Blessings

I have lots to write about since moving to Japan last month, including thoughts and reviews, but I wanted to leave you with some words that came from my 6 (7 in June) year old son the other day:

"Mom, children are a blessing.... and parents are a blessing to children!"

He said this with a H U G E smile on his face. I'm so thrilled that he knows that he, his sister and all of his brothers are a blessing to their mom and dad, but I was taken back by his sweet addition that we are a blessing to him. Might we all live to be worthy of the accolades of our children. I hope to forever be called a blessing to him as we walk this path back home together.

Make sure all your little ones (and not so little ones) get extra hugs, kisses, and I love you's today and everyday. As one of my favorite songs called Find Your Wings by Mark Harris says, "it's only for a moment you are mine to hold, the plans that Heaven has for you will all too soon unfold." Let's make those moments even more precious! There's no room for anger or impatience in parenthood, we have the perfect example in our Heavenly Father, let's recommit to that example today! There's always more room for additional love and understand for our children and for all those we come in contact with while on our earthly journey.

Love to you all!
~Cherie

TOS Review - KinderBach

We've been blessed to try out another great product that I had no idea existed! KinderBach is a web based program that helps your child(ren) learn about music theory/piano and that you can log into from any computer. I thought this program was going to be more about learning composers etc., but was pleasantly surprised that it was basically a piano teacher in my own home! I teach my children piano (it's a mandatory skill in our home), but this was a great reinforcement and Miss Karri taught them concepts in a very fun and clear way.

From the first lesson I was really excited about this program. I downloaded a good sized piano/theory book (free from the website), so my children not only watched a well done video explaining the black keys on the keyboard and learning what letter is associated with white keys based on their placement around the black keys, but they were able to follow along and find things in their "workbook." I found myself enjoying listening and watching the videos as well and I loved watching my littlest guys be able to have fun and learn as well (since they are not currently "being taught" piano). I would recommend this program to anyone with children ages 3-7 (and maybe a little younger and older depending on your child.

I am highly considering buying the program myself... there is a discount for buying a year at a time for 95.88 which makes the monthly more than half off the regular. Or, you can go month to month and pay 19.99. You can also access the lessons on an iPad, Android Tablet, Kindle Fire or Nook, so that makes using this program pretty easy no matter what your device or location. And, of course my favorite thing about KinderBach, is that you can try it for FREE! Yah, I'm a sucker for that. I think if you go to the website and give it a try that you'll be pleasantly surprised. Being able to learn and receive information in a lot of different forms is big in our house with such a wide variety of learners, so from video, to audio, to hands on and coloring pages etc., this stimulates all my children's learning styles and has taught and helped me teach a lot of concepts.

A few of there perks of KinderBach is that the lessons can also be purchased in DVD form and in either medium you can skip around lessons if your child needs to go ahead or redo any concept. You really can't go wrong with this program, especially if you're considering getting a piano teacher for your little one(s). This will save you a lot of money in the formative time of learning piano and give them a great head start for when they will start working with a teacher.

In addition to the normal great pricing, KinderBack is offering an extra 30% off any order by using the promotion code: TOScrew2012 ! So yes, go check this one out! You have nothing to lose and a great resource to gain if you do :-)

To see what other crew members are saying about Kinderbach you can go here.

*As a member of the 2012 TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review of its content. I have not received any other compensation for the opinions stated here, and they were not promised a positive review.*