Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Created to Do Good Works

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

I don’t know about you, but I could use some accountability in my personal Bible study time. So, I thought I’d start sharing with y’all some thoughts and reflections from what I’m studying. Wednesday seemed like as good a day as any.

I’m studying scripture using the SOAP method, an idea from Amy at Mom’s Toolbox. The thoughts I share here will be those that I have written down in my Bible study journal. I may doctor them up a bit for the blog post as a manner of solidifying my own thoughts, or they may be typed out here just exactly as they are in my journal.

Whichever method I choose – and it may vary from week to week – these will just be my personal thoughts. They aren’t meant to be a form of teaching, just what I’ve got rolling around in my head.

I wondered if this might be something others might be interested in doing – kind of an online Bible study group, but with everyone just doing their own personal studies, sharing your thoughts on your blog and linking up so that we can learn from each other.

If there is enough interest, I’d be glad to host the link-up. We could even decide to do something more structured in the future – perhaps doing an actual Bible study book together. Just let me know, in the comments, what you think.

One of my studies that really stood out to me this week was the reading of Ephesians 2-3.

Scripture: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:10

Observation: This verse says that God created us to do good works. It doesn’t say that He created us so that we might do good works or that He created some of us to do good works. It says we were created to do good works.

It goes on to say that these works were prepared in advance for us to do. It doesn’t say that they were created for someone else to do or some of us to do, or for pastors and teachers to do. It says that they were created for us – those of us saved by grace – to do. That means of each of us. That means me.

Paul goes on to say, in chapter 3, verse 20, “…according to the power that is at work within us.” Christ’s power is at work in all of us who have accepted Him as Savior. He’s not expecting us to do good works through our own strength and power, but through His, which is at work in all of His people who have been saved by grace.

Application: I need to be doing the work of Christ – whatever work it is that He has created me to do because He has created me to do it.

Maybe I’m already doing it, but perhaps I’m not doing it to the standard of Christ because I haven’t acknowledged that it’s His work and I’m not calling on His strength to do it. Perhaps I’m not doing His work because I haven’t sought His will to know what that work is.

I need to pray and seek His will to know what good works it is that I was created to do and then to them to God’s glory through Christ’s strength. If I don’t, I’m not living up to the full potential for which I was created. God placed me where I am today, in this moment and time, for a specific purpose (Acts 17:26). I need to live out what I was called to do.

Prayer: Father God, reveal Your truth to me. Show me the good works that You have prepared in advance for me to do. Help me to acknowledge them and call on Your strength that is at work in me to do these good works to Your glory. In Christ’s name I pray, amen.

What has God been showing you, lately?

God’s Presents

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

There have been too many deaths lately. I know death is all around us and people die every day, but there are some deaths that pull you up short. There are those that send your own mortality colliding right into your comfort zone.

My friend, Christina’s death was like that because I realized that it could have just as easily been me. It was difficult for my kids because they’re friends with Christina’s kids and they realized it could have just as easily been their mom.

Then, there was the local kid who was killed in a car accident Friday afternoon. I didn’t know him personally, but I don’t think that matters. Once you become a parent, you can’t help but be touched by a child’s death. You can’t help but have your heart break for the family who is living your worst nightmare.

This kid’s death was on everyone’s lips this weekend. He attended a fairly small private Christian school that a bunch of kids from church attend. His dad has been a pediatrician in the area for nearly two decades, so many of my friends and their children were acquainted with the family.

Still, even total strangers were heartbroken for this family who lost their 18 year old child so unexpectedly.

One of my friends on Facebook posted that she prayed that God’s “presents” would surround the family. I know it was a typo – or maybe her helpful computer or phone filled in the wrong word for her, as they have a habit of doing. I couldn’t help thinking about that this weekend, though.

God’s presents do surround us. Daily. And, so often, we take them for granted. Our spouses are God’s gift to us. He uses them to encourage, support, and refine us. He uses them to show His love to us.

Our children are a gift from God.

“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.” – Psalm 127:3

Them, too, we take for granted when the days seems so long, while the years are so short. Wouldn’t it put things into perspective if we knew that we were barreling ahead to the day they would be taken from us? I can’t imagine how short the days would seem with that perspective.

The indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit is a gift from God.

“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 2:38

Even enjoying our lives and our professions and finding opportunities to do good is a gift from God.

“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” – Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

God’s greatest gift, however, is the gift of salvation. I know that Christina’s family and this young boy’s family have found comfort in knowing that their loved one is now with their Savior.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8

Have you accepted Christ’s gift of salvation? That is God’s greatest gift to you – the one that enhances the enjoyment of all the others. If you’ve never accepted Christ, I’d love to talk to you about how you can. I don’t have all the answers and I’m not gifted at sharing the truth of God’s word, but I’m willing to let Him work through me. Email me if you want to talk.

If you’ve already accepted Christ, I encourage you today (and this goes for me, too, because I’m just as guilty as the next person) to take time today to fully enjoy God’s presents – His gifts to you. Hug your children and your spouse. Invest in time with them.

Make every moment count because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. Life could be over in the blink of an eye. Let’s make sure we’re living it to its fullest.

And, if you think about it today, say a prayer for the Baughman family – the mom, dad, younger brother and sister – and all the friends and family who will be laying this young man to rest today and grieving their loss while celebrating his life. Pray that God’s presence will surround and comfort them.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the New Book

2012-01-27T17:38:00.001-05:00

Check it out! It’s the last Friday of January. We’ve survived our whole first month back to school after Christmas break. I read on someone’s blog this week that they look at the start of January something like the beginning of a new school year after that long Christmas break.

That’s really how it’s felt for us, especially this year since we started a totally new curriculum when we resumed in January. And it’s been a great “new” school year!

Today has been really fun. We managed to stay caught up, so it was to be a light school day for us. That’s good because Josh’s best friend’s dad, from whom we bought the drums for Christmas, came over to give Josh his first semi-official drum lesson.

Then, later, one of my closest friends came over to help Brianna sew a cloak she’s been wanting to make for weeks. She bought the material with her Christmas money, but I know nothing – nothing – about sewing.

So, we’ve had music lessons and home ec today. It’s been electives day. It’s really been great. It feels like just the sort of relaxed, following-their-interests kind of homeschooling day that I often envision, but which doesn’t – at least at my house – always come to pass.

You may notice the lack of photos in today’s post. {sigh} I have completely fallen off the Project 365 wagon this week. I have felt so uninspired. I’m not giving up, though. I guess it’s really not a true Project 365, but I’m going to endeavor to do better next week.

My lack of interest in photography may be directly related to the fact that I have been totally engrossed in a new book that came in the mail on Tuesday. I reviewed (and loved) the first book, Fairer Than Morning, by author Roslynn Elliott, so I jumped at the chance to review the sequel, Sweeter Than Birdsong.

I loved it! I read it in three days…it would have been two if I could have held my eyes open a little longer last night. I’ll post the review soon, but if you don’t want to wait, I highly recommend it.

Those are the highlights of my week. How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines. You can also follow the guidelines link to grab the banner code.

