Magic White Board - Review

I received the Magic White Board to review a couple weeks ago.  I have to say that I like the concept of the product and its purpose.  But what exactly is the Magic White Board?  Well It is a white board that you can take with you :)  It is thin like paper so you can easily transport it with you wherever you go!!!  You can watch the video below to see how it works!!  You can also find Magic White Board on Facebook and Twitter to check out what others are saying and to keep up on the latest! 

About the Product (from Magic White Board)

• Reusable dry erase sheets that stick with static cling to any hard surface
• Write on Magic Whiteboard with dry erase markers, erase and rewrite as many times as you want
• Great for making erasable notes, shopping lists, reminders and to-do lists
• Each sheet measures 8.25″ x 11.75″
• Magic Whiteboard requires no mounting hardware or adhesive needed to secure the sheets to the wall
• Sticks with static to wood, drywall or glass, and won’t leave any residue behind
• Stick, Write, Erase, Move, Reuse

My Thoughts

I love the idea of the Magic White Board but I really wish it was just a little bit thicker.  More like Oak Tag instead of tissue paper.  I don't like that I can see through it because it can be distracting.  And being so thin it is easily creased and wrinkled.  It is nice to be able to take anywhere with you and is an awesome item to entertain the kids with :)  But I think their could be some improvements made.  I think this would be a wonderful product for in schools!!  Children could have the on their desks at all times and much less paper would be wasted.  I would love to spend the money on something like this for my child's classroom instead of 20 boxes of tissues!!!

Overall, definately a product to check out.  Especially if you are always writing notes EVERYWHERE in your house :)  They stick to just about anything and are a lot less wasteful than using paper!!!      

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Homeschooling Week 7

Week 7 is getting better.  It only took us 1 1/2 weeks to finish this week up.  Some of that was because of Halloween and we took a couple days to make sure that we got a pumpkin and carved it :)  Hopefully next week will be a lot better.

We are slowly getting back into a real routine.  At this point I'm worried that with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years might really mess us up.  We are going back to PA for Thanksgiving so I am going to have to figure out how I want to work around that.  I might take a couple small things back with us but I think I might split a lot of it with the week before and then Monday and Tuesday.  If you home school how do you deal with Holidays?  Especially if you are already behind where you wanted to be?

Homeschooling Week 6

Week 6 still gave us a little problems actually getting through everything in 1 week :(  Right now unfortunately it is taking us about 1 1/2 weeks to 2 weeks to get through 1 week worth of school.  At this rate I'm not sure if we are ever going to get through the whole year!!! 

I'm hoping and praying that we are able to get back into a good rhythm in the next couple weeks.  I just have to force myself to do schooling with her.  I sometimes try to put it off until later in the day and then it becomes lunch and nap and it never gets done.  I am also still trying to figure out what to do with Baby K while working with A.  Any suggestions would be appreciated :)

Homeschooling Week 5

Week 5 has been the hardest week yet for us.  With some major personal trials going on since September it has taken us over 3 weeks to get through 1 week of schooling :(  Since A still naps in the afternoon (yippee!) we only have mornings to really do our school work.  And sadly just about every morning has started with a phone call that has lead to my whole morning being taken up :(

Things are finally getting back to normal and I will have everything set to go for next Monday!!!  I am looking forward to getting back into a regular school routine and for A to be more engaged.  We have 2-3 extra weeks worth of schooling to fit in somewhere.  And with holidays coming up I would really love to have some extra time to add in some holiday crafts, for both kids!!!  Here is to hoping things get back on track next week!!!  And stay on track :)

Homeschooling Week 4

Week 4 went well :)  Still having a really hard time getting in a good grove :(  I am hoping it comes soon!!!  We are having a hard time right now actually completing everything we need to do in a day.  And honestly it is not that much that we are suppose to do :(  The problem comes when Baby K wants to stand at the table and scream or when A feels like being a 4 year old and gives me problems.

Her newest excuse is my hand is tired from coloring (after coloring for 30 seconds) or I am tired today.  I keep asking her if she wants me to send her somewhere for school or if she wants to continue school at home.  Her answer is ALWAYS I want to stay home and do Mommy School.  And when Hubby gets home and she learned something really cool she is super excited to share it with him.  I think if I had a better routine things would go a lot smoother :(  Here is hoping I can get things scheduled!

