Praising Him During Times of Stress

Previously, during stressful times in my life I would throw my hands in the air, get frustrated, and ultimately ask God loads of "why" questions. These tactics would of course get me no where, just more frustration, anger, and disappointment. How long did it take me to learn my lesson and change my ways? Oh lets see here now. . .only 34 years. Just call me a slow learner!!

If you've been reading this blog or following my other blog Two Pink Peas in a Pod then you know my family and I are in the middle of an incredibly stressful and emotionally draining time in our lives. This is not a situation my husband and I can keep to ourselves. We can not hide this stress from our children, everyone in our family is affected; even our dog and cat. February 9th, when the youngest two members of our family were born our lives were thrown head first into a whirlwind of emotions and situations that I never thought I'd have to deal with in my life. But here I am, 8 weeks into a 4 month stay in a level 3 NICU, 1.5 hours away from my family, and advocating everyday for my precious miracles.

What have I learned over the past 8 weeks? Too much to completely write here on this blog, that much is for sure. But I will do my best to communicate what my Heavenly Father has taught me and is urging me to put into words for the rest of you.

I am a bit of a control freak, that much I will admit to. I was particularly bad with control before having children and in my college years. I used to harbor a lot of anxiety, anger, and stress when things did not go as I had planned or wanted. If you are a parent you know very well that all forms of absolute control have to fly out the window as soon as you have kids. There are just too many curve balls thrown at you everyday as a parent to worry about and try to control every little thing. Letting go of the little things in life was fairly easy for me but from time to time I still struggle with the bigger things. Letting go and letting God take control is something I have really been trying to work on over the past few years.

When the girls were born 8 weeks ago (tomorrow) I immediately lost all control of every aspect of my life. No longer was I home to direct homeschooling, house cleaning, grocery shopping, and taking care of my children. I was also thrown into the unknown abyss of the NICU. The care of my girls was under someone else's control and direction. My daily routine had been put in a blender and set on high speed. There were days in those first few weeks here at the NICU that I couldn't keep my head from spinning so I began to write. I can remember one day in particular, it was a Thursday. On that day Britian took a turn for the worse, doctor's and nurses were constantly flowing in and out of her room, all I could do to cope was write. I must have written in my journal for 2 hours straight. Anything and everything that came to my mind was put on paper. Why did I do it? I am not sure to be quite honest, it is just all I knew to do. Perhaps when this roller coaster is said and done I will look back on that journal and cry tears of joy for how far my girls have come because of His healing powers.

Everything happens for a reason. I learned his hard lesson very early on in my stressful childhood. God does not bring you or I to a place that we can not get through. As the dust is settling and I am in a new NICU routine I can now see more clearly the areas of my life where I should be praising Him rather than questioning Him. Where I was once overwhelmed at the large number of staff and faculty here at the hospital I can now give praise to Him for placing some very special doctors and nurses in our lives. Caring, educated, and genuine people who will always hold a special place in my heart and people I will do my best to chronicle to my girls when they are older. I have found a special friendship in a fellow NICU Mom here. A fellowship that would have not otherwise been possible had it not been for the blessings God has given us both. Also through our stay in the NICU my family and I have been surrounded with an enormous amount of love and support. For this He is owed an enormous amount of praise.

Could I question God for this chapter in my life? Of course I could. Could I wallow in grief and frustration asking Him why my family and I are enduring these struggles? Of course I could. Could I scream and yell at Him for giving my twins this and all the ongoing challenges? Absolutely. But am I? For a few days to be honest, yes I did. But through prayer and time in His word I have come to a beautiful and comforting place in my heart where I can give Him praise for everything He has set before my family and I.

For friendships, lessons learned, outpouring of love and financial support, and for all of the experiences yet to come I will give Him praise daily.

