A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Family Life

Dolphin Island

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Many thanks to Entertainment Squad for providing Dolphin Island for review.  Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. 

A dolphin, an orphaned girl, a set of grandparents, a sleazy lawyer and a caring grandparent guardian.  It’s the setting for conflict and drama.  Thusly Dolphin Island came into being.   

dolphin island

What I am Reviewing

Shaked Berenson produced the 91 minute long Dolphin Island, which has been approved by the Dove Foundation for children age 7-18. A family friendly production and will be released on March 2.   View the trailer: 

Dolphin Island, the fun details

Can one orphan girl find a way to stay on the island that she loves with her best dolphin friend?   This 2021 best feature film winner of the Christian Film Festival seeks to answer that question.

Dolphin Island

Although this film professes to be a faith based film I found very little evidence of faith throughout the film.  A prayer for help/thanksgiving was given close to the end, but overall it literally could have been any movie.

The acting was okay, not great.  The storyline fairly predictable.  I really WANT MORE when it comes to faith-based films.  I really do.  We should do better when it comes to feature films, particularly for ones that are meant for a broader range audience.  This movie, for me as an adult, simply didn’t cut it for me.   

I can totally though, see the appeal for families with children under 10 years old.   It is family friendly, with the bad guy being predictably sleazy, and the good guys being good though a wee bit clueless about how to stand up for themselves. Kids will be able to empathize easily and cheer when the good guys win.  That’s a good thing! 

The story itself is nice. There is a happy ending.  Mitzy is a  very amazing dolphin.  Super smart and pulls off these fantastic leaps through the air. 

Should you get it?

You know what?  While I found the story line and acting somewhat lacking as an adult, I can totally see families with young children thoroughly enjoying this movie.  It has a dolphin and a girl in trouble. It has a happy ending.  It’s all that a child needs to make for a good movie. 

If you are looking for a movie that hits all the high notes of being safe for kids, has a non-demanding faith element, and a good ending… Dolphin Island hits all the high notes.  🙂 

It is will available on various streaming services starting today.  You can purchase a copy of Dolphin Island here. 

For a chance to win a digital copy, enter below.  North Americans only. 

#DolphinIslandMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork

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Family Traditions

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Family Traditions is the theme of this week’s crew challenge.  It’s easy to talk about the things we do that help make our family special to us. Traditions are a huge source of comfort as we navigate life don’t you think?  A sense of familiarity even when everything it topsy-turvy.  Is it any surprise that people are starting to decorate for Christmas early?   In a year that’s been hard… family Christmas traditions help keep us centered on what’s important to us. Today we’ll talk about some of the traditions that are important to us.

family traditions

Mom, Can Grandma Come?

This was a question from my 15-year-old when he came home from grandma’s last week.  I must have looked a bit startled/confused… for he went on the explain. “Grandma wants to come and do some tidying and stuff so we can put up your village.  Can she come?”   My response was that “it is much too early for that”. 

I’ve thought about it since then and told the lad this morning that he should “call grandma up and figure out a day, you two can put up the village”.  It gives us something to look forward to don’t you think?  A bit of normalcy in a rather crazy year. 

Christmas Village

Christmas Devotions

You might call these advent devotions, but they help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas.   This year we’re doing on written by John Piper. It’s called Joy to the World. It’s put out by DesiringGod.org. 

Christmas Music Traditions

Every year on my blog I do Christmas music on the Sundays leading to Christmas.  One year I think I did one almost every day.  It was fun!  Anyways, beyond posting Christmas music on the blog I have a whole shelf full of Christmas music, and we often put on a long-playing YouTube video with Christmas music with a fireplace as the backdrop. 

Family Traditions – Baking

Just before I started writing this post I told my fellows that I’m starting to want to make Christmas cookies.  You know what?   They didn’t complain about that idea at all!  🙂 

I’ve shared some of the cookies we’ve made over the years.  I’ll probably make many of the same, though I just got a huge bag of mini rolos so might try my hand at Christmas cookies with them. 

Christmas Tree

I have to admit, I used to decorate the whole house with knick-knacks but I decided three years ago that as much as I like to, it’s just too much work.   I know I know… lazy of me isn’t it!?!?!   Part of that “too much work” was my tired hubby’s comments of “where is my _____” because I moved it to make room for my knick-knacks.   It’s more important to keep the peace than to rearrange the house AND end up with a frustrated fellow.  He works really hard and deserves less frustration when he’s home eh? 

