It’s that time of year again!

The stores are filled with excitement to get public school kids geared up with new pencils, backpacks and even a new wardrobe just in time for Back-to-School. Missing out on all that buzz can be a bummer for homechooled kids and their parents – so we’re continuing the tradition with our 2nd Annual Not Back-to-School Blog Hop.

Started last year over at Life with my 3 Boybarians with 4 weeks worth of homeschool links, goodies and excitement, this year the torch has been passed to Heart of the Matter. We want to get you geared up and excited about your homeschool year, too!

There is still a wealth of ideas on those original blog hop linkies. We welcome you to check them out to get ready to share your own excitement for Not Back-to-School in your home.

• 2009 Week 1 – Curriculum Week – You’ve worked so hard to pick the best for your students! Share what you’ve decided to use.
• 2009 Week 2 – School Room Week – share where you do school. Kitchen table? Dedicated school room? Show us!
• 2009 Week 3 – Student Photo Week – it wouldn’t be a new year without a class picture!
• 2009 Week 4 – Day-in-the-Life Week – how does a typical day go in your homeschool?

Those articles remain among the most visited – even a year later – on my (Darcy’s) blog. We know this year can also be a great resource for you and for other homeschoolers. Grab a button and please consider writing a quick blog post to let your readers know it’s coming. Please tweet, post on Facebook, Stumble, Tumble or share however you reach other homeschoolers. The more who know about this, the more we can collect an extensive idea board of great blog posts. We need you!

This year’s schedule:

• Monday, Aug 2 – Friday, Aug 6: Curriculum Week
• Monday, Aug 9 – Friday, Aug 13: School Room Week
• Monday, Aug 16 – Friday, Aug 20: Student Photo Week
• Monday, Aug 23 – Friday, Aug 27: Day-in-the-Life Week

Grab a button!

<a href="http://heartofthematteronline.com/"><img alt="Not Back to School Blog Hop" height="125" width="125" src="http://heartofthematteronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/nbts125.gif"></a>

Who should participate?

YOU! Veteran homeschoolers, brand new homeschoolers, eclectic, classic, Charlotte Mason, biblical… we encourage everyone to come be a part of this collection of blog posts to offer an enormous resource of links for homeschoolers! This is a great opportunity to share your hard work, get lots of traffic and be an encouragement to the homeschool community.

We can’t wait to see what you’ve been hard at work on!

Darcy is the mom to three boys ages 8, 7, and 5 and blogs over at Life with My 3 Boybarians. She is the owner of a blog design business at www.graphicallydesigning.com. She and Handy Man live in Iowa…nowhere near a Starbucks.

A lot of my memories growing up center around food. Some might say, some things never change. I might agree.

As a child, during the summer months, I always looked forward to visiting the Merrow family. Mr. Merrow could pick me up by my ears without it hurting (that feat always impressed me). Mrs. Merrow made the sweetest tea I’ve ever tasted in my life. It could cool you down on a balmy, summer day and set your sweet tooth to overload.

My favorite thing she would whip up in her kitchen were her Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies. She would always serve them hot out of the oven and smothered with cold, ice cream.

Mmmmmm. It takes me back just thinking about it.

Here’s the recipe for all of you, like me, who love to make some memories:

Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies

~ My dear friend, Mrs. Merrow

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Cream:

1 C butter

Add:

1 C brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar

Beat until creamy.

Beat in:

2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift and stir in:

2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Stir in:

1 C chopped nuts
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Press into a jelly-roll pan and bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Ruthanne Genco has been homeschooling for just over a decade. She’s passionate about many things ~ the Lord, her principal and students (mother to four boys and a girl), photography, baking and really good coffee. You can find her blogging at www.eclecticwhatnot.com where she shares a few random thoughts and loads of pictures.

Gear up for a year full of fun and learning.