Praising God during a stressful time is not easy at all. But from experience I can tell you it gets easier and lifts your spirit. When I began praying in earnest and giving God all the praise and glory He is owed for my current stresses I was immediately able to see the joy and beauty in our situation. What a beautiful gift that was!

Rather than questioning, I will give God all the praise and glory for this stressful situation as well as all future challenges He sees fit for me to endure and overcome.

TOS Review: Big IQ Kids

Big IQ Kids is an online spelling, math, vocabulary, and U.S. geography program all rolled into one. Through daily lessons students in elementary and middle school learn good study habits and increase their self confidence in the subjects covered. Big IQ Kids offers a free program as well as a paid premium program. You can view the differences in their programs here. As a part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool review crew, my children and I were able to review the premium program.

The spelling program includes over 40,000 words in the dictionary and is pre-set with 40 lessons and word lists. With this program you also have the option of adding your own word lists. Big IQ spelling will generate a weeks worth of lessons when you add your own spelling list. For this review I primarily used the "input your own" method but I also looked through the pre-loaded lesson plans. The 40 pre-loaded spelling list lessons are excellent and are appropriately challenging. For my 4th grade son we use a workbook method for spelling. While reviewing Big IQ Kids I simply input each of the 20 words from my son's workbook into a spelling list using this program. I liked that he could get more practice and reinforcement using this program. My son enjoyed doing some of his spelling lessons on the computer, it was a nice change of pace for him. I liked that he could not go on without mastering the quizzes which he often struggles with when he wants to "rush" through his assignments.

The Big IQ vocabulary program includes a large number of words from the elementary age through the SAT level. Like the spelling program there are pre-set word lists with lesson plans or you can input your own vocabulary words. The word lists are challenging and the lesson plans were appropriately structured. However, my son and I had a challenging time understanding the voice that "said" the words. It is a bit like a robot and the sounds were not always easy to understand. Also, the synonym and antonym portion of the lessons were at time illogical. However, once I explained the words to my son he grasped them a bit more. If I thought the antonym and synonym answers were not correct I just had my son skip that question and did not count the wrong answer on the overall quiz score. For example, one of the questions indicated that nail and board were anotonyms. The word board does not have an antonym so I had some trouble seeing how this was a plausible answer. Otherwise I thought the vocabulary exercises were challenging and the definitions were accurate.

Big IQ Kids math is a fun online program. As a parent you can customize the lessons and math facts included in each lesson. My son really enjoyed this math program and I think it provided him with math drills in a sufficiently challenging way. As with the other programs from Big IQ Kids, I wish as a parent I could review my son's progress without logging in as the student. Parent profiles linked to the child's information is helpful in creating lessons and reviewing progress. I could forsee older students or technilogically afvanced children modifying their own lessons without parental notice.

The U.S. States geography program from Big IQ Kids is comprehensive and educational. My son learned a ton from this program and I am happy to say can now identify all of the states by shape and nearly has all of the capitals memorized. This program quizzes students on state capitals and state locations, state spelling, abbreviations, and basic state facts. Additionally, parents can add extra facts that they would like their student to learn. I found this program particularly helpful for a state postcard swap that my children and I are participating in this year. As each postcard arrives in our mail I enter additional facts that the sender included on the card. It is a fun way to include the poastcards in our learning.

Pricing information:
$19.99 for one month of all 4 programs or $99.99 for a year.
Individual subjects for one month from $7.99
You can read more about their pricing programs here
Also, you can begin with the free program and upgrade to the premium program at any time.

Want to read more reviews for this program?

Big IQ Kids Review from TOS Homeschool Crew

TOS Crew Review: Reading Kingdom

As a member of The Old Schoolhouse review crew I was given the opportunity to review the Reading Kingdom. Reading Kingdom is an online reading program that teaches sequencing, motor skills, sounds, meaning, grammar and comprehension. This program is recommended for ages 4-10 and teaches reading to a 3rd grade level. Dr. Marion Blank, the inventor of the Reading Kingdom, has been honored with the Upton Sinclair Award which is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to education. She began with the Phonics Plus Five program and Reading Kingdom is an online “version” of that program.