BUT we do put up a tree.  We have tons of decorations, homemade, purchased or gifted.  Our tree changes every year.  Of course we have favourites (such as my joy snowmen) that go up every year, but the rest more or less rotate their way through. 

Before Christmas Tradition

One of our before Christmas Traditions is closing out our review year with the Homeschool Review Crew. I normally do a post with our favourites but I’ve decided to include them here.  It’s always good to have a break you know?  You can find the favourites of the crew in this post. 

Reviews that we did this year

Favourites from the year?  Simply Coding (the lad) and Journey Homeschool Academy (me). 

So what family traditions do you have during this holiday season?  Are you starting early? Have a favourite cookie recipe?  (if so, please share!  Good cookies are fun to make). Do you put up a tree?  Have a favourite ornament to share?  What makes Christmas a time of comfort for your loved ones?

Grandma Weekends

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This week the Homeschool Review Crew has issued the challenge.  What can we write a post about grandparents and gratitude?  You know what evokes gratitude in me?  Grandma weekends.  You know those weekends where grandma says “I miss my boy and I want to spend time with him?”   So you pack off your teenager and say “go have fun with gramma”.   

grandma weekends

The Blessing of Grandma weekends

The blessing of grandma weekend is two-fold.

Gramma gets to spend uninterrupted time with her favourite grandchild. Okay… her ONLY grandchild.  But it’s time just between her and him.  They play board games, go for long hikes, and just be together.   They both are relaxed and settled by the end of the weekend, it’s lovely to see. 

The other side is: It means that I have time with my fellow… just him, no one else, and that’s a hugely wonderful gift.   No child interrupting, usually we get out of the house away from the TV and chores.  We might do something as mundane as running errands, but we have no time constraints.  If we’ve the finances we’ll do lunch out, if not we’ll pack one and find a hidden park bench to enjoy a meal. 

How about you?   How do grandparents and gratitude fit into your life?   Do they support your homeschool decisions?  Pray for you?  Provide opportunity to promote the importance of family?  Do they help you show how people SHOULDN’T act? (Cause face it, not all families are rainbows and blessings).  Are you able to have grandma weekends or do blessings show up in different ways?  How are grandparents an important part of your life?

Join the linky if you have a mind too!  Linkbacks are always appreciated. 

The Best Board Games

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The other day I was on one of my homeschooling groups on Facebook. A person asked “what board games are any good?” A number of people listed off their games but many of them started their comment with “the best board game is….. ”   In my house I have a cupboard set aside just for board games, I thought I’d share some of our favourites with you.  Here are our best board games. 

the best board games

Strategy Games

Strategy Games are my son’s favourite games to play.   Games like Risk and Settlers of Catan, and more draw him in like a moth to a flame.   Games like Wonky and Chess make this lad grin.  

Strategy Board Games

That joy in seeing if you can devise a way to beat the people you are playing against, OR if you can find a way to foil them.  For instance, in playing a game of aggravation the lad decided he didn’t care if he won IF he could stop other people from winning before he got his pieces around.   He was so aggravating….  🙂 but on a positive note he didn’t win!  Made for a lot of fun.

Chess: he plays this regularly with his gramma.  They seem to take turns with who wins.   The set we have is a travelling chess set, it is so convenient to take it with us.

Wonky: We introduce this game to every international student who comes in.  It is so fun and very easy to learn.  Just need steadiness of hand. 

Risk: takes a bit of time to play, but the conversation to be had while playing… I absolutely love it.  I HATED this game as a teen playing against my brothers, but playing with my son… It’s a hoot!

Settlers of Catan: just a fun game.  I usually lose!  My son, well, he strategizes much better than I do.  🙂

Educational Games

We have tried a number of educational games and many have fallen to the wayside.  These two have stood the test of time. 

I think my son loves nab-it because it is partially a strategy game.  Can you spell the right word to steal it from your fellows?  We play this very simply with our international students.  It helps them realize what they do know!  We do play co-operatively near the end of the game, as it gets harder to find words with difficult letters. 