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Review: Four Letter Words

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were being called upon to defend your faith, but found yourself tongue-tied and unsure of how to do so? I imagine, if you’ve been a Christian longer than about 24 hours, you probably have.

Four Letter Words, by Bill Giovannetti addresses many of today’s cultural arguments against the Christian faith and offers suggestions on how to combat them with the truth of God’s Word.

“Thou shalt tolerate every opinion... except the Christian's. Today's postmodern ‘prime directive’ leaves many followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn't it unreasonable, and even dangerous, to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth?

The church needs a new breed of Christ-follower. We need Christ-followers who are alert to today's touchy ideas, the truths that fire up more heat than light. We need Christ-followers who can make a clear case for the Bible's worldview; who are ready to help our friends think through their beliefs; who can recognize inconsistencies and challenge them; and who can do all of this with humility, confidence, humor, and love.

Four Letter Words looks at such topics as:

The inerrant truth of the Bible
Science vs. the Bible
Why is there pain and suffering in the world?
Should Christians be so judgmental?
Is Hell real?
Sexuality and purity in today’s culture

Containing a discussion guide, Four Letter Words is billed as being a great choice for small groups, personal study, college and campus groups, and youth groups.

Because of this, I thought it might make a great read for my sixteen-year-old daughter. However, I found it often difficult to read and follow the author’s thought process, so I know she would struggle with comprehension, as well. It wasn’t as conversational a writing style as I would have hoped.

I think it would probably be good for an adult study group and especially good for college-aged groups since that seems to be an age that thrives on ferreting out their own personal belief system and enjoying a healthy debate.

The fact that the book is interactive and QR enabled (if you don’t know what that means, you’re as behind-the-times as I am and probably don’t have a smart phone…ask your teenager), will no doubt make it even more appealing to college-age readers.

About the author: Dr. Bill Giovannetti is a professor at A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and the senior pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding. An experienced speaker and author, Bill informs the mind in ways that touch the heart. He enjoys life with his wife and two kids in northern California. For more information about Bill and his other books, visit http://maxgrace.wordpress.com and http://fourletterwords.org.

Bill is celebrating the new Kindle edition of Four Letter Words (for only $4.99)! He’ll be traveling coast to coast over the next few weeks on this virtual book tour and he's celebrating by hosting a great giveaway!

Click here to find out how you can win two gift certificates to Amazon (in the amount of $50 and $25) and free downloads of his yet-to-be-released title, Recession-Proof: Living a God-Blessed Life in a Messed Up World. Or click to get the whole scoop.

Read what other reviewers are saying.

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. This post also contains affiliate links. The thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about keeping toddlers and preschoolers occupied because that’s not my season of life anymore. However, it’s still a question I hear frequently in homeschooling circles, though the quandary isn’t unique to homeschoolers.

In fact, the question came up recently on the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Facebook page. There were several suggestions offered, including what used to be my go-to page for preschool and toddler activities, Paula’s Archives’ Preschool Activities page.

I offered some learning activity suggestions back when my niece was joining us for school, but sometimes you just want something fun and productive that your little one can do fairly independently. Here are some suggestions:

Pipe cleaners and a strainer. (Follow the link for four other toddler-friendly activities)

Poking pom-poms into a milk jug. This used to be a favorite activity among the kids in the home daycare Brianna attended as a toddler. The daycare mom would cut flaps into the sides of the milk jug so that pom-poms were easy to remove.

Create an I Spy bottle. (Maureen, from Spell Outloud has tons of other great ideas on her blog.)

Create a rice (or bean) box. (These are also known as “sensory tubs.” Follow the link for a wealth of photos for the visual-learners like me.) These can be really messy – but so much fun! – so be sure you’ve got a spot for it that can be easily swept. It can be even more fun if you color the rice.

Host a busy bag swap. I so love this idea! I wish I’d heard about it when my kids were younger. It would make a great moms group activity and it’s a great way to save money putting the bags together since things tend to be cheaper when you buy in bulk.

Lacing Cards. Remember the little heavy cardboard, shaped cards you used to play with as a kid? They had the shoestring that you laced in and out of the holes? It’s easy to make your own lacing cards with some heavy cardboard and a hole punch or an awl.

Play-doh is always popular with toddlers. It’s relatively inexpensive, but it can still be fun to make your own.

Cutting straws is a fun activity for preschoolers and good fine-motor skills practice. It probably doesn’t make a good independent activity, though, if you like the length of your child’s hair.

Fishing with homemade magnet fishing poles was always a huge hit with my kids. Just get some dowel rods and attach round magnets to them with twine. Then, provide metal items for which to fish – this can be as elaborate as fish shapes with paper clips attached or just a plastic bucket with some metal items and some plastic ones. The latter is a fun opportunity for preschoolers to explore what sticks to magnets and what doesn’t.

Finger painting. Some fun mediums include pudding, baking soda, and shaving cream. It can also be fun to make a colored gel, double-bagged in a gallon size zip-lock bag – just use a little hair gel and food coloring.

Clothes pins can be used for dropping into a wide-mouth jar (such as a milk jug with part of the top cut away), clipping onto a cardboard box or even as an alphabet matching game for older preschoolers.

String beads or cereal. Another great fine-motor skill activity, kids always seems to enjoy stringing beads or cereal and, of course, if you use cereal, this provides a convenient snack, as well.

Stacking boxes. Old cereal boxes or oatmeal containers work well for this. They don’t even have to be old or empty, if you don’t mind re-shelving them when your child is through playing.

Some other great places for ideas for keeping toddlers and preschoolers productively busy include:

Toddler’s Busy Book by Trish Kuffner
Keeping Your Preschooler Occupied

What are some of your favorite resources for keeping little one happily occupied?

This post contains affiliate links.

The Homeschool Showcase and Stuff

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Did you stop by expecting to see the Homeschool Showcase today. Um, yeah. Um, oops. So, apparently, I failed to update the listing after the last Homeschool Showcase edition and no one was able to submit their posts.

Yeah, oops.

I guess since that’s the first time I’ve ever done that, I can be forgiven, right? Unfortunately, it’s been such a busy weekend, that I didn’t even realize what I’d done until I sat down to put this week’s Showcase together late Sunday night – way too late to do anything about it.

So…please submit your posts for the next Homeschool Showcase, which will be back on its regular week, February 6. Showcase submissions will be due by 6 PM EST, on Friday, February 3.

photo credit

In the meantime, I’m writing at a couple of different places around the web today and I’d love to have you visit me. You can find me at The Homeschool Classroom today giving you lots of do-it-yourself lunch ideas for your kids. This is something that became a part of our school week this past summer and has continued to work well for us into the school year.

I’m also sharing tips for setting up a home management binder at In a Nutshell. Stop by and weigh-in on some of your favorite additions to your own home management binder, if you use one, or find out how to easily set one up, if you don’t.

And, finally, be sure and pray for me today that I don’t lose my ability to find my way to the bathroom within the next ten years. *sigh*

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With All the Weather Stuff

2012-01-20T17:50:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday! We’ve had another great week here. Although school has gone smoothly, I am looking forward to the weekend. I’m ready for some downtime…and there is the little matter of a small mountain of laundry that needs to be caught up.