Reading Kingdom teaches introduction to Reading & Writing, Keyboard & Mouse Training, Skills Survey 1, Seeing Sequences, and Letter Land. Once those are completed the child moves to reading & writing level 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

For this review I worked with both my 3yo and 6yo. My 3yo is a pre-reader and my 6yo is reading at about a 2nd grade level. I chose to do this review with both of my younger children because I knew my 3yo would benefit from letter recognition lessons and my 6yo would learn from the keyboarding practice available with this program. As we began this program I quickly realized that I would have to help both of my children with this program because of the short time limit for activity responses. In other words, my children were not able to find the letters on the keyboard quick enough for this program's pre-set parameters. This led to frustration despite my kids knowing their letters. So together my children and I worked on this reading program together. They were still learning but I provided a little extra guidance in the beginning to help them find the letters on the keyboard.

For example, in Letter Land the child learns to match and recognize letters by sight.

Then it progressively gets more difficult. . .

As the child progresses through Letter Land then they start reading and writing. In various portions of the reading and writing section the student is asked to match a singular word to its plural and choose the correct letter order for a given word. My 6yo particularly enjoyed this part of Reading Kingdom but I was always close by to help mitigate his frustration level by not being able to find a letter on the keyboard. Eventually, the more and more we played with this program both of my children became more adept at finding the letters on the keyboard quicker and needed less of my assistance.

Overall, both of my children enjoyed this program and learned a great deal from it. Working with both of them from the very beginning to prevent frustration with key hunting helped tremendously with their success in this program.

Program details:

Cost is $19.99 per month or $199.99 for a year. Each additional child is $9.99 per month.

Would you like to read more reviews from fellow crew members?

Reading Kingdom Reviews

Pirose Nursing Cover & Scarf Review

My twins will be a month old in just a few short days. As a Mama Buzz reviewer, shortly before they were born I was given the opportunity to review the Reno Rose Pirose nursing cover and scarf. When I received this item to review, little did I know to what capacity I would be using this new nursing cover.

With my previous children whom I all breast fed I simply used a blanket to cover myself and my baby when we were nursing in a setting which required modesty. These blankets were at times bulky and never stayed where I most needed them. When I was pregnant with the twins I knew I wanted to get a more formal nursing cover. Not only would I need something when we were out in public but my other kids are older now so modesty and covering up at home is also needed. I was elated when Mama Buzz offered the opportunity to review the Pirose cover.

The Pirose cover for nursing is much more than your typical nursing cover. No, this cover does not include an adjustable neck strap or rigid neckline to view your baby. However, because of the way this scarf cover is designed these features are not needed nor are they missing. I beautiful and light material of this cover flows so freely around Mom and baby that the highly marketed features of other nursing covers are not needed. The Pirose cover is contoured in such a way that the front is longer than the back and provides ample coverage while nursing. The thin flowing scarf material is light and airy which would be perfect for nursing year round but would be particularly nice if you live in a warm summer climate. An added and unexpected use that I have found for this nursing cover is to use while pumping. My girls are micro preemies so they are not able to nurse yet but I am still frequently pumping for them and I need to be covered while I pump in the NICU and at home. This cover is perfect for this use. Also, because it comes with its own matching storage bag I am able to throw it in my purse or in my breast pump bag easily. The material is so light that when packed away it takes up hardly any space; the wallet in my purse in larger than this cover when packed away. In addition to being a nursing cover, you can use it as a scarf and add some flare to your favorite matching outfit. The Pirose nursing cover comes in a wide variety of beautiful patterns, it might be hard to choose just one to purchase.

The Pirose for nursing covers are available for $35

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for my honest opinion and review. No other form of compensation was received.

