God?

The book is based on the Deuteronomy 6:6-7 passage, ^“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” The passage is woven throughout the book. It starts with Sunday going through each day of the week ending on Sunday again. If you want to see a sample of the book go here and click the sample chapter.

I love the the illustrations and the story of the little boy and how he goes about his day, how he thinks about his Heavenly Father and how his parents are impressing the word of God on their children. I would recommend this story to anyone with younger children.

I noticed that they have a coloring book that goes along with it as well for $4.00.

To read other TOS reviews on this product click here.

Disclaimer---I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.