Don't forget to vote for The Cow Queen for the

Vendor: KB Teachers
Target Ages: preK-12th Grade
Format: website
Price: free watermarked pages, 1 year subscription/$29, 2 year subscription/$49


This review is for a website of printable worksheets to use in schooling or giving extra help to your child. This site has some free pages to use or a subscription gets you more choices without a watermark.


The Queen's Overall Assessment:
I used this website for the princess' basic letter and number recognition and practice. I found several pages to use with her. For the prince, I found a few items to use for math. I have some printed out to use in the coming weeks for our math subjects. There were worksheets for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and more. I was really hoping to use it more for the prince, but the pages seemed to skip from Kindergarten level to 3rd grade and up. 


My favorite part of the website was the auto-generated math worksheets. I selected the skill to work on, the level of difficulty, the orientation of the problem, and clicked KB Teachers' print button. I could then click on a single button to generate a new worksheet to print. I could go on all day ... if I wanted to. 


In the KB News section, the folks at KB post of their new additions. This is where they post their holiday worksheets and more obscure holidays of note. Did you know November 3 was National Sandwich Day? The folks at KB Teachers did, and they gave you links to learn more about it. You can even sign up for their newsletter, and they will let you know when they post new things. I have already printed coloring sheets and mazes for Thanksgiving week. If I can just make the prince and princess understand that they will have to wait to do them ... 


The part of the website that I could not totally understand was not having a search box. KB Teachers believes that a well-developed website should lead you to what you need in 3 clicks or less. Sometimes even three clicks is too many when you are trying to do a lesson with one student and want to find a quick coloring sheet for a younger child. This week, if I could have just typed in "ladybug" and found a quick one for the princess, my headache would have been a lot smaller. KB Teachers is working on a website re-vamp. So, maybe that will be on the new site.


Other Homeschool Crew Members reviewed this product. Be sure to find out what they thought at The Homeschool Crew Blog.

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Disclaimer: This was a review of my experience with the product described. I tried to give a complete and honest assessment. In order to review the product, I received a free membership with no additional compensation. This in no way influenced my review of the product. The opinions expressed are my own and were not affected or edited by anyone prior to publishing.




The grass is green. It’s good to be
 

date Friday, November 19, 2010

Time is running out: Don't forget to vote for
The Cow Queen for the







The prince has been in rare form with his Tiny Talk lately. Here is just a sampling of the funny things:





We were working on his Latin assignment (watch for the review on this one). The directions said "circle yes or no"  The question was "sunt means there are".
Prince: I'm just going to circle both. 
Me: No, you can't do that. It is either "yes" or "no". 
Prince: Is there a "not really sure?"
****

We were on the way to church, and the princess asked if I knew any monkey songs. The closest I could come to a monkey song was "10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." (In hindsight, I should have made it 5 Little Monkeys) We I sang through all the verses. As I got to the last few monkeys, I would stop to let the children say what the doctor said. The last monkey to fall of the bed became the prince's turn to be the doctor:

Me: Mama called the doctor and the doctor said ...
Prince: I'm tired of you calling me all the time.
(laughter)
Prince: ... and how do you get Monkey blood out of the carpet?
****

As we were talking about Veteran's Day, the prince asked who we knew who were veterans. We listed a few. He knew that Prince Charming's dad was in the Army. He asked about my dad. 

Me: He was in the Reserves.
Prince: What are the Reserves?
Me: They train people to be like people in the Army and keep them ready. If they don't have enough Army people, they call the Reserves to help.
Prince: So, he just sat around playing video games until they called?
Me: No, they didn't have video games back then. He was farming.
Later that night as he was preparing to brush his teeth...
Prince: So what do the "preserves" do?
****


I'm linking to Tiny Talk Tuesday so you can see what other cute things the children are saying. 



The grass is green. It’s good to be
 

date Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Don't forget to vote for The Cow Queen for the

Target Ages: K-5th Grade
Format: hands-on craft 
Price: $5.50


I'll admit that I was a bit apprehensive about getting a tomahawk kit to review. I knew that this would become the prince's project and could only see it as a "weapon". Boy, was I relieved to find that the tomahawk blade would actually be made of leather! 