Homeschooling Week 3!!!

Week 3 went fairly well!  We are still having a hard time getting in a good grove and coming up with a schedule that works for us :(  Baby K has done away with a morning nap now.  She really needed to be done with it a month or 2 ago but I tried to hold on!!!  But now that she is not napping in the morning A and I have lost our "alone" school time.

We need to figure out another solution for when to do school or something to keep Baby K entertained with while we do school.  Right now she usually stands at my chair and just screams at me :(  Which makes teaching and learning very difficult.  Hopefully in the coming weeks I will be able to really set a schedule and have it work!!!  Do you have something that works well for you while teaching an older one with a baby in the house?  All suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

So what did we learn this week?!!?  And what did we read? 

Homeschooling Week 2!!!

Week 2 was a little more challenging than week 1 :(  The challenges really had nothing to do with school or school related stuff.  The problems were most centered around the fact that we had to go out of town for a funeral and since we had spent the previous weekend in PA we had some major listening problems :(  I had hoped for another enthusiastic week of learning but sadly it did not the way I wanted it too.

We did get a chance to learn some wonderful stuff during week 2 but I would have loved for it to go a lot smoother :)  We did cut out Math this week since I had such problems getting through everything else.  I think we will put Math on hold for a couple more weeks till we get a really good rhythm and schedule down!  Hopefully next week will be better!!!

HomeSchooling?!?!

Let me just say I would like to know when I became the SAH, cloth diapering, baby wearing, nursing, and now homeschooling Mama!!! :)  I never in a million years thought that this is who I would become...but I have and I LOVE it :)  So this coming year I made the decision that I am going to homeschool A!!!

A will be 4 in September so technically she does not need any "formal" schooling until next year but she NEEDS something :)  This past year A attending 3 year old preschool at a Church of Christ that is about 30 minutes from us.  I LOVED her being there and she loved it there.  But sadly the drive just became too much :(  This next year she would be going to school for 3 days for 3 hours a day and I would be driving 2 hours a day to take her and then pick her up.  It was just going to be too much and gas is just too expensive.  So my only options were to either continue to send her where she was at (which really wasn't an option), send her somewhere closer to home for double the cost, do nothing with her or homeschool her.

I decided on the homeschool route so that I could teach A what I thought she needed to learn and what she wanted to learn.  I taught preschool for a number of years and know what she needs to know going into Kindergarten.  Sadly at 3 1/2 though she already knows just about everything she needs to know to go into Kindergarten and a lot of what she will know when she is done with Kindergarten.  Yes she is actually that smart and yes I know ALL parents say that.  But she takes after her Daddy!  Especially in Math and Science.  Plus I have a degree in Mathematics so it does explain a lot :)

I put a lot and I mean A LOT of thought and prayer into my decision.  I actually had started thinking about this route before I even put her in school last year.  But I really wanted to try her out somewhere and have her learn from someone other than me and the Hubby.  But after last year I think this is now the best decision for us.  A knew a lot going into school last year so I really don't feel that she learned that much.  Don't get me wrong I loved her school and I think they do a great job.  But a lot of kids go into preschool not having a real learning foundation.  Where A had already learn a lot at home from us.  She already knew how to spell her name going into school (and she started before she turned 3), how to count to around 14, all her colors and shapes, and a couple of other things.  She learned how to spell her nickname the very 1st week of school and I had never worked on the with her before :) 

So overall, sending her to preschool last year was great because she learned how to learn from someone else and in a classroom setting.  But staying home and learning this year I think will be a great advantage for her :)  I have not decided if homeschooling is going to be a permanent thing in my house or not yet.  I am going to see how this year goes and then decided from there.  I do think that if A goes to Kindergarten in public school next year she will be bored.  So that is a major thing to take into consideration.  But depending on how she does this year and if I can keep up with it, her and still taking care of the house and Baby K will be the main deciding factor.

See what curriculum I chose and why!!! (Coming Soon)