You Never Know which Habits Will Stick... and How Much Hope They'll Bring

My oldest has been in a tween-ragery stage and sometimes the blustering is still full blown at bedtime. Yet, no matter how silly or sullen he's been being, I almost always see him go out to our living room helves, grab his little blue book, and pray his bedtime prayers, which, by now, he's more or less memorized.  

So why does he grab his blue book? Why does he flip to its final page to pray an Examen and Act of Contrition?

Why doesn't he just pray his bedtime prayers from memory? 

Why is it his particular habit that has stuck for him when so few of the other habits we attempt to build here have not?  Seriously, why this one?  

Habits we have been encouraging for many more years have been rejected or are still in development.  Some of the other prayer habits that the same prayer book tool promotes have been ignore.

Other prayer habits - like morning prayers - are oft only habitual with my son when done as a family.

But the Evening Prayers ritual? It has become a strong habit.

Why?

To be honest, I just do not know, and I am no sure I ever will. I am, however, ever-grateful to his prior co-op teacher for initiating this independent prayer habit and to the Spirit for whispering to my son each night, prompting him to pray even when he's being stormy.

Bedtime prayers with his falling apart blue book. Undoubtedly, the act or praying them brings grace to my son, and, surely, witnessing my sometimes challenging tween grab his prayer book brings hope to me.

Lately, there are many nights when, by bedtime, I am spent.  Drained. Discouraged. Weary from efforts to connect, correct, redirect, reset, and, of course, love my son through the challenging phase he is going through. The glaring difficulties of the day sometimes make it hard for me to reflect upon the quieter moments of sweetness, virtue, and Spirit-led growth that are there.

Then, my boy's hand opens his blue book, his lips move silently in prayer, and the Spirit reminds me - Momma, not despair, prayer.  

What habits are helping you and your tween or teen make it through more challenging day and nights?

Create Your Own Starry Night Masterpiece {A Review}

Would your child enjoy creating artwork inspired by a maser artist using simple tools and techniques?

Some links which follow are affiliate links.

Kidzaw.com makes creating such masterpieces easy with its Master Kitz The Starry Night.

My Daughter - the Test Artist

We ordered our Master Kitz The Starry Night  for review with thanks to Kidzaw.com, and my daughter enjoyed testing it out.

After reading the packaging and playing with the fun magnet closure on the box, we laid all of the enclosed materials out, having to hold down the paper and stencil that wanted to keep rolling up.

Then, after putting brown paper on the table and taping the provided art paper down, my daughter got right to work, following the easy included instructions.

She placed removable adhesive star masks down on the top of her paper and, then, began rolling on blue acrylic paint with a special textured roller.

She, then, went, to layer on the white according to the instructions, but was not happy with how the paints blended to make a lighter blue, leaving no distinct white. So, she paused to let the blue paint dry a bit while I washed the roller.  Then, she continued the project, painting on the white, before taking off the star masking stickers.

At that point, my daughter took another break before taping the flattened but rolling stencil onto her artwork and painting on the black paint using a foam roller.

During another extended pause to let things dry, we read the enclosed background information on Van Gogh with her little brother, chatting about what we read, looking at the images, and connecting to our past art studies. 

Then, my daughter got to work with the included oil pastels.

She was not thrilled by the lack of colors among the pastels, but I asked her to work just with the ones that came with the kit.

After that, she asked if she could add a bit more color using our own oil pastels, and, of course, I said, "yes". For my daughter, as the artist, had every right to want to create her artwork to her liking, I felt, as long as she, first, honored the review by using only included materials - which she had.

So, my daughter added a bit more color and called the project done.

Her little brother then asked if could use the other art paper that came with the kit to make his own artwork another day.  of course, my daughter and I said, he could. My daughter also said she wants to use the textured roller again herself. I have no doubt all my children will be using the roller and kit pieces again!

My Daughter's Thoughts

After my daughter completed her artwork, I asked her for her opinion of Master Kitz The Starry Night.  She said:

This kit makes people feel like they can create great art simply.