It’s been another enjoyable week with our much-loved new homeschool curriculum. We finished our first read aloud, The Courage of Sarah Noble, and have moved on to the next one, The Mathclock Gun. We just started it today, so the jury is still out on it, but we enjoyed The Courage of Sarah Noble.

Day 14 – P365 (Megan bought the dogs this huge dog bed at Costco last weekend. They love it! Penny has only removed her lazy butt from it long enough to eat and go out since last weekend.)

Today we got to try out Trail Guide’s built-in Friday catch up day for the first time. The girls and I got our hair cut on Thursday and I got mine highlighted. I should post pictures, but that will have to wait until a day when I’m wearing make-up. Other than race pictures, when the pride of running overcomes the vanity of needing make-up, I don’t feel a strong need to post naked-face pictures for the whole Internet.

Day 15 – P365 (Gus, on the other hand, prefers to sleep hugged up on the stairs. I think he thinks he’s in a tree or something.)

So, anyway, we got a bit behind on Thursday, so we played catch-up today. It worked out great. We did the important Friday stuff and skipped the “if you have time” stuff, so that we could complete the work from Thursday. We got everything done, with no complaining, in time for me to get my grocery-shopping done before supper.

Nice.

Day 16 – P365 (Labeling a map of the colonies, by ethnic group.)

The science focus for this unit is weather. This week, we made a whole weather lab – well, an anemometer and a weather vane, at least. I’ve got to get the clay needed to fix our barometer and we’ll be all set. Now, in addition to temperature, rainfall, and clouds, we can measure wind speed and direction.

You may recall that we tried an anemometer before with the science curriculum we were using (and enjoying), but didn’t have much success. The one we made this week works great! It’s built more like a pinwheel, so it catches the wind and spins easier. I love that Trail Guide to Learning includes photos of each step of its projects, along with detailed directions. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a very visual learner.

Day 17 – P365 (Anemometer…made from a Honey-Nut Cheerios box in lieu of the required paper plate. Very colorful, no?)

Although there was a slight breeze today, there wasn’t enough wind to spin the anemometer. We didn’t think that there would be enough for our weather vane to work either, but there was. Thanks for our really cool weather equipment, we know that there was a slight breeze blowing from the south today.

In other news, I knew that I missed one day of Project 365 – I just wasn’t feeling inspired that day and didn’t want to take a photo just to be taking one. I didn’t realize that I’d missed two days, though. Oops! I’m still going to keep plugging away, though. I figure, even if I miss a day now and then, I’ll still have more photos at the end of the year than I will if I quit, right?

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines. You can also follow the guidelines link to grab the banner code.

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Change

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

This time of year there’s always a lot of talk around the blogosphere about having a word of the year. In case you’ve missed it, the idea is that, instead of resolutions that probably won’t last, people are focusing on a word, or theme, for the year.

Some people have chosen words like faith or live. I’d toyed with some words. I thought about self or selfless or Christ-centered to encompass my goal of working toward being more Christ-centered and less self-centered, but nothing really grabbed me.

Then, we went to church Sunday and heard the second message in a phenomenal new series our church is doing about the home. The general idea is that Biblical teaching is supposed to begin at home. The body of the church should be centered in the home.

Our faith should be taught and shared in our homes (and not just with our families, but by opening our homes to others), rather than having Christian families show up at a building on Sunday mornings and expect to be fed, then going on about their way for the other six days of the week.

The emphasis is that our homes should reflect our deep and abiding love for Christ, rather than simply reflecting our favorite hobbies, sports teams or interests. Our pastor has challenged us to look closely at ourselves and our homes step up to make the changes that God reveals to us.

Change.

Change can be hard. We often feel that we’re too old, it’s too late, we’re too set in our ways, our kids are almost grown, it’s too hard.

No, it’s not. We’re not. They’re not. It’s never too late to change.

I’m 41 years old and I’ve lost 90 pounds. It wasn’t too late to change that. I sincerely hope that I’ve still got half my life to live. I may have wasted the first 41 years being self-centered, but that doesn’t mean I can’t live the next 41 years being Christ-centered.

My husband wants to lead our family in devotions on the nights that we’re all home together. We haven’t done that, consistently, very often in our children’s lives. Does that mean that we can’t or shouldn’t commit to doing that for the rest of the years that they’re living at home? Of course not!

I want our home to be a house of prayer. Our family hasn’t consistently prayed together other than at meals, the bedtime prayers that have tapered off as the kids have gotten older and put themselves to bed, after our morning devotional time to start school, and crisis prayers. Does that mean that we should just write off the possibility of changing that? Nope!

Change.

That’s my word for the year. Brian wants to change our lack of family Bible study. I want to change our weakness in corporate prayer. I want to change my self-centeredness.

I have encouraged each of the children to pray about what God would have them change this year. In the last two days, I’ve seen a definite change in the kids’ attitudes toward each other (for the positive).

Change. Ourselves. Our family. Our world.

That’s our word for this year.

Has your family chosen a word for the year? It’s not too late to change that if you haven’t.

January Sponsor Shout-Out

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it’s the middle of January already? I’m in big trouble if the whole year goes by this quickly! Maybe that saying, “time flies when you’re having fun” is true, though, because we sure have been having a lot of fun lately.

You might be missing out on just how much fun if you’re not following Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers on Facebook. I tend to share some of the craziness of my days over there – like this status update from last week:

“Just said to my youngest (and got away with it), ‘Since I let you bathe the dog, why don't you dust the living room.’ Guess I'm in trouble when it's no longer a treat to bathe the dog.”

I’m tellin’ ya, it’s fun times over there on Facebook. Have you pulled anything good over on your kids lately?

I wanted to take a minute to say a special thank-you to some very special folks. First of all, to y’all, the readers. Without you, I’d just get accused of talking to myself. (Because I don’t do that. Really. Maybe).

Second, I want to thank the WUHS sponsors for January. I appreciate each of the following for partnering with me this month:

Mindy’s Bookworms is a self-guided, interactive website that helps children in grades 2-12 to understand a wide variety of reading comprehension questions and offers practice to improve their skills for reading comprehension tests.

Chautona Havig, author of the Annals of Wynnewood series has been a long-time WUHS sponsor. She writes wonderful, God-honoring books for both adults and children. Visit her site to view her collection of fantasy and inspirational fiction books.

Alpha-Omega Publications is well-known for its high-quality, affordable Christian homeschool curriculum. Featuring everything from Lifepacs and Horizons workbooks to both online (Monarch) and off-line (Switched on Schoolhouse) computer-based curriculum and even a full unit study curriculum (The Weaver), AOP has something for everyone.

Looking for a great homeschool convention to attend? Great Homeschool Conventions offers incredible speakers and tons of great homeschool vendors. Check out the Great Homeschool Conventions website to see if they’re coming to a city near you.

Signazon offers custom banners, yard signs, vinyl lettering, and even car magnets. Visit them for any custom banner or advertising needs you may have.