Spill and Shake is just a simple spell words games.  Nothing too complicated, just play a quick game and see what you can do.  This game came out of my family home where I used to play with my siblings.

I DO need to mention the board game Sudoku that we had. YES, had.  My son had a lot of fun with it. Large board, able to play a simple game or a more challenging.   I couldn’t find the one we had, and passed along to an autistic lad who was captivated by it, so I’ve linked to a random one.

educational board games

Family Fun Board Games

I know that some of these games are often used by others as educational games.  We just play them to have fun.  Our concern isn’t over building numeracy, geography, or other such skills.  We play only to have fun with each other. 

I grew up playing the classic monopoly game.  I had so much fun with my siblings, and sometimes I would simply play against myself!  But we play catopoly in our household because I have a cat-loving lad so a kind person gave us their used catopoly game to bring a smile.  🙂

If you are of Dutch descent and don’t play Rummy0 there is SOMETHING wrong with you.  🙂  At least in this corner of the world.  A number game that teaches sets and runs.  I grew up with it being called Rummikub.  My lad has it as RummyO.  Just a fun game, well worth playing with up to four people. Hint…. Don’t play with my younger sister, she takes FOREVER to make a single move.  🙂

Mastermind: the hours my lad and I have spent playing mastermind.  Such a simple game of logic.  Hide four pegs of any colour without your compatriot seeing.  Let them guess.  Give clues as to their accuracy.  Then switch.

We have played three different versions of mousetrap.  My lad is just outgrowing this one, but the ubuild it version has been by FAR the best.  No missing pieces, easy to put together, no parts that stop aligning well, and such like.  Just a solidly made game.  I unfortunately couldn’t find it on amazon, so I linked up the original version.  If you find the ubuild version… get that one!

We have two variations of the Guess Who game.  We have Guess Who and Who’s there.  Both are played a bit differently and we play depending on our mood. 

Then we have Topple.  We honestly play by our own rules.  The real rules are easy enough, but the lad’s rules are more fun!  🙂  It just means we don’t play with outsiders as they just don’t get it!

family Fun board games

I hope you are inspired by the variety in our board games.   Have fun with your children, grab up a board game and play.  You’ll be delighted by the ensuing conversations and the bonds you build.  If you need MORE reasons to add board games to your life check out was a guest wrote.

Homeschool Reasons: Bullies, Faith and More

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The reasons people homeschool are as broad as the ocean you know?   Some to cover spiritual matters more easily, others to better meet the needs of their differently-abled offspring, and more.    This post isn’t about why others homeschool though, but why “I” homeschool.  What are my homeschool reasons?   Pre-determination, bullies, faith and lifestyle.

Let me share with you my thoughts.

Homeschool Reasons: A pre-determination

We knew (hubby and I) that we wanted to homeschool before my son was even born.   I knew I could do it, hubby was sure I could, so we were set long before we even needed to think about it.  We both knew homeschoolers in real-life as well which made it an easier decision.

Homeschool Reasons: Bullied!

I was bullied in school.  Hated it.   Hubby had a bully for a teacher.  Almost turned him off the love of learning.  When we first got married I started a job at a local fast food joint.  Enjoyed the work for the most part.  BUT… was bullied by a gal who gave me the silent treatment and pushed me around whenever she could because.. I DIDN’T KNOW as a newcomer to this town that she and her family were part of the founding members of the town.  I asked her (after she revealed this information) why she would do that.  “Because it was fun”.  We worked past it, I told her it was unacceptable, and we managed to mostly get along after that.   This situation though, helped cement my desire to homeschool.  Why would I want to send my five year old to a school were people would bully him for something he couldn’t possibly have known?

Homeschool Reasons: Faith

As people of faith it matters to me what my boy learns about God.  On the playground we would meet a variety of children from all walks of life.  When talking with them I often heard “because teacher says so”.  I wanted more for my boy than that.  To not parrot what teacher says … to be able to say things like “the bible says” or “I learned this on youtube” or “my dad taught me this.”   I want him to have a good grounding in his faith so he can talk about it and share it with others.

