*This is not a normal post for me.  To be honest, this is more of a rant than anything, but I think it is important that people know about what is happening in North Korea right now.  I feel like I must write my thoughts down, even though this is not the normal kind of post I like to put on here.  So, consider yourself warned that if you continue to read this, it will not be what you have come to expect from me.

We were blessed with a copy of Asia: It's People and History to review.  My oldest daughter is fascinated with China, so this was a great opportunity for us to take some extra time to study, not only China, but some of China's neighbours too. 

Have you ever noticed that when reading homeschool / parenting blogs there are certain curriculums and programs that seem to be mentioned a lot?  That is probably one of the best forms of advertising there is for those companies, because seeing so many other homeschoolers talking about how much they love certain programs always gets me curious :) 

In my last post I shared with you about a fun game I have been playing with Munchkin for math.  Today I want to share with you some fun that I had with Little Man recently.  We built a rocket and pretended to launch it over and over!  Yes, you read that right - we played with a rocket in math class, and no, it was not rocket science :)

Well, here it is folks!  I have been leaving comments all over blog-land about this wonderful book I have been reviewing - Asia: It's People and History.  Now, I can finally give you my full review :)

To start off with, I have a confession.  I love geography and history!  I don't remember being quite so found of these subjects in school, but then again, when I was in school, I was taught very little geography.  I think my love for geography began when I was in Bible college.  I spent a good part of my Bible college years learning about missions and even thought for awhile that God was going to send me overseas somewhere as a missionary.

Are you or your child an aspiring writer?  All my life I loved to write!  When I was a kid I dreamed of being an investigative reporter, but I loved all kinds of writing!  When I was a teenager I was blessed by a man with a local paper who allowed me to get some experience by writing for his Free Press.  I wrote human interest stories, which I loved doing!  I also wrote the Teen Chat column for awhile.  When I was pregnant with our first child I finished my first, and only, novel, and sent it away to a writing contest.  I did not win, but it was an amazing experience, just to know I actually finished writing an entire novel!  That manuscript was mailed just a few days before Princess was born.  After becoming a mother, writing definitely went on the back burner :)  It was not until September 2013, when I started this blog, that I became serious about writing again.  I wish I had worked harder at it when I was younger.  I still dream about being published somewhere other than my own blog, and am hoping to branch out more by being a contributing writer with other blogs, but it is still something that has to sit on the back burner for me.  Being a wife and mother comes first, and everything else just has to wait, for now :)

My oldest daughter has an incredible imagination and makes up stories all the time!  She is my daydreamer, and is very much like I was when I was her age!  I want to encourage that creativity in her and have been trying to help her get her stories down on paper (or the computer).  If writing becomes a passion for her, I want to encourage that and do what I can to help her become a published writer, if that is what she wants. 

For the last couple of weeks Princess and I have been reading through the book Asia: It's People and History.  It is a wonderful book and we are learning so much about Asia!  Princess is fascinated with China and we have studied a little about China before, but with the help of this book, now we are learning about China's neighbours!  We are really enjoying it...  But I will have to wait until it's time to do my full review before I tell you anymore about it :)  For now, here is a chance for you to win, not only this great book, but a whole lot of other great books too!

Do you have a dolphin lover in your family?  We do.  Princess LOVES dolphins!  We did a unit study to help her learn about dolphins, but we also use her interest to help her keep learning all the time and having fun while we do it :) 

I LOVE this story I received in an email from Sonlight!  I had to share it with you :) 

Munchkin is learning how to skip count!  She has started skip counting by 2's, and with some fun, hands-on games and printables, she did not take very long to get it figured out!  To introduce her to skip counting we watched the DVD that came with her Math-U-See Primer curriculum and sang the Skip Counting By 2 song on Math-U-See's Skip Count cd.