The materials themselves are good and the packaging looks cool.  I like how the box closes with a magnet, but when you take out the paper and the stencil, they are all rolled up and hard to work with.  So, you have to tape everything down a lot and, then, your art's corners are white.  

I also felt like I couldn't get the swirl in very well, so I probably will go over it with a paintbrush next time or explore with the roller tool more. 

I would also like a teeny bit more colors with the pastels - like maybe red, so we would have all the primary colors - and I feel like the paper should be a light yellow like pictured on the box and in the directions.

Besides those little things, it was pretty good. I had fun trying it and will use the kit again.  

There is another piece of paper and the rollers can be used over and over again. My favorite roller was the one that makes the squiggly lines in the sky.  I want to use it to paint wrapping paper and skies.

I would recommend this kit to others.  As it says on the package, 'ages 5-105'.  That's true, but it may be a bit hard for a 105 year old depending on their shape.

I agree with my daughter: Master Kitz The Starry Night is simple to use and can be enjoyed by all ages!  If you'd like an easy art project with reusable tools and a bi of art history included, too, Master Kitz could be for you!

Learn More

Find all the reviews!

Fifty Homeschool Review Crew families created personal masterpieces using Master Kitz The Starry Night.  See all the reviews!

You can find Kidzaw.com on socal media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kidzaw-160167827376266/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidzaw
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kidzaw123?blend=1&ob=5

Introducing Our Mysteries of the Rosary Peg Dolls and our November Liturgical Shelf

October whizzed by before I made time for my children and myself to swap out our September liturgical shelf with an October one.

Thus, my daughter and I found ourselves combining inspiration from October's devotion to the Holy Rosary and November's devotion to the Holy Souls when making our November display.

For the display, we chose a white cloth to remind us of the purification souls must go through before enjoying the bliss of being in union with God in the glory of heaven.

Marian Devotions


On one side of the display, we kept the paschal candle our friends made for us this year and placed an Our Lady of the Rosary peg doll which we received in a Marian swap and had meant to put up in October. 

On the other side, we kept a blessed white candle another friend gave us for Candlemas place and put a vignette of our Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and St. Catherine Laboure in front of it, since Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal will be celebrated on the 27th of this month.

Betwixt these two Marian ends, we set up our main display to remind us to pray Rosaries and special prayers for the dearly departed throughout November. 

Introducing Our Mysteries of the Rosary Peg Dolls


Our Rosary reminders includes, of course, rosary beads. They also include peg dolls that we received in a swap a while back which represent each mystery of the Holy Rosary.

The Joyful Mysteries dolls include:

• a Mary doll with an angel modge podged to it

• a St. Anne doll with John leaping in her womb

• a small-sized Jesus doll with a line sketch of the Nativity painted on it

• a doll with Mary painted on one side, Jesus in the middle, and Joseph with doves on the other side

• a Mama Mary and Child Jesus doll set

The Glorious Mysteries dolls include:

• a John the Baptist doll

• a Jesus with wine doll

• a apostle with the Word doll

• a golden (transfiguration) Jesus doll

• a Jesus doll with bread and wine, plus a modge podged image of the Last Supper

The Sorrowful Mysteries dolls include:

• a beautiful Agony in the Garden set with a kneeling Jesus sweating blood, a small rock and an angel

• a bound and scourged Jesus (the red scourging is on his back)

• a Jesus crowned with thorns (which has gone missing so is not pictured)

• a Jesus carrying a cross

• a Jesus on a cross

The Luminous Mysteries ones include:

• a risen Jesus

• an ascending Jesus

• an apostle receiving the Holy Spirit

• a Mary with clouds and stars (for the Assumption)

• a crowned Mary

Holy Souls Calendar Pages

Behind these dolls, we placed the All Souls calendar pages that we made in our AMP club last month. 

On three of these calendars, we have pre-written names of our own dearly departed as well as names of the beloved deceased of friends, relatives, and blog followers who have asked us to pray so that we can remember to specifically pray for these souls this month. 