TOS Review Crew: I See Sam

The Reading for all Learners Little Books, otherwise known as I See Sam is a collection of 8 sets of books, each containing up to 27 books per set. Published by Academic Success for all Learners, the Little Books collection begin at a kindergarten reading level and progress up to a 3.6 reading level. As a TOS Homeschool Review Crew member I had the opportunity to review the Little Books sets 1-4 with my 6 year old.

You can read the scope and sequence of the Little Books series here.

Little Books Set 1: for reading level K-1.0 and includes 27 books. This set teaches 27 new sounds, new sound combinations, 73 new words, 9 new sight words, and comprehension skills. Reading assessments are covered in books 6, 11,16, 21, 26. $30

Little Books Set 2: for reading level: 1.0 - 1.3 and includes 27 different books. This set teaches 5 new sounds, 2 new sound combinations, 98 new regular words, 8 new sight words, and comprehension skills. Reading assessments are covered in books 6,11,16,21,26. $30

Little Books Set 3 for reading level: 1.3 - 1.6 and includes 22 different books. This set teaches 15 new sounds, 2 new sound combinations, 109 new regular words, 15 new sight words, and comprehension skills. Reading assessments are covered in books 6,11,16,21. $30

Little Books Set 4 for reading level: 1.6 - 2.0 and includes 15 different books. This set teaches 8 new sounds, 4 new sound combinations, 374 new regular words, 44 new sight words, comprehension skills, and contractions. Reading assessments are covered in books 2,4,6,8,10,12,14. $30




When my 6 year old son and I first began this review I started with a couple of the reading assessments provided in sets 1 and 2. I wanted to make sure I was starting him in the appropriate set of books which would be at his learning level and not his frustration level. Once I found his learning reading level we dove right in to that set of books. Initially my son wanted to read multiple books at one setting, it was new curriculum so he was excited. Reading is something that comes easy to my son so I allowed him to set the pace at which he wanted to move through these books. With each book completed however I made sure he knew the words he was reading, could identify them on the flash cards included with each book set, and was mastering reading comprehension. There are scripted questions throughout each of the books which help assess reading comprehension, you could choose to use these questions or make up your own if you prefer. Also helpful in these book sets are the review and new "upcoming" words included in the front and back of every book. Before reading the story in each book, the student is encouraged to review the previously introduced words at the beginning of the book and then upon reading the story there is a list of new and upcoming words that will be included in the following book in that set. This feature was nice for my son because it helped review and reinforce words that he may have forgotten and it served as a quick reminder of the words he would be seeing in the upcoming story.


Also included as part of our review packet, I received the flash cards that correspond to each set of books. You have the option of purchasing these flash cards or downloading them for free. I found the flash cards to be very helpful with my son. When beginning a new set of books I sat with my son and we read through all of the flash cards for that set. As he tried to read the words I separated each card into a "know" and "need to work on" pile. Then before beginning any new book in that set we would read through the "need to work on" pile again and take out the ones he had learned, adding them to the "know" pile. My son really enjoyed this exercise. Not only did he gain confidence from seeing how big his "know" pile was but he also gained encouragement when he got to transfer a card form his "need to work on" pile to the "know" pile. This process not only helped him learn but it also helped me to gauge his overall learning and sound blends that we need to work on and reinforce more often.


I am happy to report that my son is still enjoying his I See Sam books. He will choose to read these books on his own fruition and enjoys the cute little story lines and fun characters.


Click here for an interactive view of a book in set 1.


Academic Success for all Learners has also made a bunch of downloads freely available for your use.


I will definitely be using this series of books to help start my preschool age daughter reading later this year!

You can read more reviews from fellow TOS Homeschool Crew Members!

I See Sam Reviews

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review and opinion. No other form of compensation was received.

TOS Review: Math Rider Math Game

Math fact drills and learning math facts "quick as snap" has always been a struggle for my oldest son. One day he will know certain facts quickly then the next day forget those facts while remembering completely different facts. This struggle has slowed his progress in higher level math operations. I have tried everything from flash cards, manual writing of math facts, online math games; you name it and I have probably tried it with my oldest son who is 9 years old.


