I had never heard of Circle C Adventures, written by Susan K. Marlow and put out by Kregel Publications, but now that I have, I want to read more. I know they’re a set of books designed for teens and younger readers, but I really enjoyed the book that was sent to me for review, Andrea Carter and the Trouble with Treasure. This is the fifth book in the series.

Set in the great state of California back in the 1880′s, it seems that Andrea Carter, Andi for short, has another adventure before her. She, her brother Mitch, and her friends, Cory and Jenny, are headed into the mountains for 2 weeks of camping, fishing, and gold panning, as they head to a logging camp, where Mitch has business to take care of. Before they can even leave, though, the three friends are arrested by the crazy deputy for playing in the water trough….while bank robbers hold up the bank and get away with the bank’s money. Soon, they are let go, and their adventure begins on the high trail. The first few days are mild, with fishing and gold panning by day and stargazing by night. However, the real action begins when they come up on a cabin, inhabited by some very gruff men who get into a shootout with Mitch. Soon, Andi is forced into a situation she never thought she’d have to face, and she must trust the Lord to help her find a way out of yet another sticky situation.

In this story, you never know who can be trusted and who can’t. It offers an interesting twist toward the end, but I really wasn’t too surprised, as I’d already guessed it. However, for a younger reader, it could be quite surprising. With twists and turns, the story really kept me wanting to read more. It did have a bit of violence in it, but the author really did a great job of making the story seem very real and life-like. As I was reading, I could picture everything in my head like a movie. In fact, it would be really cool to have movies made out of these books.

You can purchase Andrea Carter and the Trouble with Treasure for $7.99 from Kregel Publications. This price is very reasonable, in my opinion, and the book is definitely worth that and more. You can read an excerpt of the book here; you can also read more reviews on the TOS Crew Homeschool blog.

(Disclosure: I received a copy of this book, free of charge, from Kregel Publications, for the purposes of this review with the TOS Homeschool Crew.)

Cerebellum is a company that provides educational programming for families, students, etc.  For the Crew, I received their Light Speed Writing DVD, a DVD that helps to prepare high school students for the AP English Language & Composition Exam.  While I don’t have a high school student (yet), this video may come in helpful in years to come, when Jacob reaches this level.  It’s geared towards grades 9 and up.

This video is pretty modern with up-to-date facts and even modern dress.  So many of the videos that I’ve seen have always been very old with the 80′s type dress and big hair, which can be sort of distracting, especially as it causes much laughter in our house.  Just keepin’ it real.:)  This one, however, uses modern-day students to get points across.  The students give facts out, which are also written on the screen.  I would definitely want to take notes, as the video goes along, if I were actually working on studying for this test.  The nice thing, though, is that with this DVD comes a CD, which you can pop into your computer, and it gives a PDF file with 20 pages of notes, handouts, worksheets, and activities that help the student to comprehend what they’re studying.

The DVD itself is 52 minutes long and includes things like facts, study notes, English review (covering both basic language and composition), and examples of different types of composition.  It’s a pretty concise study guide for the AP exam.  Students will become equipped with the foundations of rhetorical knowledge and will develop the tools for critical thinking, writing, and analysis.

You can purchase this DVD for the affordable price of $11.24 from Cerebellum Corporation.  You can also read more reviews over on the TOS Crew Homeschool blog.

(Disclosure: I was provided this DVD, free of charge, by Cerebellum Corporation, for the purposes of this TOS Crew review.)

Lobster Network is a social networking site, on which you can share, sell, buy, or keep track of certain items.  The items can include anything, from books to movies to household items.  The best part is, it’s free to sign up and use.

For me personally, Lobster Network is a great tool to help me keep track of items that we own.  For insurance purposes especially, this could be quite useful.  If you just want to keep a private inventory of your items (for example, the homeschooling items/books that you have acquired), you can, and noone else can see your inventory.  However, if you’d like to sell your stuff or share your stuff, you can do that too.  Lobster Network has its own messaging system for this purpose.  With the click of a button, you can borrow a movie from a friend.  If you’re simply looking for something that you’ve been wanting, you can list that desire on your board.  You can include picures, as well, on any listing.  This is a great homeschooling tool, especially if you’re like me and homeschooling on a budget, trying to find the best deals on the things you need for next year.With this network you can invite friends onboard with you.  You and your friends can have your own “community” within Lobster Network.  All you have to do to try it is to sign up for a free account; it’s that easy.

To read more reviews, visit the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

Lesson Planet is truly an awesome resource, in my opinion.  They are an online database of approximately 150,000 lesson plans for teachers to use for any subject, at any time.  For me it was way easier to use Lesson Planet’s searchable database than to sift through hundreds of results on a regular search engine….mainly because everything is categorized and simplified within Lesson Planet.  They offer a Homeschooling Web Guide for Teachers, as well as a Lesson Plan Curriculum Calendar, in which you can find ideas by the date.  In fact, there are several different ways that you can search, to help you cut down on the number of results that you have to sift through.  Here’s a short video to show you what I mean:

Lesson Planet doesn’t just have lesson plans, though; they also have printable worksheets.  I actually sifted through multiplication worksheets, since that’s something we’re really working on right now.  They have a variety of different types, including Problem Solving, Word Problem, Coloring, Drawing, Word Scramble, Printing Practice, Word Puzzle, Graphic Organizer, Essay, etc.  If your child needs specific help with a certain subject, it’s easy to find something to fit his needs.  Not only that, but you can look up the standards for each state on Lesson Planet.  These standards tell you what your child should be able to do within each age group.

Since I sometimes have a hard time finding art projects for us to do, I decided to look up lesson plans for arts and crafts.  I was able to narrow it down to Preschool arts and crafts.  I came up with 796 results, which I could further break down by rating or topic (main type of craft).  There were some very cool crafts within the database.

As a member of Lesson Planet, you can also share/create your own lesson plans.  You can actually try Lesson Planet free for 10 days.  After that it is $39.95 per year.  You can become a fan of Lesson Planet on Facebook.

For more reviews, you can check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

(Disclosure: I received a free trial from Lesson Planet, in association with the TOS Homeschool Crew.)