The fourth calendar page remains mostly blank, because one child of mine asked to write names after praying and not as a reminder to pray.

Still to Come

Later this week, since some of us have forgotten the words to the St. Gertrude Prayer for Holy Souls, we plans to redo our copywork of this prayer and to slip it between the wall and our Our Lady of the Rosary pegdoll for easy reading access. 


(In the past, we have also done copywork of The Eternal Rest prayer, but do not need to redo this since we have all long since memorized this prayer and pray it faithfully upon passing cemeteries when we are driving around as well as when we hear of people passing.)

It's Working

We have just put our November liturgical shelf display together display, and it is already actively focusing us on both last month's devotion to the Holy Rosary and this month's devotion to praying for Holy Souls.  

In fact, just before leaving for a walking Rosary to a local cemetery this afternoon, we checked our calendars for the names of the deceased we would pray for along the way.

Then, as is our custom from the 1st through 8th of November when we got to the cemetery, we prayed for special indulgences for Holy Souls in Purgatory before selecting random souls to pray for. his tradition has become a meaningful and beautiful one for us, and I encourage you to consider making it customary for your family, too!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.  

Math-Whizz Is a Hit Here

My kiddoes like online math programs with a game-like flair, so when I shared with my children about an opportunity to review a 12-month subscription to Math-Whizz from Whizz Education, I was not surprised when they said, "Yes, let's try it!" 

I have since been happily satisfied that all three of my children - despite being at totally different math levels with completely divergent learning styles - are benefiting from the program.

Speedy Success

In just a few weeks, one of my children has spent an average of 107 minutes a week with Math-Whizz and has jumped fro a 9.84 math age to a 9.95 one. (The recommended goal for program usage is a mere 30', but this child truly enjoys it, so I let him have at it!) 


Through parent reporting I have discovered this child does well on exercises, but not as well on tests.  Reviewing parent reports, I also now know which math skills I need to work with him 1:1 on through using provided replay modes or doing offscreen lessons of my own making.

He is succeeding so well with Math-Whizz that I am considering making the program a "spine" for his math studies for he remainder of the year.  My thought is that he can use the program at will on his own, and, then, once a week or so, I can review reports and create some tailor-made pencil and paper exercises, math games, etc. for he and I to tackle together, thus making this supplementary program a full program for us.

I am sure my other son would like if I did the same with him, However different child - different needs.  Unlike my younger son, who truly likes both the learning and the game aspects of Math-Whizz, my older boy tends to do the bare minimum in order to get to the games.  In fact, he has spent an average of 130 minutes a week on Math-Whizz, yet has only increased from a 13.42 math age to a 13.43 one largely due to the fact that about 1/3 of his time has not been used in tutor mode!

A note on the parent report alerted me to his odd time spent vs. progression made ratio, and, after reviewing reports and talking to my child, I realized that was spending a good portion of time in the game mode - earning just enough credits to play, play, play.  This did not surprise me, since this child is one who prefers online play to online learning.  It did not upset me that much either, since I am grateful that he enjoys Math-Whizz and has had to earn his playtime with the program by doing some work at least.  It did, however, make me realize that Math-Whizz can only remain a fun supplement for him this year, not a math spine.  For my son just does not have the attention and diligence to make the most of his math learning time with Math-Whizz.

He can - and does- however, learn some things and, interestingly, I have seen that his exercise scores are unimpressive while his test scores are great.  I am not sure if this is due to his ADHD and sensory things coming into play, with the graphics in the lesson exercises being more of distraction than a help to him, while the plainer style tests allow him more focus, or if it is just because my son prefers trying to quickly work things out in his head rather than using pencil and paper, and so tends to make careless errors sometimes - which are showing up with his exercise scores.  Whatever is the reason, I am confident with observation and persusalof another week or two of report, I will suss it out and, in the meantime, my son is still making incremental progress and thoroughly enjoying Math-Whizz.

