Junction of Function

**This is not a paid post. This is a product review. I met the creator of this product at the home school convention I attended in July and asked her to allow me to use this product and write a review.**

I was wandering the aisles of the vendor room at the Southeast Home School Expo checking out the various materials that were being offered for display. I had passed up booth after endless booth of materials that were irrelevant to my own needs when I came across the Junction of Function tables. I was immediately drawn into the display area to play with the products that were available to be touched and held. I was so excited to see the Writing Made Simple product that I nearly jumped for joy as I phoned my husband to beg him for permission to buy the set for our girls.

Kira had been learning about her letters, but was not able to write those letters with any level of proficiency. Try though I might, I could not get her to understand the concept of lifting her pencil from the paper in order to make a new movement to create the entire letter. She was determined to write her letters with one stroke of the pencil. (We all know this does not work...) Her failure was causing her to become frustrated with the entire process and whatever progress we made was quickly washed away by that frustration.

Standing in the midst of hundreds of people and hundreds of possible purchases, I held in my hand the solution to my problem. This manipulative would allow me to explain to Kira how to make the appropriate movements in order to create her letters on paper. I knew this would be exactly what she needed. Lucky for us, Dad said it was just fine with him for me to buy the set.

I spoke with Kelly, one of the creators of this system, to learn more about what it was that I was bringing home with me. I learned that each character that was used to create the magnetic letters was cleverly named to make it easy for kids to remember who was who. I also learned that Kelly and the co-creator of the system worked together to create a cast of characters that would be fun for kids to get to know.

When looking at the magnets that are used to show kids how to form their letters, each character is performing a specific action in order to create the correct movement for writing the given letter. The action is created from the toes to the head of each character. For example, to create the backbone of the letter "K" Harry Head dives to the ground in one very long motion. (To write the letter "K" we begin at the top of the backbone and go to the bottom. Following the motions of Harry Head diving to the ground, the child can learn to write this part of the letter "K" in one long motion.)

There is a transparent overlay that is used as a guide to show which character in which pose should be used for the letter. By explaining the action of the character, the child can follow that action with her pencil in order to create the letter.

It all sounded pretty good, but would it work?

The theory was sound. The magnets looked really cool. I loved the characters.

What would Kira think?

Well, as luck would have it, my life got a bit crazy and my promise to use the system for the month of August and write about the system in September failed to materialize. I only had a small opportunity to use the magnets with Kira during August and felt that I needed more time before I could accurately review the product. Add to that my method of home schooling (unschooling), I needed to wait for a time when Kira was actively interested in sitting down to learn how to write her letters.

Such a time did present itself early in August. Kira desperately wanted to know how to write her name. She had mastered writing the little 'i', the little 'r', and the little 'a'. Unfortunately she was struggling with the 'k' that begins her name. She just couldn't figure it out on her own. I was so excited that I finally had a good opportunity to sit down with her and show her this new goody that I found.

I pulled out the transparency for the letter 'K'.

I pulled out the appropriate magnets that corresponded with said transparency.

I sat down with Kira and a stack of papers ready to tackle the task of learning how to draw the letter 'K'.

I was in it for the long haul.

We - Would - Master - This - No- Matter - How - Long - It - Took!

It took less than a full minute. (Sigh...and I was so prepared to stick it out, too.)

I kid you not!

Kira took one look at the adorable little kids who were creating her coveted letter 'K' and with one short explanation of the motions that the kids were making she was drawing away. I left for a brief trip to the store and returned to a stack of pages with "Kira" written on them. Yes, her letters were still choppy and still in serious need of practice, but they were also very clear and very readable. Kira was beyond ecstatic at this new ability. She was so ecstatic that she had ZERO interest in learning to write any other letter. She spent days and days writing her own name on every scrap of paper she could find. (I'm sure the bill processors at AT&T found that to be quite odd when they received our monthly payment with the name "Kira" written all over the payment stub in crayon...)

I waited and waited and waited... and suggested and suggested and suggested... for another opportunity to learn more letters. Kira just wasn't interested. She was completely satisfied with having learned how to write that coveted letter 'K'.

So the review was delayed... until a time would come when Kira decided she wanted to learn more. Little did I know that she would begin practicing on her own. She had made a crucial connection in that one lesson. She now understood that she could create her letters by lifting her pencil and using more than one motion.

SHE GOT IT!

We have pulled out our Writing Made Simple set a few times since that first lesson. I still love those little characters and love how easy it is to show Kira how to create the letter she has chosen to study. If it weren't for mischievous Marisa, I could leave Kira to play with the magnets and transparencies completely unsupervised. It is a very sturdy set. Marisa would surely abscond with the magnetic characters to cast some exotic play on the refrigerator if I did not fully supervise their usage.

This item is by far one of the best tools I've been lucky enough to possess. If you have a child that is struggling to write his letters, there is no doubt that this one product will help your child visualize the necessary motions and make that crucial connection to allow him to succeed in writing.

The Fragrance Collection by Glade

I love this candle. I just had to tell you.

I don't usually burn candles because the fragrance is often far too intense for me. Because I don't burn them, I tend not to buy them.

Well - I had all these coupons for $3.00 off of any one candle from The Fragrance Collection by Glade. When I visited my local Publix - which I rob regularly - I found that they had these 4.9 oz Glade candles on sell for $2.99.

IMAGINE THAT!!!

Really, how does one walk away from that kind of a deal? So I bought every single one of them. Yep - I had 9 coupons and there were exactly 9 candles sitting on the shelf. Now there are 9 of these candles sitting on my counter. One of them was lucky enough to get lit.

I stole (ahem -bought) these candles for the purpose of gifting them to people that I know who will enjoy them, but I decided to try one of them for myself. The one I chose to light is the Earthly Awakening scent. I was pleasantly surprised. I actually forgot that the candle was burning because it just wasn't that strong. I would occasionally catch a whiff of fragrance as I walked through the kitchen, but my head wasn't hurting from the overpowering aroma like happens with most candles I've used.

Randall seemed to like this candle, too, because it isn't too girly. It's really nice. I might even steal some more next week.

CSN Stores

Remember this post where I told you I would be doing a review of a CSN Stores product?

Well, my order was placed on August 24th and arrived two days later. I was very excited to get that box.

I had to wait a couple of days to open the box because we are giving this to Kira for her birthday. I needed to open it up when neither of the girls were around to see what was going on. They tend to be very nosy.

If you'll recall, I chose to receive this school pack to review.





















The very first thing I noticed when I pulled the back pack out is that the material is NOT flimsy. I really expected to find something similar to what you find in the local stores. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that this back pack is made to withstand a lot of abuse.

The pencil case is also very sturdy. It has a collection of colored pencils that are already sharpened and ready to go. There's a sharpener included for when the pencils become worn. The quality just amazed me.

My first thought had been than the price tag for this set was just way too steep. I tend to be cheap about these things. Now that I have the set in my hands, I can see that spending the money would be worth it because this set seems like it will last.

I will be giving this to Kira for her birthday soon. When I do, I'll post some pictures of her opening it up and checking it out. I know she will love, love, love it just because it is covered in horses. We haven't decided when her party will be just yet because Grandma Shari is out of town for a while. When Grandma gets back home we will be having the birthday party. This gift is for the party.

One more point that I should note: This is a gender neutral set. The packs are red with the orange reflective strips and the horses are good for either a boy or a girl. There's nothing particularly "cutesy" about the set that would make it a bad choice for a boy.