If you’re going to be attending any blogging or homeschooling conferences (like The 2:1 Conference for which I’m giving away a ticket), you’re going to want business cards to exchange with the bloggers and homeschooling moms that you meet. Vista Print offers business card, personalized calendars, and more.

Once again, thank YOU for reading and I thank our sponsors for partnering!

Win A Ticket to the 2:1 Conference!

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

What are you doing April 27-29? I’ll be speaking at The 2:1 Conference and I’d love to meet you there! The 2:1 Conference is for homeschool bloggers with a heart for God.

It’s a chance to meet some of your online friends in person, hear some of your favorite bloggers and homeschool speakers, be encouraged in your role as a homeschool mom, and learn to grow your blog and your social media reach! What more could you ask for?

Tickets are $199, which includes:

admission
entry to general and break out sessions, as well as group activities
all meals (Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast and lunch) and snacks

The speaker line-up includes folks like:

Rebecca Ingram Powell (author of Season of Change and blogger at Mom Seriously)
Jolanthe Erb (Homeschool Creations)
Amy Roberts (Raising Arrows)
Angie Kauffman (Many Little Blessings and editor of The Homeschool Classroom)
Carisa Hinson (1+1+1=1 and Totally Tots)
Toni Anderson (The Happy Housewife)

You can visit The 2:1 Conference site to see the full list of keynote and breakout speakers, as well as the session schedules and topics.

In addition to the reasonably-priced ticket fee, the accommodation rates have been deeply discounted at just $75/night.

Of course, even with such discounted prices, I know how difficult it can be to afford to leave your family for a conference. It often falls under the category of “something I would love to do, but just can’t cost justify right now.”

I hope I can help!

The 2:1 Conference has provided me with one conference ticket to give away! You’ll be responsible for your travel and accommodation fees, but your meals and entry to sessions will be covered.

**This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Mary, entrant #16!!**

How to enter: It’s easy! Just blog about why you want to attend The 2:1 Conference. Then, come back and link up your post. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org.

This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. Giveaway ends on Friday, January 20. The winner will notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. If I can’t reach you via email through your blog, please make sure that you leave a comment with an email contact.

In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 72 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

I hope to meet some of you in April!

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Turkeys

2012-01-13T17:28:00.001-05:00

Welcome to this week’s Weekly Wrap-Up! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week. We have. Either we’re still in the honeymoon phase or, after long last, we’ve finally found the curriculum that is the perfect fit for us. Even the boy admitted today that he enjoys it.

Yes, there are things he really doesn’t like – such as copywork and the book he’s reading (Ambush in the Wilderness…not a commentary on the book; he’s just not a fan of fiction). Overall, however, even he admits that it’s good stuff.

So, I’ve already missed a day on Project 365, but it wasn’t intentional. I completely forgot about it last Saturday. Just like with weight-loss, though, I’m not going to let one setback derail me. I picked right back up on Sunday and I’ll just keep going.

Day 8 – P365 (I spent part of last Sunday night impulsively cleaning out the junk drawer. I got the medicine cabinet a little later and I hope to get the filing cabinet tonight.)

Speaking of weight-loss, I hit two huge milestones this week. First, I finally hit 90 pounds lost! I’m so excited to finally be able to say that I’ve lost 90 pounds. I never thought I’d get there when I started out.

Second, I’m in the 120’s for the first time in I-can’t-even-tell-you how long. Probably the first couple of years of marriage. I gained after that, then, lost quite a bit before I got pregnant with Brianna, but I didn’t even get into the 120’s that time. I’m less than 5 pounds from my goal weight!

Day 9 – P365 (Lazy cat!)

The younger kids and I are still studying the early colonial days of America, so Monday we played a type of ring-toss game called quoits. We were supposed to make the rings out of rope, but we cheated a bit and just used plastic swimming pool rings. Both kids loved it.

As part of science, we attempted to make a barometer. The directions said that one part of it – getting the water up into the straw and sealing it before the liquid leaked back out would be tricky. It was. We finally gave up, but we’ll probably try again when we figure out something a little better than Play-Doh to seal it with. When they said “modeling clay,” I guess they really meant modeling clay. Oh, well.

That’s one of the big things I love about Trail Guide to Learning – that not only is history covered using great books, but it also includes fun, relevant, hands-on activities each week. Not only that, but it contains detailed instructions. It’s exactly the kind of curriculum I would have designed myself if I were that organized.

Day 10 – P365 (Thanks to a friend who loaned me her book, the addiction is complete. I finished this one in about 24 hours.)

You know how some men can brighten their wives’ days by bringing them a bouquet of flowers? Mine could make me happy by surprising me with a new 3-hole punch. I’d think that was odd, but I know I’m talking to a bunch of homeschool moms. (Sunflowers would make me smile, too, though.)

I was going to buy one myself while I was out yesterday, but I had too many other things that had to come out of my grocery budget, so I’ll have to wait until next week. Unless my husband decides to surprise me. Tell me it’s not just me.

Day 11 – P365 (Doesn’t every school cabinet need a cat? He climbed in by himself and was even more content when we shut the door.)

My sister sent me a text on Thursday. She said she was headed to pick my niece up from school when she saw seven wild turkeys walking up her street. We live in a subdivision, so that’s not a common occurrence. Not common as in, it’s not something I’ve ever seen in the collective thirty-ish years I’ve lived here.

I asked her if she got a picture. She said no, but that they’d probably be up my way soon. We live just a couple of streets over, so I didn’t really expect to see them since there are so many other places they could go.

Lo and behold, about 20 minutes later, I looked out the window, and there were seven turkeys strolling down our street! I’m so glad there wasn’t a film crew around because I jumped up, hollering, “The turkeys are here! The turkeys are here! Don’t scare them off before I get my camera!”

Day 12 – P365 (The wild turkeys.)

Yeah, sometimes, it’s the little things.

The local schools were on a 2-hour delay today, so I decided we’d take a 2-hour delay, too. As a few people – my mom included (Hi, Mom!) – pointed out, we’re on a 2-hour delay every day.

True, but it sounded fun and I thought the kids shouldn’t miss out on some of the perks of public school, like when the schools go on delay in anticipation of inclement weather and the weather is just fine. Besides, we’d stayed caught up all week, so we had a light day ahead of us anyway.

The kids enjoyed getting to sleep in a bit and eating lunch before starting school. We did some review stuff and Brianna, who had also stayed caught up, quickly finished her work for the week.

We wound up the week with the younger kids’ new favorite school-related activity, watercolor. Today, they got to splatter paint and drop pools of paint onto the paper so they could blow them with straws and make designs. It turned out pretty cool.

Day 13 – P365 (Watercolor fun.)

Since my school planning now consists of getting any needed supplies from the store (done), hitting the print button three times, and hole-punching about 40 papers, I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home. I’m sure there will be some laundry and some blogging stuff, but I don’t mind that when everything else is basically caught up.