I thought this was an easy and fun project for K-5th grade students. (I put those ages because I think that an older child would want a real blade on the tomahawk. The Corps of Re-Discovery has those too.) While I needed to help the prince with securing the leather strap that held it all together, he was able to do the rest on his own. It was no time at all before he was attacking the banister rail with the tomahawk! I would have taken pictures of the process, but it was out of the package and together before I thought of it.


Oh, the packaging ... Does anyone like those toys and supplies that you buy at the store that have twist ties everywhere and extra cardboard to make the product stand up for display? I don't! When my children get a new toy, they want to put it into action right away. The folks at Corps of Re-Discovery must have that kind of child too. The packaging is really simple. A plastic bag and a piece of paper. Can you imagine? You just open the package and read the directions. You are done with construction almost as quick. 

Other Homeschool Crew Members reviewed this product. Some members reviewed other products by this vendor. Be sure to find out what they thought at The Homeschool Crew Blog.

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Disclaimer: This was a review of my experience with the product described. I tried to give a complete and honest assessment. In order to review the product, I received a free kit with no additional compensation. This in no way influenced my review of the product. The opinions expressed are my own and were not affected or edited by anyone prior to publishing.




The grass is green. It’s good to be
 

date Monday, November 15, 2010

Don't forget to vote for The Cow Queen for the

Why would you possibly think anyone had access to my luggage without my knowledge?

I'm linking to  A Beautiful MessAnd Miles to Go, and Five Minutes for Mom.

The grass is green. It’s good to be

 

date Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Don't forget to vote for The Cow Queen for the






Have you noticed that the toys and activities that come with kid's fast food meals are not always geared toward the pre-school set? I have. 


This week, the princess got a cardboard hand puppet with her cheeseburger meal. You had to punch the puppet part loose from the cardboard sheet. It was one of those tuck-slot-a-into-slot-b kinds of things. She found the package on the table just before supper and asked if I could put it together. I told her that I would, but she would have to wait. 


Later, as I was putting it together, the prince asked how it got ripped. (The poor tiger had his tongue ripped out/off.) I said that I asked the princess to wait and she didn't. Then, the princess said, "I don't like to wait. It takes forever."


****

As I was brushing the princess' hair, I told her that we were going to the store to get a gift for Ms. K's wedding. The conversation went like this:
Me: When we are done at the doctor, we are going to the store to get a present for Ms. K's wedding.
Prince: You know what would be the best present? 
Me: What?
Prince: Love
Me: That would be a great present. I think that is what ya'll are going to get for Christmas.
very brief pause
Princess: Nope. No love for Christmas.
She has yet to learn that Christmas is the greatest love of all ... but she will.


I'm linking to Tiny Talk Tuesday so you can see what other cute things the children are saying. 



The grass is green. It’s good to be
 

date Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Join Me at The Homeschool Post!
After running errands this morning, I took a moment to catch my breath and check my email and online forums. One of my cyber-friends told me that the Homeschool Blog Awards voting was open. Just out of curiosity, I went to the awards site to see what all the hub-bub was about. Well, I found out that I am part of the hub-bub! 


The Cow Queen was nominated for Best Blog Design award!!  I can hardly believe it. In all of cyberworld ... of all the homeschool-related blogs, I am one of the nominees. You can go there yourself to see, if you don't believe me. While you are there, go to category #3 Best Blog Design and vote for The Cow Queen. In my acceptance speech, I'll be sure to give credit where it is due.


Now, most all of the blog awards that I encountered since beginning blogging in March, were just for fun ... a chance to get to know each other. Well, this one is different. There are REAL prizes. I was excited to see The Cow Queen as a nominee, but REALLY excited to see the prizes. So, if you can take a moment to vote for The Cow Queen, you will make me extremely happy and you will be adding to the learning experience in the royal classroom. Thanks for your help.

The grass is green. It’s good to be

date Monday, November 8, 2010

Thank you to everyone who entered The Cow Queen's first giveaway. There were 79 entries. 79!!!! I am blown away!


The Random Number generator selected ...

#55 Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads who said "I would probably look at getting a K'nex set for my daughter for Christmas. She's been looking at them lately."
Congratulations Heather!!!


This was so fun. I am looking forwarded to doing more giveaways. So, stay tuned!


Thank you to CSN Stores for sponsoring the giveaway.


The grass is green. It’s good to be

date Saturday, November 6, 2010