Remember the excitement and nervousness of your first day back to school when you were a child? I do. I remember the weeks leading up to the big day, my mother would take my sister and me back-to-school shopping. We would be treated to new outfits, shoes for our bigger feet, and of course new school supplies. As we were preparing to start back to school in our homeschool, I remembered the fun of getting ready to head back for another year. I want my son to have his own great memories and knew I needed to be sure to help create them.

Tip 1. Spruce Up. During the week leading up to our starting back to school, I would not let my son come into the schoolroom. It was off limits. While he was out of the room, I cleaned out old paperwork and filed it, removed old curriculum that would not be needed for this year, rearranged furniture a bit, and added new decorations and items.

Tip 2. Talk it up. Make a big deal about your child advancing to the next grade. It is a big deal. Show them how excited you are and they will certainly join in on the excitement. We talked about all of the fun things my son would be learning in third grade and thought of fun field trips we could enjoy during the year. My son eagerly participated in the discussion of learning new grammar rules, division, and more about American History.

Tip 3. Get Something New. Remember your Trapper Keeper from when you were a child? Mine was bright purple and I loved it. I decorated it front and back with puffy hearts and stickers. And then, the next year, my mother let me pick another one – fresh and ready for a new year’s adventures and doodles. Take your child to pick something new for the upcoming school year. It helps to make a list together with your child of the items that you do need for the school year. Pencils, paper, erasers, notebooks – while these may not sound particularly thrilling to you, allowing your child to pick them as his or her very own is a big deal.

Tip 4. Dress up. Have your child start their first day back to school in a special outfit. My son selected his favorite dressy shorts and shirt to wear on his first day instead of his usual gym shorts and t-shirt. And I made a special effort to dress up as well.

Tip 5. Capture it. Grab your camera and be sure to take pictures of your child’s first day of the new school year. Include you and your spouse in some of the pictures. These make great beginning shots of your homeschool yearbook or scrapbook and will be treasured photographs of your family. We took tons of pictures outside and with us, but one of my favorites was in front of the white board where I had written the date and “Welcome to Third Grade!” Having these details in one of the photographs provides a great point of reference and makes the photograph interesting, too.

What is your favorite back to school ritual?

Robyn Stone is a wife, entrepreneur and homeschooling Mom to one very energetic little boy who is not quiet so little any more. She shares about her journey in life on her blog Our Homeschool Home. She loves a good cup of coffee, photography, and a great conversation.

Home education is an adventure, and beginning to home educate is like going on a journey.

Here are some steps to make your journey more pleasant.

1.  Begin investigating the various methods of instruction and curricula available to home educators. The choices for home educators is almost limitless — you must determine which style of curriculum works best for you and your children. Your local library should have a couple of books on Homeschooing.

2.  Decide if you want to join Home School Legal Defense Association.

3.  Attend your State or Local Homeschool Convention, these are usually held annually. Most conventions offer informative and inspirational workshops and guest speakers as well as a large vendor hall display. HSLDA usually has a listing by state of conventions and other useful information.

4.  Consider joining your State Association- if your state has one! It is usually a great source of information and support to home schoolers statewide.

5.  Join a local Support Group. To find out about support groups in your area, contact your state association, who can direct you to groups in your area.

6.  Complete any requirements your state has for Homeschooling.

Begin your home education adventure!

Tracy Jackson is first and foremost a Christian, a military wife and mother. She grew up as a military brat all over the USA and is married to her Air Force, pastor husband of 16 years. They have 2 beautiful teenage children that they home school. She is photographer, and owns Shots From the Heart Photography and loves to do what she calls “Capturing the Fingerprints of God!” in her images. Tracy also created a workshop called Mommytography, where she teaches Mom’s how to use their cameras and to take better pictures. You can visit her at her blog: Work of HeART and Soul.