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10 Great Ideas from Pintrest

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

I avoided Pintrest for a really long time. I heard all the buzz, but I plugged my ears. It wasn’t that I had anything against Pintrest, but I knew I didn’t need one more think encouraging me to spend anymore time online. Between blogging, Twitter, Facebook and Words with Friends, I didn’t need any help in the “spend more time online department.”

I gave in last week, though, and I’m really glad I did. I’ve already found such cool things! Here are some of my favorites:

1. The Phases of the Moon…with Oreo cookies! Such a great visual and both fun and tasty to make. I definitely want to do this one with the kids this year.

2. DNA with Licorice and Mini-Marshmallows. Another great science project and, if you visit the original source you can get a great PDF file to go with it. The file contains some background information as well as a colorful, step-by-step guide to making the model.

photo credit

3. Chip Clips. A great way to use those plastic clip clothes hangers from the store – the ones I usually throw away.

4. Paper Organizer. This adorable paper organizer is made of recycled cereal boxes. That’s a lot more fun than just tossing them in the recycle bin. FamilyFun is the original source for this great idea.

photo credit

5. 10 Tips for a Great Quiet Time. I need to put these tips into practice now. My quiet time could use some improvement. Visit Terri Lynne Underwood to read the full post. (Yes, you can get there from Pintrest, but I know just a week ago I wasn’t 100% sure how all that worked.)

6. 25 Rules for Mothers of Sons. Inspiring. Encouraging. Convicting. Head to Team Studer to read the whole 25 Rules for Mothers of Sons post.

7. Stuffed Cabbage Casserole. I love stuffed cabbage. My family doesn’t love it as much as I do, but they all enjoyed this recipe. I loved it! I’m having the leftovers for lunch today.

8. Cinnamon Roll Waffles. Oh. My. Word. These fall under the category of “things I shouldn’t try, but probably will.” Maybe I’ll take them to our small group meeting the next time we do breakfast foods. At least that way I’ll have someone to help me eat them. Click for the cinnamon roll waffles recipe.

9. Crochet Yarn Bag. This one didn’t link to the original source, so I’ll have to do some searching for the pattern when I get to the point that I feel brave enough to try it.

photo credit

10. Crochet Owls. There’s no pattern for this one either. *sigh* Maybe once I know what I’m doing, I’ll be able to figure it out. They sure are cute!

Have you given in to Pintrest yet? If so, leave me your link and I’ll follow you.

Homeschool Showcase #87

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the January 9, 2012 edition of Homeschool Showcase, where we spotlight all the encouraging, inspiring and just plain fun ways that homeschooling families live and learn together.

Welcome back! Our Christmas break was a much-needed time of rest and rejuvenation. While I missed you, my Homeschool Showcase friends, it was nice to step back from the online world for a bit and just relax. That being said, it’s good to be back in the swing of things!

Just a note: The Blog Carnival site has been having issues for several weeks now. I’m not getting email notification of Homeschool Showcase post submissions. I can still go to the site and get your submissions, but I’m not getting the email notification that provides me with your email address.

That means that I can’t send you a message letting you know that Homeschool Showcase is posted unless I have your email address from previous submissions. It also makes it really difficult to reply to personal comments you may have left me in your post submission. That means that, despite what it may seem, I am not purposely ignoring you.

Hopefully, the Blog Carnival site will be functioning at 100% soon.

Now that that’s of the way, on to this week’s Homeschool Showcase.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom, of Handbook of Nature Study, is the person who got me into nature study. I may not always be consistent with it, but her enthusiasm is contagious. Don’t miss her post, Handbook of Nature Study - November Bird List. With it’s gorgeous photos and helpful resource links, don’t be surprised to find yourself wanting to create a backyard oasis for the birds in your area.

photo by barb

Mrs. White encourages as she relates her own struggles, short-comings, and a desperate need for hope in her post, The Legacy of Home: Mother's Hope posted at The Legacy of Home. I love the idea of a binder of hope – reminders about and prayers for our children.

Kelly @ The Homeschool Co-op shares her Interview with Nicole of Once a Small Seed posted at The Homeschool Co-op.

Pamela Jorrick tells us about a super-cool sounding resources available at many museums around the country…and she made me laugh…in her post, Hands On Chaos posted at Blah, Blah, Blog. Be sure to check it out. You may want to see if any of your local museums offers the kits Pamela mentions.

photo by pamela jorrick

Laura Grace Weldon encourages us to live in the moment in her inspiring post, Let The Youngest Teach You Mindfulness posted at Laura Grace Weldon. She says, “Living at a child's pace helps us stay in the present moment. That's something even the youngest child can teach us, if we're ready to learn.”

Jamerrill Stewart shares her thoughts on The Cost of Having Children at her blog, Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling | Living the Life of Faith.

Susan Kilbride offers a free PDF file, Free Atoms & Molecules Unit Study for Ages 8-13 from Funtastic Unit Studies!, saying, “This free unit study on Atoms & Molecules is taken from the book Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers, which was written by a homeschooling mom and is designed to make learning science fun for kids and easy to teach for parents.”

Nicole Taulman and her family recently had the opportunity to visit life-sized replicas of Columbus’s ships, the Nina and the Pinta. We’ve done that before, too, and I highly recommend it. See photos and catch Nicole’s excitement in her post, Study America Saturday ~ The Five Senses of American History posted at Journey to Excellence.

photo by nicole taulman

I want to do this next one! How fun! Paige Hudson posts a recipe and instructions for creating your own crystal snowflake in her post, Science Corner: Winter Science Fun! presented at Elemental Blogging.

Studying hurricanes anytime soon? Be sure to visit Little Homeschool Blessings for Bethany’s post, Extreme Weather: Hurricanes. It includes lots of great facts, a video and tips for hands-on learning fun.

With cold and flu season in full swing, Melanie Grant’s suggestions for Health Care for Homeschooling Moms couldn’t be more timely. Read more at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

Randy Pope presents The Augustinian view of history, A Study in Providence posted at Christian Worldview of History and Culture, saying, “This is one of a series of 4 articles on different philosophical views of history.”

Amy Dumas’s Winter Guest is a beautiful little male house finch. I love when homeschooling provides real-life learning opportunities right in your front yard. Visit Ambling to see photos and read more.

photo by amy dumas

Read Aloud Dad shares some of his kids’ favorite dinosaur books in his post, Dinosaur Cove: Attack of the Readaloudsaurus posted at Read Aloud Dad.

Amy Broadmoore shares the first of 60 Not-to-be-Missed Picture Books posted at Delightful Children's Books, saying, “These 60 books are books I hope my children will read repeatedly and remember fondly as part of their childhood. Readers are invited to read through this list with me” It includes one of my favorites, perfect for this time of year, The Snowy Day.

Annette, of A Net in Time, is Back to Homeschooling saying, “Starting out the new year with plans to be more organized was a resounding success.”