His sister is also progressing.  In just a few weeks, she has moved from a math age of 10.84 to 10.86 with only 43 minutes of Math-Whizz use on average.  This pleases me since she has had to overcome frustrations to make such progress.

For, while my daughter likes Math-Whizz, the placement test at the start was tedious and difficult for her and she also has been chagrined by the amount of reading required in the lessons without an audio option to read text to her, plus, for some reason, our computer often glitches when she is on which makes inputting responses difficult for her.

These setbacks aside, my daughter is still progressing with Math-Whizz, and I am getting some good data that can help me help her progress more. Detailed reports help me know what to prepare to work with her on 1:1, so she can improve her math prowess even more.

Getting Started

Read all the reviews.

Upon receiving our log-ins for Math-Whizz, each child had to take a fairly lengthy assessment test that had common math questions based on my children's actual ages, with some questions "above grade level", some "below", and some "at", so the program could see where each child's strengths and weaknesses were.

Because the test was long - and contained too much reading for my child with dyslexia, I was glad that the test could be paused at any point, and, then, resumed without problem during a child's next log in.

I also appreciated how, once the test was over, I was sent a notice about my child's "math age" and my children could then use and play with the program.

The program is designed as a series of interactive, tailored lessons and fun games and is meant to be an affordable alternative to a math tutor for children ages 5 to 13 which can help them develop confidence and improve math abilities by 18 months in as little as a year.  I have yet to see if that kind of result will happen since we have only been using the program for a little while, but with current standings, I can see how it may!

In the Children's Words...

My daughter, as I mentioned, does not like placement tests nor text heavy learning.  So, she said:

When I first started Math-Whizz, I really hated it, because I did not like the placement test.  It felt dry, boring, and long,  What I did like about it, though, was I could pause it whenever I liked and come back to it without losing my place.

After I finished the placement test, I liked the other part when I do it from my study.  I had options to tutor, play games, go to the store, challenge other people, and paint the walls.

The studying is okay, but I wish they had an option to have all text read aloud and I also wish some things were explained a bit better.  Besides that, it's all good.

My favorite game is Mathman.  

I would recommend this to kids who like online programs and who are like my brother and like credits, buying things, and stuff like that.  For kids like me, it's good after the placement test.  (I never like placement tests, so it is not just Math-Whizz.)

I will add that my daughter often does not like online learning, so her liking this program is telling of its quality and appeal!

My youngest child likes overall package - fun and learning.  he said:

It's fun!  You earn credits by doing math questions, taking tests, reviewing, and challenging other people.  Then, you can use the credits for playing games, buying pets, and stuff in the store.

I like the games.  Jimbo Jump, Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road, and Keep 'Em Up are my favorites.  In Jumbo Jump, you jump and try get past ghosts.  In Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road, you use the arrow keys to dodge cars, go over rivers, and stuff.  And, in Keep 'Em Up, you use the moue to move a ping pong paddle to hit balls up.

  None of the games except one have math, but I am learning math, too, so I can play the games and challenge other people.

He liked the idea of challenging other people, and the option to do so motivates him to review and improve his skills.

My oldest son favors the games.  He said:

Math-Whizz is an online math program designed to help kids learn their math.

When you first start, you must take a placement test, which is long, long, long, but, you can take breaks, and, when you are done, you find out your "math age".  I thought this was pretty cool, because my "math age" is greater than my regular age. 

Then, you can get into your virtual study and you can change it by adding pets, toys, and plants which you by with credits.   You can also paint it and change how it looks. 

You can also click through the image of the computer to learn new stuff or on the tablet to review old stuff.
When you are learning, you get taught things with interactive slide shows, graphics, and stuff, and, then, you do problems that will actually challenge you.  The program uses what you know from the placement test, and moves from there.  

Every so often, there are tests, too. 

I think they should add a place onscreen to write, draw, and do your math work with a digital pen, not just the keyboard.  The calculator also needs to be able to shrink smaller.  Now, it covers up a lot of the screen and messes me up.  