What a beautiful past two weeks it has been in my hometown. My family and I actually reached a milestone last week; it was out one year anniversary of living in this mountain town. We love it here in this community where we have made friends, found a church home and are settling in well. Summers are short and in fact you may hear the locals say they are enjoying their four weeks of summer when walking down the busy streets. We really do have a little more than 4 weeks of summer but because of our long winters, we often feel like we get short changed on the warmer days.

You can tell that summer vacation is coming toward an end though with the local office supply and discount stores offering their back to school sales. In our household summer vacation is coming to a close. We will be starting school in the beginning of August followed by some light days during the week of August 9-13 to attend the Heart of the Matter online Conference.  Slowly getting back in the groove seems to work for our family.

Speaking of the HOTM conference, we had a contest on the forum to enter to win one of five tickets. We had several entries and after entering the information at Random.org, we had the following winners. Congratulations to the winners and thank you from each and every one of us to all that entered.

We have added a new section to the forum for the conference. In this area you will find a link to a schedule, general questions and a section for each speaker. Now anytime we have a conference, you have an opportunity to come back to the forum to talk about the speakers you have just heard and fellowship with friends you have just met. This will be so nice to continue our talks when the conference is over.

If you would like to get a head start on getting acquainted with the forum, registration is easy to do. The next step is to wait for an activation email from forum@heartofthemattermagazine.com and then you are ready!

Now that you are a member, here are a few questions and topics that may interest you:

• hsmommaof4 would like to know if anyone has suggestions for making a transition from workbooks to textbooks?
• What is your teaching or learning style?
• gfcfmomofmany would like to know if there are any special needs homeschoolers out there?
• juliephine wants to share resources on homeschool deals. Have you found a store or website that you get good deals on curriculum or supplies?
• Now that you have found that fabulous deal and been able to use that product for awhile, give us your report. Would you give it a thumb up or a thumb down? Come share your opinion in our subject section.

I hope you find time to come and visit all of us at the forum. We are open 365 days a year, seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day and can be viewed from the comforts of your home.  Until next time- see you at the forum!

Amy Fleeker is a part of a great family that includes a husband of 12 years, 3 children, a dog and a cat. Her homeschooling style is eclectic with a emphasis on classical teaching. When with her family, you can find her watching movies, playing board games, and living life with a great sense of humor and knowing that God is all around. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking, tatting, crocheting and doing a little family history. You can visit Amy at her blog, Counting Change Again.

One eyelid fluttered open as I strained to determine if I really heard what I thought I heard. My suspicions were confirmed with the next telltale sound so I threw back the warm covers and groggily shuffled through the minefield of Legos, the overturned art table and leaking sippy cup as I tried to avoid tripping over the dog dancing in anticipation of her breakfast. I stepped into the kitchen and looked at my toddler standing with both feet squarely in the dog’s water bowl, doing his own version of Lord of the Dance: Waterworld. He noticed me and flashed his dazzling dimpled grin as he picked up the pace to impress me with his skills. The urge to just turn around and go back to bed was VERY appealing. Of course, just then both the doorbell and phone began ringing. I took a deep breath and evaluated my coping skills for the day ahead and realized that I was seriously lacking.

A Better Way

Have you ever had a day where before 7 AM you were ready to sink to the floor and cry? Oh yes, it’s actually funny later, but at the time…. I used to try to be brave and go it alone, but I’m learning a better way. I’d love to share and also hear from you as well.

1. Thankfully, God is with us to help us.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 ESV

Even though I may only have five minutes between my child’s escapades, it’s enough time to praise God, read a Psalm or simply acknowledge God’s presence. Find that chunk of time in your day because it provides life from the Vine that we so desperately need.

2. God is ever present AND He sends friends and mentors to provide encouragement, guidance, laughter and perspective that all our efforts with our family will make a difference.

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. Proverbs 27:9 ESV

If you realize that you are trying to be a Lone Ranger Mama, I encourage you to seek out friends and mentors. You can reconnect with old friends, make new friends by joining a new playgroup or an online mom community (such as the HOTM Forum), join a mentoring group or seek out an older mom in your church to be your mentor.