That concludes this edition of Homeschool Showcase. Submit your blog article to the next edition, scheduled for Monday, January 23, by using our carnival submission form. Post submissions are due by Friday, January 20, at 6:00 PM (EST). If you're new to Homeschool Showcase please read the guidelines before submitting your post. Past posts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Want to help spread the word? Tweet the following:

Creative #homeschool ideas and more in the Homeschool Showcase hosted by @Kris_WUHSmom - http://bit.ly/nhEsui #hsblogger

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Brand-Spanking-New Curriculum

2012-01-06T16:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!! I know I say that a lot, but I am so feeling it this week! The sun is shining, it’s 65 degrees in January, and we have had an awesome school week. I’m looking forward to the weekend, but I don’t feel like I’ve dragged myself to it by my fingernails this week.

Day 3 – P365 (Notice the cross?)

What’s got me so pumped? I’d have to say it’s our new curriculum. Now this is just our first week and I know there’s that honeymoon phase and all, so my real, official, in-depth review won’t happen for a couple of months or so – to really give us time to use it thoroughly – but my first impression is, I’m loving it!

We’re using Trail Guide to Learning (Paths of Settlement) from Geography Matters. I have never, ever, the entire time we’ve homeschooled, ever used a full, pre-packaged curriculum. Trail Guide covers everything except math and every single book it requires is included.

Oh, my word.

P365 – Day 4 (Brianna’s hand at age 4 – the same hand that drew the award-winning Canada goose at age 11.)

There was nothing that we did this week that I didn’t have all the supplies for. There were no books that I forgot to get from the library or that we couldn’t get because they were checked out. And, there was no planning because all the planning is done for me.

Can I just say that, in this season of my life, that is pure bliss? And, so far, the curriculum, which is very unit-study-like (y’all know I like that, right?) is something just like what I would have planned myself, if I had the time…except, you know, a lot more thorough and well-thought-out.

P365 – Day 5 (First long run of 2012.)

The kids’ (Josh and Megan…Brianna is still using Switched-on-Schoolhouse) only complaint so far has been that there’s “a lot more work” than we usually do. They’re right. It is. And, I’m so okay with that.

See, before we finished our first semester, I was very much feeling like we weren’t doing enough. Not the “homeschool mom, self-doubt maybe we’re not doing enough,” but the real “no, really, we’re not doing enough.”

If you’ll recall, I talked a lot in the last few Weekly Wrap-Up posts of 2011 about spending some time over Christmas break tweaking. I knew we needed to beef things up.

P365 – Day 6 (Finally! Book 2! It’s been checked out at the library and sold out at the stores. Brianna bought it, but is letting me read it first. Love that kid!)

When the offer unexpectedly came up just before Christmas to try Trail Guide, I jumped at it. I got to enjoy my Christmas break instead of spending a lot of time tweaking and planning because everything is planned out for me. (Did I mention that already?)

Want to know something really cool? Remember that we were alternating history and science on M/W and T/Th with Friday as either a light or catch up day? Trail Guide is set up exactly that way!

We stayed caught up most of the week, so today, we just had three things to catch up and the rest was review and games. It was a fun, but not wasted day because the review and games were all productive and designed to cement what the kids have been learning.

There are also enrichment activities on Friday (or whatever your “Day 5” happens to be). These can be done by older students (TG is geared for 4th-6th grades), kids who want to go more in-depth, or as more Friday work if you’ve stayed caught up all week.

Oh, and the kids’ favorite part? Watercolor painting! It was only on the lesson plan for Monday, but we wound up painting on three different days. Even Josh enjoyed it.

So, what did we do this week? We read Abigail Adams, Ambush in the Wilderness, and The Courage of Sarah Nobel. (And, the kids – and I – love that TG’s reading plan is reasonable than mine tend to be.)

We used an atlas to make state notebooking pages for Massachusetts and Connecticut and state cards for those two states for a game later on.

We observed and recorded the weather. We were supposed to make a rain gauge, but we have a store-bought one, so we skipped that. The kids did a scavenger hunt through their readers to find sentences with the grammar rules they’re learning.

(Just an aside…in that sentence above, as I was proof-reading, I realized that I’d written, “…grammar rules their learning.” Um, glad I caught that. Wouldn’t have been a big vote of confidence for my grammar skills.)

We studied spelling and vocabulary words. We talked about the early settlers. We made cards about the different types of people who came to the New World (explorers, settlers, entrepreneurs, and soldiers) for the review game we played today.

We did interactive journaling (I wrote something for them to read about their birth with a question for them to answer). We did grammar and editing. We did narration, copywork, and critical thinking.

It was a fun week and I felt like the kids learned a lot…and there really wasn’t any complaining other than some general grumbling on the first day (expected) and a little grumbling a couple of afternoons when we weren’t finished as early as they’d like (also not unusual).

I’m looking forward to next week!

This post contains affiliate links.

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Another Day in the Life

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Want to take a peek into a day in my life? You can do it today at Simple Homeschool as part of the Day in the Life series.

And, if you want to see what this week has looked like for us – and hear how we’re liking our new curriculum – come back this afternoon for the first Weekly Wrap-Up of 2012.

Review: Mindy’s Bookworms

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Please join me in welcoming the newest WUHS sponsor: Mindy’s Bookworms! Mindy’s Bookworms is a self-guided, interactive website that helps children in grades 2-12 to understand a wide variety of reading comprehension questions and offers practice to improve their skills for reading comprehension tests.

Now, I know many of us homeschool folks don’t necessarily give reading comprehension tests, but understanding the concepts covered on Mindy’s Bookworms is an important part of reading comprehension, period, and we can all agree that having our children understand what they’re reading is the main goal in learning to read. Whether your child is reading for pleasure or for information, neither is going to be accomplished if he isn’t understanding what he’s reading.

Then, there is also the fact that, while you may not administer reading comprehension tests at home, there is probably going to come a time when your child is going to have to take that type of test – either for state-required standardized testing or for college entrance exams.

Mindy’s Bookworms allows your child to work independently and at his own pace through a series of passages that roughly equate to first (or maybe it’s second…there are 12 levels) through twelfth grade reading levels. Each of my kids, ages 16, 12, and 10, used Mindy’s Bookworms and I felt that the instruction was equally beneficial for each of their varying reading levels.

Most state tests are created using Lexile scores. Lexile scores measure the difficulty level of a passage by looking at sentence length and vocabulary. The passages on Mindy’s Bookworms begin at Level 1, 200L and end at Level 12 1390L. From the website:

“The Lexile Framework is used throughout the country as a way to accurately measure the difficulty of a piece of text. It takes into account sentence length and word frequency to create a numerical value. This numerical value can then be used to track a student’s reading progress and help them find appropriate reading materials.”

First, the student finds his reading level by reading through a few passages to find the one that he can read making three mistakes or less. Josh and Megan both preferred to read theirs aloud to me, but they could have done this step independently.

Once the child knows which level he’s on, he chooses one of 10 passages to read to himself. I let my kids choose any of the passages that sounded interesting to them within their reading level. It didn’t seem to matter if they went in any kind of order among the ten choices.

The student reads the passage then answers ten multiple choice questions that cover concepts such as:

Main idea
“Right there” (The answer is in the passage and the student just has to find it.)
Compare/contrast
Fact or opinion
Sequencing
Cause and effect

Once all ten questions have been answered, the student clicks the “submit” button to get her score for the questions. She can then go back through each question, one by one, to see which ones were right or wrong.