When you do math, you earn credits which can be spent in the store or on games.  I like the games.  One of my favorites is a space games where you shoot blobs of goop at enemies who are shooting blobs of goop at you. I also like Pac Man and the panda game. 

I would recommend Math-Whizz.  It is not as fun as some other math programs I have used, but it is better than a majority.  Its greatest aspect is the way there is a study and you can choose to go to any of the digital spaces from there - to buy things, to play games, to learn...  I feel like I am learning.

So, there you have it.  Math-Whizz  is working for all three of my children and holds up to its promise:

• Artificial intelligence adapts to each of my children's needs.

• The program acts as a supplemental tutor, evaluating student progress and guiding a child through advances in math skills

• Included parent reporting helps me track my children's progress and hone in on which math skills and knowledge my children would do well to practice 1:1 with me.

• Between the customized lesson delivery and options for children to skip portions of exercises after proving their prowess with them, there is little wasted math time.  If a child is having trouble with something, practice is there.  If a child get something, the program moves on. 

 I have been pleased with Math-Whizz for its kids appeal, customized math teaching, and ease of implementation.  I appreciate how it works to help my children progress with math independently while keeping me abreast of where hey are succeeding and getting stuck, so I know how be to utilize our precious 1:1 time together.  I am glad the program has come into our homeschool and think it is worth checking out!

Learn More

For more information about Math-Whizz from Whizz Education, connect on social media:

• Facebook: Math Whizz and WhizzEducation
• Twitter: MathWhizz
• YouTube: Whizz Education
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/114065875490611944121

You might also like to see what thirty Homeschool Review Crew families thought when they tried Math-Whizz. Find all  the reviews.

Pivot like St. Paul - An All Saints Day Party Game {Free Printable}

Get a FREE PRINTABLE Challenge Sheet!

{Some links which follow are affiliate links.}

What happens when a local store has a Twist and Shape balance exercise board on deep discount as you're planning games for an all Saints Day party?  

You brainstorm a new game for your twist-loving kids!

This year, we'll be adding Pivot like St. Paul to our collection of All Saints Day challenge games by placing a challenge sheet alongside our balance board, a book, and a play sword and having the children twist and turn away for 25 counts each - if they can - to remember St. Paul and the date we celebrate the feast of his conversion (January 25).

My kids are already having fun testing the game, and I'd guess your children might like the game, too.  Thus, I am sharing a free printable challenge sheet set - with one game sheet that mentions picking up a board and a book (which are two symbols of St. Paul) and one that does not. 

NOTE: If you don't have a Twist and Shape board, a Simply Fit Board, a Sit-n-Spin, or any device that a child can spin on could work..

If you'd like other game ideas, there are plenty more here:

Find them here.

The Final 3 All Saints Day Game Challenges

3 All Saints Day Game Challenges

3 More All Saints Day Party Ideas

2 All Saints Day Craft Challenges and a Physical One

3 Skills-Based Game Challenges for All Saints Day

Enjoy your All Saints Day!

St. Paul, pray for us.

What Do You Like, Mama?

"What do you like?" my daughter asked me tonight.

"Hiking. Berries. Snuggling with my kids. Walking in the woods.  Reading stories with you..." I rambled on for a minute with a stream of conscious list.

I neglected to state, though, the most important things:

God.

Life.

Love.

You, my child.  And Daddy.  Your siblings.  Our family.  Our friends.

The way God has created each of us with gifts and talents that can guide us to specific purposes in life ... to the way we are to live and share love in this world.

What do I like, my dear child?

The opportunity I have to live my vocation to married life.

I know.  I know.  I don't always live it well, but I am ever grateful for each bit of grace and mercy extended to me as I live my calling as wife and mom.

One day, dear child, when you have grown and moved through the process of recognizing your own vocation, I pray you are just as grateful.

Married. Single. Religious. Ordained. Whatever life you and your brothers may be called to, may you each live it with love, knowing always, Mama loves you and thanks God every day for gifting me our family.