3. Most of all, I just want to encourage you that you are not alone. Even when you want to go face first into your Cheerios, you have support all around you. Look up, wipe off your face, reach out your hand and get connected!

I care and I would like to hear about a day you went face down in the Cheerios and how reaching out to connect with God and a friend or mentor helped you!

Tara McClenahan is a devoted mom to a two-year-old “little man” and enjoys discovering how God has “packed his suitcase”. As an associate with iBloom, she has a heart for inspiring, encouraging and equipping moms to become “Proverbs 31 mamas” and raise their children according to Biblical principles and guidelines using the Bible and other tools. Tara adores falling leaves, sweatshirts, Starbucks White Chocolate Mochas and the first curly BBQ chip from the bag! Make sure to visit Tara’s website to download your free Christian mom resource!

“Mom, don’t you trust me?” We’ve all heard that.

With two teenagers in my house there is a whole lot of letting go, praying—and did I mention fear—when it comes to releasing them into the world wide web. From the day the umbilical cord is cut, the process of releasing our children begins. As they learn to walk we hold their fingers. They let loose and fall. I have never heard of a child who doesn’t take a tumble as he learns to put one foot in front of the other.

Our teens will make mistakes and fall as they learn to walk as an adult. They won’t get it right every time; they are in training. When they stumble, we are there to help them stand up and walk again on a secure footing.

The goal in our house is preparing our teens to stand and make good choices in the face of the smorgasbord of folly laid before them in the world. I can’t hide them from what is offered —unless I’m willing to keep them in their rooms the rest of their lives. But, I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind when He said we are to be the light of the world and to live life abundantly.

Gradual Process

The groundwork for adulthood is laid by teaching respect for authority, moral foundation from scripture, and wisdom in choices during the early years. As they grow up, the opportunities to rebel increase as the consequences get more serious. How we deal with them as toddlers, grade school aged children and tweens sets the stage for our interaction in the teen years.

The teen season offer a chance to test drive young adulthood before they leave our home. I’m all for freedom but I borrow the famous phrase, “Trust but verify,” from Ronald Reagan.

Accountability

Soon after a much publicized national pastor scandal, our pastor shared from the pulpit how our local church staff submits to one another in order to maintain accountability. I appreciated learning that at the time but even more so now that my teens are navigating the online media highway. I am thankful to be able to point to this practice as an example to my children. Even our pastors need rules and use online safeguards.

When our teens get a cell phone, email or social networking account, it comes unashamedly with strings attached. I get the passwords and the freedom to check up on text messages and facebook buddies. As trust is built, I check in less.

Trust Goes Both Ways

With the access to my teenagers’ social media accounts, I promise not to embarrass them. I don’t post baby pictures or any of my favorite photos of them dressed as a princess or a pirate when they were younger. I don’t tell them online to take out the garbage or brush their teeth—for their friends to see.

Becoming Tech Savvy

I’ve had to become technically savvy. Where has my child been on the computer? I’ve learned to check the history of online searches and sites on our computer. We have software to censor unwanted pictures and websites. As adults, we have all experienced the pop-up we don’t want to see. It can happen to the young adults in our home, as well, if we don’t block them.

Resources:

• Logged on and Tuned Out: a Non-Techie’s guide to Parenting a Tech-Savvy Generation, book by Vicki Courtney

• Focus on the Family Media Safety Resources – Website

Share Your Wisdom

Is there a Bible verse that has provided a family principle in the area of trust? What guidelines have you adopted in your home? What media control programs in your home have helped verify trustworthiness?

Rhodema Cargill lives the parenting adventure with Calvin, her college sweetheart. They have two adult daughters and two teenagers still at home, a girl and a boy. Their homeschool style is eclectic with a great love of living history books. Rhodema is a freelance writer and speaker. Visit with her on her blog: MommyLife.

