A MUST for Your Thanksgiving Reading List

Read Aloud Thursday is coming a little early this week... so you have some time to possibly find and use this wonderful book before the day gets here.  Sorry I'm so late, but that's been my life lately - lots of winging it and trusting God to put the right materials in my path at the right time.  This week, HE surely has taken care of me!  

One of the few books we haven't rowed in Five In A Row's first volume is Cranberry Thanksgiving.   Last year I looked for the book and the library didn't have it, and it the cheapest I could find it for was $47.   Needless to say, we skipped that one.


This year, however, I'm very plugged into our local homeschool group and I sent out an email asking for the book.   A very sweet woman replied to me offering to let me borrow the book, and, in addition, the other FOUR Cranberry books.   I now have in my possession Cranberry Thanksgiving, Cranberry Autumn, Cranberry Birthday, Cranberry Easter, Cranberry Summer, and Cranberry Valentine.    


These are the CUTEST BOOKS!  Written by Wende and Harry Devlin, the books take place in Cranberryport and chronicle the adventures of Maggie, her grandmother, Mr. Whiskers, and assorted other characters.


Today, while tweeting about this book (I often do this to get ideas for lessons), I was chatting with Stacey (from BrainIn Trainin) because I know she loves to row books, too.  I asked if she had blogged about this book and she said

Sometimes I just like to row a book without having to blog about it! 

 Ahhh... How true!  The same applies to us with this book; we are enjoying the book and are slowly working our way through the lapbook and other elements, but I'm just going to scratch the surface with this post... with the holiday and other things looming there just isn't TIME to record this row!


After reading Cranberry Thanksgiving and Cranberry Autumn, we were inspired to try one of the recipes at the end of the book (each book has one recipe).  The signature recipe for Thanksgiving is the Cranberry Bread (which will be tried soon!) but tonight we tried the Cranberry Autumn Crisp from Cranberry Autumn.   It was DELICIOUS!  You can find the whole recipe here.  Serve it warm with ice cream and everyone will LOVE you!

While we were eating the dessert, I read to the kids a little bit about cranberries from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' website.  We learned that cranberries grow in BOGS, have excellent nutritional value, and their name is derived from Native Americans.   I'm sure as we complete the lapbook we will learn even more about the northeast, cranberries, Thanksgiving, and all those other wonderful tidbits Five in a Row ties up so neatly into one book!  


I get most of my Five in A Row resources from the manual (of course), but then also through Homeschool Share.  This is probably my FAVORITE resource on the web.   AND, they have just started a new blog.  Are you a follower??  

Happiest of Thanksgivings to you all --- I hope you get a chance to read Cranberry Thanksgiving at some point in your homeschool journey.  It is one of those books that makes memories!  

My Blogging Time ~ And Some Resources for You!

Life has gotten very busy the past several months.   I don't mind - that's the stage of life I'm at and I feel blessed to be busy.  My mother told me a few years ago, "Mary, it's GOOD to have a sense of purpose".   Those words have stuck with me.  Believe me, I have purpose!  (can you hear me laughing?)


I feel as if I haven't posted as much of the "nitty gritty" homeschool stuff that I have in the past because I've been reviewing products.  I'm trying to strike a balance between the two, so please be patient with me.  I know I haven't kept up with Twitter and commenting on blogs.   I think this has been God's way of steering me away from too much social media.  I spent WAY too much time in the alternate universe of Twitter and Facebook and I'm happy to say I'm not there much anymore. 


I have not monetized my blog and I don't do ads or sponsors. I also don't conduct giveaways on my blog for legal reasons.  (I've been amazed by the companies that say it's perfectly fine to not do a giveaway on my site... I always thought it was kind of something you just had to do, but guess what?  It's my blog, and I run it my way!)  It's just something that I can't keep up with and can't see the benefit for my family right now.  I am in awe of the bloggers that can manage their home life and their blogs -- I'm not so good at it, so I have to keep it simple, especially since I am a part of Three Thinking Mothers, too! 


My first obligation is to my God and family, not my blog.  I do, however, enjoy blogging and it has some distinct benefits for myself and my family.  Here's a little breakdown of how I spend my online time.         



If you're not aware, I am a part of the TOS Review Crew for the 2011-2012 year.  If you aren't familiar with the crew and what we do, you should be!   We help The Old Schoolhouse Magazine review products... there is a huge crew of homeschool bloggers who receive products and offer our honest opinion of these products.  Sometimes they are WONDERFUL, other times they are average.  I always try to give my honest opinion.   I hope you've read some of my reviews! 


Last year I remember reading a review post about something called Talking Fingers: Read, Write and Type.  Wow.   It looked great and upon ordering it for my son he LOVED it.    From then on I kept my eyes on the crew blog, and when they were accepting applications for reviewers you can bet I applied.


In the beginning I thought it would just be excellent to get some free products.  Little did I know the service the crew offers to other homeschool families, or the friendships I would make on the crew.  I am blessed to be involved in such a wonderful program.  


Recently, I've also become a Tommy Mommy - reviewing just one or two products for Tommy Nelson each month.  The Tommy Moms are a great resource for you, too.  So far I've completed one review (for a product which I thoroughly recommend.)  


As you shop for Christmas, or consider curriculum needs for your children, please take advantage of reading reviews and visiting The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew and Tommy Mommy.   

What I hope is that you still enjoy reading Homegrown Learners even though the focus has changed slightly.  I hope I still provide you with ideas for your homeschool and a glimpse into our life as a homeschooling family.  That's the mission of my blog.  

**And here's a tip:  my FAVORITE thing I've reviewed this year was Wits and Wagers and Say Anything -- two FUN games for your family.  These would be GREAT Christmas presents!!!