I loved that this step tells the student what type of question each of the ten was so that he can get better at recognizing the question type and knowing what to look for. Not only that, but there is also an explanation of what each question was looking for and suggestions on how the student should have gone about finding the answer.

Mindy’s Bookworms is a great tool for helping to improve reading comprehension (because they can learn what to look for in their own reading) and help a child gain a better understanding of how to successfully navigate a reading comprehension test.

The twelve levels provided enough challenge for each of my three kids and the feedback was a valuable learning experience.

Whether you’re looking to improve your child’s understanding of reading comprehension questions for his own personal improvement at home or to help him achieve a higher level of success on standardized tests, Mindy’s Bookworms provides a valuable learning tool. It’s something that I would find valuable for practice in the weeks prior to taking a standardized test, even if I didn’t choose to use it year ‘round.

The website is a subscription service with a monthly fee of $9.95, with the first seven days being free

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. I also received monetary compensation for the time invested in writing the review. The opinions expressed are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

2012 Goals

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I referred you to my article at About One about making New Year’s resolutions that really stick. While I don’t like to make the traditional New Years’ resolutions, it is, as I mentioned, really hard to ignore that clean slate feeling, so I do usually wind up taking a look at my personal goals around this time of year.

I posted about some of my fitness goals yesterday on my fitness blog. Today, I wanted to share a couple of the fun personal goals that I’ve set for myself this year.

First, I’m going to really try to stick with Project 365 this year – except, I guess it’s Project 366 this year since it’s Leap Year. Either that or I get one freebie day that I can miss. Um, yeah, because I’m sure I’ll only miss one day considering how well I stuck with it last year.

In keeping with my plan to set specific goals, I decided that one thing I really want to do with P365 this year is, rather than just taking random photos all the time, I’d like to work on learning more about my camera and all the nifty, but rarely used settings.

On Sunday, Day 1, I decided that since I’ve had my camera for over a year now, it’s high time I learned to use the self-timer feature.

P365 – Day 1

Not only does that mean you get to see this {ahem} lovely photo of me, but you also get to see my awesome new “warm fuzzy” pants that replaced my beloved warm fuzzy pants from my obese days. I do not miss being obese, but I sure did miss those pants.

My second goal came from thinking about a post from Tina Reale on having a theme for the year. After reflecting and praying on it a bit, I decided that I want my theme for the year to be “outward-focused.”

See, I tend to have a serious self-centeredness issue. Things tend to be about me a lot and anything that might inconvenience me or make me uncomfortable tends to go undone. I really want to focus on other people this year and shift to a Christ-centered mindset, rather than such a self-centered one.

Again, in keeping with the whole specific goals idea, I wanted to come up with a plan that would help me shift my focus each day. I came up with the not-new idea of performing a random act of kindness each day.

P365 – Day 2

I figured that if I wake up each day with the idea that I’m going to be on the lookout for some way that I can bless someone else each day, that’s going to go a long way toward taking the focus off me.

It doesn’t have to be a major thing, just some act of kindness toward someone else. For example, Sunday, I noticed that Josh was out of Kool-Aid, his drink of choice, and the girls were out of tea. Usually, I’d remind them that they needed to make their Kool-Aid or tea. Sunday, I did it for them, start to finish, early enough that the drinks would be cold in time for dinner.

It was a simple thing and I didn’t know – or care – if they would even notice, but I knew that I took time out of what I was doing to do something for them.

I’ve made myself a sticky note to put on my laptop – where I’m sure to see it every day – to remind myself about P365 and my ROAK (random act of kindness) until I get into the habit of doing them every day.

What about you? Have you set any goals for 2012?

Making New Year’s Resolutions That Really Stick!

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Have you ever had one that lasted past January? I quit making traditional New Year’s resolutions several years ago, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to take inventory toward the end of the year and think about changes I’d like to make in the new year.

photo credit

There’s something about the clean-slate-feeling of a new year that makes you want to make changes. So, if you still enjoy making New Year’s resolutions, make the kind that make it past January 31. I’m offering tips over at About One about making New Year’s resolutions that really stick. Stop by and let me know what you think!

Get Organized!

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2012 getting your homeschool planning more organized? If so, you might want to take advantage of the editable Weekly Homeschool Planner. It’s on sale today through Saturday for just $12 when you use coupon code ORGANIZE12.

And, if one of your resolutions is to add more hands-on learning to your homeschool, be sure to pick up a copy of my e-book, Hands-On Learning.

Just a Little Update

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

I thought I’d pop in and give you a little update on us as I’m still enjoying a bit of a bloggy break for the holidays – I mean, really, there’s not much to blog about when we’re not doing much of anything except relaxing.

We did enjoy a very nice Christmas together. Our church had a great Christmas Eve service Saturday night, which we followed with a wonderful evening with my side of the family. There was much food, much laughter, and much enjoyment of one another’s company.

My family always does a “white elephant/Chinese auction” exchange for the adults and the kids draw names. The white elephant part means that you bring something that you already have at home but aren’t using – though a few of us have broken the rules on that part lately when we haven’t really had anything to pass along or re-gift.

The Chinese auction part means that everyone draws a number. The first person chooses a gift to open. The next person can then take the first person’s gift or choose a gift to open. If your gift gets taken, you can either take someone else’s gift or choose an unopened gift to open.This goes on until everyone has chosen a gift. The person who chose first gets to choose, at the end, whether to keep their gift or choose from all the opened gifts since he/she didn’t have a choice at the beginning.

I have no idea where these things got their names, but they are always so much fun – especially with my family. There’s no telling what someone is going to bring. We always wind up laughing until we cry.

Christmas Day was really great, too. We managed to surprise all three kids this year – a first, as far as we can recall. Brianna got an iPod Touch, which I wrapped in a bunch of towels in a box that looked like clothes. She was very pleasantly surprised.

Megan got a Nintendo 3DS, also wrapped in a box to look like clothes. I can’t believe they both fell for it.

Josh’s big gift was a drum set. Yeah, we’re probably crazy. The boy actually has some rhythm, though, so it sounds pretty good, rather than like a bunch of noise. Those required a lot of sneaking around and hiding. It was kind of a “Christmas Story” moment where we told him to go look on the covered deck after all the presents had been opened.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon with Brian’s family.

The day after Christmas we went out to lunch and did a little shopping with our Christmas money. It’s fun to actually enjoy shopping for clothes again. It’s also fun to spend the day out together as a family.

We finished up the night at my dad’s house, so it was two fantastic days of family time, something we haven’t had enough of lately. It was a wonderful Christmas. I hope yours was, as well.

Yesterday, we had a busy day at home taking down the Christmas tree (it’s so nice having tall, strong, handy, almost-teenage boy), putting away the decorations, cleaning house, and catching up the laundry. I can’t stand starting school with a messy house after a break. Now, if I can just keep it clean until next week.

I’m excited to be starting our new curriculum next week! I’ll be posting updates as we go along and a full review in a few months, but I’m feeling very positive.

