One of my favorite subjects in school was geography. I loved learning about the different countries and especially experiencing their cultures. I've always wanted to find Mary a homeschool geography curriculum that would take her on a "tour" of the world so I was thrilled to review Let's Go Geography.

Let's Go Geography is an online subscription for grades K-4 that will let your kids take a trip around the world each week. Each week they are given a new lesson but you can go faster than that if you wish. The subscription will email you a lesson each week and you can also login to your account online if you are going at a faster pace with the downloadable year you can purchase.

The weekly lessons are very hands on and include things like crafts, coloring, videos and maps. I also loved how they gave you ideas for the books in the library as well. Going to the library to get books for unit studies has always been a staple for me when it comes to learning.

Let's Go Geography has three years of all new material and each year can be broken down into 26 countries and 2 regions of the United States.

The weekly lessons shouldn't take a lot of time at all and they can be downloaded via PDF. Here are some of the activities you can expect in each lesson:

• Locating the country on a map and learning basic facts about it
• Listening to music that is native to the country
• Coloring and printing the country flag to add to your "passport"
• Watching videos that take you on a sightseeing tour of the country
• An activity craft that correlates with the country
• Printables including notebooking pages

For the very first week in Year 1, you'll learn about the Northeast in the United States. Since we were reading The Sign of the Beaver which takes place in Maine, we really studied this a lot. We did focus a lot on Maine for our first week and we also started a unit study for The Sign of the Beaver. I added a few more things into our lesson like finding certain places on the map that take place in the book as well.

The craft for the first week while studying the Northeast was actually a perfect fit for a deeper study on Maine too. It was a cute lighthouse craft that can be made with either tealights or cut out flames.


Overall I am really impressed with Let's Go Geography. They have an amazing curriculum that is easy for planning for parents and really fun for kids. Each week is like visiting a whole new place and you can even further the learning with relevant books or unit studies like we did.

And make sure to check out the other reviews on Let's Go Geography linked in the picture below!

So after I used the test kit, I sent it back to the company and was emailed with my results in four weeks. I was impressed with how quickly it came back and I couldn't wait to see just what genes I had in me!

Below is the video with me getting my results and I show you exactly what I have in me!




So my results were just slightly similar to what I was told growing up. I am Italian and Welsh, but I have a LOT more in me! And my number one is German since my maternal grandfather was German. I think it's strange that I took after a lot of his genes, especially since I never met him!

Overall My HeritageDNA was a great company to work with. I was thrilled that everything went smoothly and the results are worth looking into. I have been researching more about our family line now and I can't wait to learn more about us.

I have been a lover of high waisted skirts for as long as I can remember. I love the feeling of having a swing skirt on that has a high waist because it looks vintage and elegant. But it's really hard to find decent high waisted skirts that also look modest and appropriate.

Recently I was introduced to Banned Apparel which is a wholesale vintage clothes company. You unfortunately can't buy directly from them unless you are a company that wants to sell their clothes, but for the general public you can buy their clothing from retailers such as Top Vintage Boutique.




The Apple of My Eye Skirt comes in a few different tartan colors and the one I picked out was a blue and green tartan. I had been looking for a tartan skirt to match my Navy Blue Three Quarter Sleeve Stand Collar Tie Stretch Top from Unique Vintage and this one was perfect.

The Apple of My Eye Skirt features two lovely pockets on the front, a side zipper and a side button. It is a full swing skirt which ends a little below the knee for me and I am a little under 5' 4" without shoes.


The entire outfit was very comfortable and I ended up pairing it with a dark green tichel instead of a blue one. I thought the green from the tartan skirt would really set it off and it did much better than more blue. Of course my trusty oxford shoes were worn since they go with me almost everywhere too.

This has quickly become one of my favorite outfits because it is so comfortable and effortless to put on. If you love high waisted skirts, I highly recommend finding a retailer that sells Banned Apparel. The Apple of My Eye skirt is from their Dancing Days collection which is vintage inspired.

When fall starts creeping into the air, I really love to break out tartans! So I've been eyeing the Miss Candyfloss Ella Swing Dress for a while now. But it had run out of my size a long time ago so I thought I would never get it. But I was lucky enough to find a store in Germany that still stocked it!


The Ella Swing Dress by Miss Candyfloss is a raspberry colored swing dress with tartan fabric on the collar and cuffs. It also features a tartan belt around the waist which is removable. For my outfit, I paired it with my lovely grey lace tichel and added a pearl headband and pin. I think pearls go wonderfully with tartan in the fall!


The Ella Swing Dress by Miss Candyfloss has a bit of a v-neck with the tartan collar so I added an undershirt to help keep it more modest. But it's not extremely low at all. I just personally like my shirts to be to my collarbone. The fit of the dress was actually big on me but I blame that on losing so much weight since I ordered it. The dress was an XL that I ordered just in case, but I had to use that last hole on the belt. I think from now on I will be a Large in Miss Candyfloss clothes.


The Ella Swing Dress is currently sold out on the Miss Candyfloss official site but they do have retailers that still stock this dress like the one I bought it from in Germany. Searching online for it should be a huge help to see who still carries this gorgeous dress!

For all the years that I have been homeschooling Mary, I have always used out of the box methods to help her learn more. Whether it be taking her to an out of the ordinary place to learn or even make lesson plans around the things that interest her, I believe it helping children learn in the ways they are most interested.

Since Mary is a huge Nintendo fan, especially with Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Switch, I thought that learning the science behind racing would be a fun exercise for her. So that's when I was able to find NASCAR Lesson Plans through NASCAR Acceleration Nation!

The plans come as units and they are recommended for grades 5-7. They are based off of using STEM connections which we really love too. Plus on the NASCAR Acceleration Nation site, they have videos for kids to help them learn more about the science behind racing.




If you love motorsports or have a kid who LOVES cars, NASCAR has an amazing way to share that passion with your kids, thru NASCAR Acceleration Nation. The website and the free app, which is available on Android and iPhone, features fun games, info on races, details on cars, and learning materials like the ones listed above about the science of racing!

There’s a fantastic giveaway too! A 1st prize of $400, 2nd of $150, and 3rd of $75 of NASCAR gift cards. Open to residents of US & Canada 18+, and ends Sept 8th, 2017 so enter below!