Once upon a time we had an old Commodore 64 computer which my brother-in-law had given to us for our children to use. That hand-me-down computer entertained my older children with multiple games whenever they earned computer time by doing chores or finishing schoolwork on time. Then one autumn day we made a decision to buy a new computer which would primarily be used to supplement our children’s education. The choice was easily narrowed down to the purchase of our first Mac Performa and the simplicity of using it made it a wonderful addition to our household. The most notable event was when my oldest son who was fifteen years old at the time went through the process of installing the software and hooking up our dial-up 9600 baud modem to the internet. What an adventure awaited us!

However, the challenges of homeschooling during that time plus taking care of baby number seven plus helping my parents as my mom recovered from major surgery allowed me little time to learn much about our computer or the internet. The extent of my usage was limited to occasionally checking a quiet AOL email account.

Until that following summer a mere thirteen years ago.

Finally our schooling routine disappeared as more flexible summer days stretched out in front of us. One afternoon I plopped open a Practical Homeschooling magazine which I had been reading while nursing my baby and slid my rocking chair and sleeping baby over by the computer as I searched on AOL for a message board area which Mary Pride had set up for homeschoolers. Smiling from ear to ear once I found it, I began reading through the different categories available. Any and every possible topic related to homeschooling was available. Then I landed on a category that spoke to my heart. Homeschooling a Houseful. I spent quite a few days “lurking” and getting to know the women through their posts.

During this season of life, I was so limited to being able to engage in relationships outside my home as my days were full from start to finish, but before the start and finish when the baby needed nursing and my household was sleepy, I slowly and steadily began developing friendships with a group of women who had similar life situations as I posted a comment now and then allowing them to get to know me. We all were still in our childbearing years and were often typing one handed as we nursed our babies, cared for large growing families which had their own unique dynamics, talked about the challenges of homeschooling and what curriculums worked the best, shared simple and easy recipes or laundry tips, and gave advice while we prayed for one another as sisters in Christ.

When this message board area closed on AOL, our group tried a couple other message board areas as our families continued to grow older. We stuck together as we began exchanging Christmas cards and family pictures every December, meeting one another whenever we traveled to other states, helping one another when there were needs beyond our means, graduating our homeschooling kids one by one, and laughing heartily or crying sympathetically with one another as our relationships continued to blossom. We worked our way through many controversial topics which came with it learning the “tone” of our discussions through our typed words with a heart for unity which was shown through our apologies when misunderstood.

Seven summers ago we finally landed and have stayed at a place on the internet where a private message board area was set up. Our membership is around 75 to 80 women with about half of them quite active and the others checking in now and then as we’ve busily chatting away accumulating thousands of posts. Life on the internet has also changed and many of us can be found on Facebook as individuals or within the group we set up. Life has also changed within our families as we now share about weddings, grandbabies, books, menopause, aging parents, health issues, and even the topic of homeschooling comes up once in awhile. Although there have been many changes, our friendships have continued to be an incredible blessing deepening through the years and which will continue into eternity as we’re all convinced we’ll have our own little corner in heaven someday.

Internet friendships are not meant to replace or be any kind of substitute for our real life face to face friendships with women, but they can be a wonderful supplemental way of being blessed by other women within friendships where we can share the thousands of words of thoughts on our minds within a given day. The key is finding a healthy balance of time to do this so that you are not taking away from your real life relationships and home life. Message boards are a wonderful way to connect with other women and in particular other homeschooling moms as they offer specific areas to meet similar and distinct needs. Heart of the Matter offers a forum for this purpose as well as The Homeschool Lounge. Take a moment to check them out and meet other women who are also homeschooling. You never know when you might develop a sweet friendship that may allow you to meet face to face someday in the future. Trust me, you won’t run out of words if that happens as the conversation will flow much as it does online. You will be richly blessed by a friendship with a dear sister in Christ and could anything else be closer to the heart of the matter?