Don’t forget, there won’t be a Weekly Wrap-Up this week and I’m still going to be pretty scarce over the next few days, but we’ll get back into the swing of things next week. In the meantime, enjoy your family and leave me a comment, letting me know what’s been going on with you.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Merry

Christmas!

To you and yours from me and mine, I wish you all a blessed Christmas.

Enjoy your day with friends and family as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.

Some Favorite Links

2011-12-19T13:30:00.001-05:00

On my agenda today are: working on piles and piles of laundry, wrapping Christmas presents and a trip to the post office. If you’re find yourself with some free time, though, pop over to Heart of the Matter Online and take a trip around the web with me. We can visit some of my favorites of the blog posts that I cam across last month.

Weekly Wrap-up: The First Week of Christmas Break

2011-12-16T17:15:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap-Up, the final edition of 2011. There will be no Weekly Wrap-Up on December 23 or 30, since we’ll all probably be too busy enjoying our families and the Christmas holidays.

Speaking of being busy, you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t been around much. That will probably be the case for the rest of the year. I figured if I’m too busy to find much time to blog, most of you are probably too busy to find time to read blogs, so we’re good, right?

This week was pretty much par for the course for the first week of a long break – we were so busy cleaning house, doing laundry, and running errands that the week flew by, leaving me wondering how in the world we get it all done when we’re doing school, too.

The tiny little salamander that visited us today. I should have put a penny next to him so you could tell how small he was, but I was afraid he’d take off before I could get a photo.

Monday, Brian was off, too, so we all went out and finished up our Christmas shopping for the niece and nephews. Tuesday was laundry and housework. Oh! And, I won a great running shirt from One More Mile! I had already ordered one running shirt with a hilarious logo for Christmas, so I ordered my second favorite as my prize.

Wednesday was a pretty exciting day. I took Brianna to get her learner’s permit. She was so excited to pass the test and get her learner’s. Brian took her out for her first driving lesson that very night. Somebody pass the Valium.

While we were at the DMV, I made a decision. I had planned to get a new license once I reached my goal weight, so I’d have my new weight and new picture on my license. I’m less than six pounds from my goal, so I decided that, rather than make another trip to the DMV (because the closest one to us is 20-30 minutes away) and wait in that long line again, I’d just go ahead and get it.

So, Brianna and I both got a new license. I went ahead and put my goal weight on there, since I’m so close. I figured that’s closer to my actual weight than what was on there and I can work to make it official.

Thursday was a pretty exciting day, too. The UPS man brought me a homeschool mom Christmas present from Geography Matters – their complete Trail Guide to Learning set (Path of Settlement) – as part of my quest to find the best history fit for our family…except, this is more than history.

It’s everything but math, which meshes well with the “unit study mindset” with which I like to approach learning. Not only that, but it uses great historical fiction and biographies as the basis for its studies. Sounds like a great fit, no? Be looking for updates as we resume school in January and a full review later in 2012.

It was like Christmas going through that big ol’ box of goodies. The books were even wrapped in green tissue paper, so it was just like Christmas day for me.

Doesn’t this look like homeschool mom heaven?

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Review: Circle C Beginnings (and a Giveaway)

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

As you probably already know, Megan is a huge fan of the Circle C Beginnings books. She read the first two books aloud to me as part of her reading practice. The second two books were some of the first books she read independently.

It was a rather bittersweet moment when the last two books arrived in the mail, since, as I understand it, they are the last two that will be written. Megan and I are hoping that I’m understanding wrong.

Megan read the first of the two, Andi’s Lonely Little Foal, pretty quickly, but she saved the second for Christmas break. Why? Because Andi’s Circle C Christmas is the perfect book to read on Christmas break, is it not?

This is the part where I confess that I don’t know a whole lot about each book as I sit down to write this review because Megan read (or is reading) them completely on her own. You fellow homeschool moms know how happy that makes me, right?

I love the the Circle C books are interesting enough to capture and maintain a fledgling reader’s attention, but at a reading level that allows her to feel the sense of pride and accomplishment that come from reading them independently.

Megan tells me that the book 5, Andi’s Lonely Little Foal is about Andi’s foal, Taffy becoming old enough to be separated from her mother. It tells about Andi’s experience of doing things like sleeping in the barn with Taffy to help her adjust and protect her from harm. It also explores Andi’s relationship with her brother as they go out riding together.

Those are the important highlights, per my ten-year-old reviewer.

In Andi’s Circle C Christmas, a bossy guest shows up and Andi’s tomboy ways are curtailed. Megan says she’s looked ahead, so she know a bit about the bossy visitor, but hasn’t got it all figured out yet. I can’t even understand that as I am so not a look-ahead type person.

If you’ve read my previous Circle C reviews, you probably already know that one of the first things I had to do when the new books arrived was print out a ream or so of paper so that Megan could do the related activity pages.

There is a set for every book and they include coloring pages (yes, that’s a photo of Megan coloring) and activities such as word finds, matching, a little geography and mapwork and more. They’re decidedly fun, but fall into the “productive fun/educational” category, but let’s don’t broadcast that to the kids. (I almost said “Let’s keep that on the down low,” but I’m seriously guessing nobody says that anymore.)

So, anyway, when I found out the new books were coming out, I emailed the author, Susan K. Marlow, and she graciously sent us the two books and even autographed them, which thrilled Megan. What Susan and I didn’t know what that I was on the publisher’s list to get copies of the books.

So, I wound up with two sets. Guess what that means? I’m passing the second set on to one of you! I really should have gotten my act together and done the giveaway last week so that I could have guaranteed you’d get by Christmas. As you can see, I did not have my act together.

So, we’re going to do a really short giveaway, hope the winner contacts me really promptly, and keep our fingers crossed that the books might possibly get to the winner by Christmas, since they’d make a great Christmas gift. Think we stand a chance?

If not, they’ll make fun reading for those of you who, like us, will still be on Christmas break for a week or so after Christmas. Since this is going to be a quick giveaway, I’m going to make it super simple.

Rules: Leave a comment letting me know that you want to win. That’s it! One comment per person, please. I’ll close the giveaway on Friday, December 16. This giveaway is open to United States residents, ages 18 years and older only. The winner will be selected at random using Random.org.

The winner will notified via email and given 48 hours to respond. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted by email or does not respond within 48 hours, the prize will be forfeited and and alternate winner selected.

Click to read the complete rules. By entering this giveaway, you indicate that you have read and agreed to abide by these rules.

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

The Benefits of Investing in Creative Hobbies

2011-12-12T16:53:00.001-05:00

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been learning to crochet. I’ve finally worked through all the basic stitch practice lessons and can finally start working on really making something.

photo by lyre lark

I also enjoy photography and drawing…and, of course, blogging. Did you know that creative hobbies offer more benefits than just the pleasure that they bring you when you’re working on them or the product of your creativity? Today, I’m talking about the benefits of creative hobbies over at In a Nutshell. I hope you’ll stop by and read the article and maybe even leave me a comment so I’m not lonely over there.