When I found out I would be reviewing the Math Rider math game as a part of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I was excited. Any opportunity to review math facts in a fun way in this house is always a welcome addition.


Math Rider is a fun math fact drill game with a horse jumping over jumps or "poles" when a correct answer is provided. If an incorrect answer is provided for a particular jump or no answer is given the horse and rider stop at that jump and a very clear speaking narrator says the math sentence along with the correct answer. Math problems in which your child gave incorrect answers are added later in that same horse race to try and reinforce the correct answer and help your child learn while having fun. Each horse race is known as a "quest". You have the option of customizing your quest difficulty level as well as the moth drill covered. For example, for one child you can set them on an easy addition quest while another "rider" or child can drill advanced multiplication facts. At the end of each quest child and parent alike can review the math fact drill mastery from that quest. The mastery section is set in a grid format and color coded to make reviewing accomplishments and math fact progress quick and easy.


I found Math Rider to be a wonderful learning tool for not only my 9 year old but also my 6 year old son. My 9 year old is able to use this game to drill his addition and subtraction facts that tend to "escape" his memory conveniently while doing math assignments. Math Rider also helps my oldest to further memorize his multiplication and division facts. The program adjusts the the child's answering speed. For example, if your child regularly answers the math questions quickly, the poles or jumps will be spaced closer and closer to provide further challenge to your learner. My 6 year old also enjoyed playing Math Rider. He knows his addition and subtraction facts but this game provided him with a fun opportunity to play, learn, and complete quests. I should note that in the beginning I had to help my 6 year old son with the input of answers portion of this game. I would ask him the math sentence that appeared at the bottom of the screen and he would give me the answer after which I wold type in the answer for him. Personally, I saw no need for him to get frustrated with this game simply because he could not type on my laptop quick enough despite clearly knowing the correct answer. As time progressed he got better about typing the answers on his own. Again, I really enjoyed the mastery grid function on Math Rider that allowed me to review their progress and make notes of math facts that my boys were struggling with.


Another wonderful feature about Math Rider is the practice arena. You can have your child practice any number of math facts before beginning or moving on to the formal riding quests. If you know your child is particularly weak in a certain math fact area, for example multiplication facts with 12 then you could have your child practice multiplying 12's before starting a multiplication quest that includes facts through 12.


From the publisher: 
Ride your horse on noble quests through the magical MathLands. MathRider combines fun game play with a highly sophisticated question engine that adapts to your child. The game propels your child to mastery of all four math operations using numbers 0 to 12.


Have your child master addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all for the cost of less than 1 hour professional private tuition!

• You will know when your child has completely mastered an operation. And more importantly, your child will know it, too!

• This is the fastest way to mastery of all four math operations. The artificial intelligence rehearses what is needed most, at a rate that is tailored to each player.

• The game recognises and rewards improvement, not just perfection. This builds confidence and propels children naturally towards complete mastery.

• Noble quests exemplify positive values such as family, caring, honesty and kindness.

Pricing information: 
Download for $37 with a 30 day money back guarantee

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew I was provided with a limited download version of this product for free in exchange for my honest opinion and review. No other form of compensation was received for this review.

New Testament Translation Not Taken For Granted

In our homeschool bible study every morning my children and I pray for those across this world that do not have the bible translated into their native language. Praying for these people not only helps to raise awareness in my children about the bible translation missions field but also serves to keep the importance of having the bible translated into their own native language close to their heart and not take it for granted.

A friend on facebook shared the following video. I enjoyed it so much and was moved to tears. This group of people are a wonderful testimony for the impact that having a bible translated into a native language can have on a population that would otherwise possibly be non-believers.


The Kimyal People Receive the New Testament from UFM Worldwide on Vimeo.