Married in 1980 and still living in the same house in a woodsy rural setting, Tammy Dallmann’s homeschooling journey began in the fall of 1987 when her oldest turned six years old. As rather new believers professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, homeschooling was a way to live out the principles found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Through all the challenges of life Tammy has stayed the course growing to a family with nine children who presently range from grade school age to college graduates married with children. Her role has transitioned from learning everything she could about homeschooling to becoming an encourager to others coming along the way. Please visit Tammy at Garden Glimpses.

“HEY, MOM!! WHAT’S FOR DINNER???”

At my house, the answers can range from “I don’t know, what were you planning to make?” on a bad day, to “Look at the list on the fridge!” on a good one. I thought it might be similar at your house, so I had to share a couple of recipes with you which will give you a jump start on the answer next time you hear it!

Simple Ribs

• 3-4 lbs boneless ribs
• 1 bottle barbecue sauce
• 1/2 jar apricot or peach jam

**Tip: use a crockpot liner for supreme ease!*
Put ribs in crockpot. Pour half of the bottle of sauce into a bowl. Add jam and stir, then pour over ribs. Cook on low 6-8 hrs. Add remaining 1/2 bottle to crockpot to thicken sauce. Serve over rice.

and now for a simple chicken recipe…

Simply Scrumptious Orange Chicken

• 2 lbs chicken breast sliced in 1 inch-wide strips of any length
• orange juice to cover chicken (2 cups or so)
• 1 egg
• 2 cps Italian bread crumbs
• 1 stick butter

Place chicken strips in bowl and pour juice over the top. Leave in fridge to marinate for a few hours or all day. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 stick of butter in 13×9 pan and put in oven to melt while preheating. Take chicken strips out of juice and set aside. Add egg to juice in bowl, and blend with a fork. Pour bread crumbs onto a plate. Take melted butter pan out of oven. Dip strips in egg/juice mixture and roll in bread crumbs. Lay coated chicken strips into melted butter in pan, turning to moisten both sides. Bake for about 35-40 minutes.

Hope this makes dinner planning a little easier for you this week!

Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging ferociously to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past thirteen years, and has eighteen more years ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. After the house goes to sleep she can sometimes be found gathering her thoughts at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MistyKrasawski.

I love organization. Love the little boxes, labels, folders, everything that has to do with organization. My heart wants to organize, really it does! Yet it seems like whenever I get it all in place, life happens and it never stays as pretty as all those organizing websites show.

We’ve used the Workbox System. We have bins for all of our schoolwork. We are lucky to have a whole room at home to use for our school things. Yet I seem to always want MORE organization. There are so many things to keep organized: schoolwork for 3 kids, supplies, paper, craft items, etc. And then of course, where do you keep all the completed work, crafts, etc.??

I also love planners. I love having a cute little book with all of my “to-dos” neatly organized in a pretty calendar. I have used big planners, small ones, weekly, monthly, specific homeschooling planners, etc. But I find the one that I have stuck with and use the most is my iCal on my laptop…since I spend so much time on my laptop, it just makes sense.

This year I will modify my Workbox System to use files rather than shoeboxes. I will re-use ALL those plastic shoeboxes to organize our supplies, and I will be using the Simply Charlotte Mason organizer online. I will also stick to the iCal.

Are you organized? Disorganized? Longing-to-be organized? Share your organizing tips, storage ideas, planning ideas…whatever you can!

Karen is married to the love of her life, Steve, and a homeschooling mom of 4 children ages 9,7,5, and 1. She was called to homeschool when her oldest was kindergarten age after thinking, “I could never do THAT!” Now she is passionate about encouraging others on their homeschool journey, as well as learning all she can along the way. She sees her kids as her mission field and loves the verse in Romans 10:15 that says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who carry the good news.” Follow her blog at Beautiful Feet Bring Good News.