Homeschool Reasons: Lifestyle

As much as these things things, a predetermination, bullying and faith were the founding reason why we chose to homeschool, now I simply wouldn’t do it any other way unless my son convincingly tells me why he wants to do it differently.  I love having him around (honestly… about 90% of the time).  We all have moments when we want to be alone to do our own thing, or we’re having a difficult day or….  you know.  🙂   But having him in the house all day, talking to me, coming to me with things he’s learned and what not.  I LOVE IT!  And I simply wouldn’t have it any other way.   He’s my boy…and a delightful one.

 

The Virtual Curriculum Fair is hosted by Susan.  You can find her here. 

Now, let’s see what my fellow homeschool bloggers have to say about The Reasons We Homeschool.

Note: all posts will be live after 8 am EST.

5 Reasons to Homeschool High School by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Weird Homeschoolers by Kim R. @ Good Sweet Love

How We Make Homeschooling a Lifestyle by Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine

Our Ever Evolving Homeschool Story by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

5 Reasons You Will Want to Homeschool by Michele@ Family, Faith and Fridays

How Our Homeschool Came To Be (and why we continue) by Sabrina @ Kids, Crunch, and Christ

Home Education – 10 Reasons we keep going…even when it’s hard by Lizzy @ Peaches@Home

So… Tell Me Again Why You Homeschool? by Leah @ As We Walk Along the Road

Virtual Homeschool Fair 2018 – Week 1 – Why do I Homeschool  by Joelle@Homeschooling For His Glory

Homeschool Reasons: Bullies, Faith and More by Annette @ A Net In Time

In Pursuit of Purpose by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

A Long Time Ago . . . Why We Decided To Homeschool by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

The Why Behind Hopkins Homeschool by Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool

5 Reasons We Love Homeschooling by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

Why We Homeschool – It’s What We Do by Kristen H @ Sunrise to Sunset

Why we Home Educate and Extra Benefits by Sarah@Delivering Grace

Homeschooling: The Big WHY? by Lisa @ True North Homeschool Academy at Golden Grasses

Regaining Your Homeschool Focus by Jen @ A Helping Hand Homeschool

Why do we homeschool? by Dana @ Life Led Homeschool

Our “Homeschool” Why by Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning

It’s Worth it! Why We Homeschool, Even After All These Years by Hillary @ Walking Fruitfully

Because Life is Precious by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens

1998 vs. 2018: Why We Homeschool by Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

 

 

 

 

Our Christmas Tree

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The Smell of Tree in the house…. isn’t that just a part of Christmas?   ah…..

This year we have a lovely spruce I think….some type of needle bearing tree (short needles).

Mom brought it up for us on Saturday, we let it thaw out over night, and the boys and I put it up on Sunday afternoon while hubby dear was napping.

We had a good time.
A TV show playing in the background.
Talking about the different ornaments, when we got them, who’s they are, and different little things.
It’s part of what we do.  🙂

Every year my son gets an ornament.  Sometimes I wrap them and put them under the tree, but as my lad is getting older I’ve started asking him, do you want it now or shall I wrap it?   Last year he wanted it wrapped, this year he wanted it now.

Some of our ornaments.  It’s a widely varied bunch and perhaps I’ll talk about them more sometime, but right now I have rabbits to feed and a lad to take off to visit a friend.  🙂

Reading, Writing and Drawing.

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Today we did chapter four in “the Lamb”.  I love the pictures in the book and the lad likes answering the questions at the end of each chapter.  They are simple.  It’s a good book thus far.
Also finished off our section on Knights And castles in our world history book.    Today we learned about how the knights divided up into orders and how other countries had knights as well.   Next up will be pirates.


Then we learned about the masked shew in The ultimate guide to North American Wildlife.

This was followed by going out for a walk in the field behind the church and picking up golf balls.  The lad will keep some and others he will sell at my annual yardsale.

We did some guided drawing using pastels.   Homeschool freebie of the day had a link to Pastels today.    Here is the lad’s first ever  drawing done using pastel’s.   It was a bit of challenge for him, he likes to draw using heavy lines but with pastels sometimes you need to use a lighter hand.  🙂   Did not half bad with the sun I thought, and a good effort with Darwin the dolphin.  🙂

In the mid-afternoon we decided to organize all this junk stuff.   That’s what hubby calls it.  You know all the toilet paper rolls, empty containers, styrofoam trays that people keep in order to have craft supplies for ones children?   Well we got it organized and out of the basement and main floor of the house.  This of course inspired the lad to do some more boat building.