Book Giveaway- Winner!

Congratulations to Wendy, the winner of the book giveaway this week! Thanks to you all for your comments, keep checking back as I will be giving away other things from time to time!

Book Review- Hero Tales

Hero Tales is an excellent book about Christian Heroes. It is written by Dave and Neta Jackson, and there are several versions available to buy. We bought this book years ago, and we really love it. I highly recommend it both for homeschooling and for any Christian family with children.

This book is extremely versatile in that it can be used with a wide range of ages, and it can also be used in study, as a family devotional, or just a good read!

Hero Tales is broken into short biographical sections with a related scripture and review questions at the end. Each section draws you into the story of an awesome Christian witness, and helps us to see Christians working in historical contexts!

Some of the people covered in this book are: William & Catherine Booth, Dwight L Moody, George Muller, Harriet Tubman, and William Tyndale.

Book Giveaway!

Today, I have another book giveaway for you. I have not read this book, but I am hoping someone out there can gain something from it! Here is a description:

You’re willing to do whatever it takes to ground your children in a faith your parents never embraced. Or maybe you grew up in an outwardly religious home that lacked a foundation of Christian grace and moral values. If you’re the first generation in your family to embrace a relationship with Christ but aren’t sure how to give your children a foundation of faith, find guidance in Building the Christian Family You Never Had.

If you would like to enter to win this book, just leave a note in the comment section, and be sure to leave your email so I can contact the winner! The drawing will be Saturday afternoon!

Viking Ships

This past week we have been reading about the Vikings, among other things. Today, we found the Viking alphabet and my son wrote his name using those characters. He also made a sign up sheet to show people the Viking alphabet and let them sign their names in "Runes". He traced the Viking's travels on a map and found pictures of Viking ships.

Did you know that Viking ships were around 95 feet long? I must confess, I didn't. The particulars of Viking ships have evaded me, but now through the homeschooling adventure I have become enlightened! Did you also know that 95 feet is generally longer than any one stretch in many houses? We had to go outside to measure out a Viking ship. We had a great deal of success in our driveway, which is just under 95 feet long. So, with great joy, my children wielded their chalk and drew the distance of a Viking Ship in the driveway!

I must say that days like this remind me that one of the things I enjoy most about homeschooling is the opportunity to learn in different ways. Whether we are snuggled on the couch reading a book, peeling through the layers of paper and books on the kitchen table to find the one we need, laying on the bed working through math problems (in the midst of stacks of folded laundry!!), or outside drawing a Viking ship in the driveway, we enjoy learning. And that is one of the most valuable gift I can give my children.

I want to go to school, Mommy!

Today at lunch, Ruthie (my 4 year old) says to me- "Mommy, I want to go to school with my friend." Now, this is one of Ruthie's best friends, and she goes to preschool at a Christian school. I remember having similar conversations with my son when he was this age. It can be somewhat disheartening, or maybe it kind of hurts our feelings, as moms. But, I know my baby isn't rejecting *me* or even homeschooling. She just wants to play with her friends. The older the child is, the more difficulty they may have in accepting homeschool, especially if they have been in public/private school.

What do you do in this type of situation?

• Choose to know that it isn't personal (even if it feels that way!)
• Explain why (in age appropriate terms, of course!) your family homeschools
• Explain why you think it will be a great experience for your questioning child to homeschool
• If you had another child or family member/friend who was reluctant to homeschool, and who ended up enjoying it, tell them the story. Kids love to hear stories about people they know, and this may help them know they are not alone and things will turn out okay.
  
• Kindly, but firmly explain that you can talk about this more, but there will be not will not whining, complaining or arguing, because Mama and Daddy have made a prayerful decision that will not change.
  

Whether you are a new to homeschool or a veteran, your child may question your schooling choices. Don't assume this means you are not doing a good job, or that your child is not happy. It is normal for them to struggle with wanting to be closer to their peers and to struggle with deviating from the norm. Calmly lead them through this struggle, you will be glad you did!

Give Away Winner!

Thanks so much for your participation in the give away for "Parenting Isn't for Cowards". Congratulations to Pam, the winner of this book. The winner has been notified by email!

Frugal Friday

Homeschooling families generally have a need to be thrifty. We are mostly one income families, and these are tough economic times. At the same time, we have a great desire for our children to have the best education available, and there are so many wonderful (and often times costly) materials available.

So what do you do? How do you provide a top notch education on a less than stellar budget? One way you can do this is to make yourself at home in your local library! Libraries offer loads of phenomenal literature and media resources at little or no cost to you! Many of them also offer fantastic summer programs to encourage your children as readers, and they often even have a participation level for babies and toddlers!

One of our local libraries has an EDU section. This section is filled with all types of educational materials available for checkout- from curricula items like "Spelling Power", to leap pads, guitars, even Moody Science videos. These items are on checkout for a whole month at a time! It has been a fantastic resource for us.

We also use the library to check out books (our current read aloud "Oliver Twist" is on loan from the library, as are my sons reading books for this week!), audio books (my husband commutes to work over an hour one way, and he loves these!), videos, and EDU items. Our library also has a genealogical research area, and my son has done a school interview with the librarian who staffs that area to learn a lot about the history of the city.

So, If you haven't already, make friends with your local library (and librarian, who can be a huge help to you!) and save some money

When Someone Is Sick

This is our 6th year homeschooling and in that time we have marked *maybe* 2 school days as being "absent". It has been rare that things have come up so quickly I haven't been able to plan around them, by rearranging the hours that we work that day or by substituting another day for the one we need to miss.

In an odd twist of fate, Brandyn came down with the virus my younger children had earlier in the week. Yes, that means we completed all of 2 days of school before having to take a sick day! He was still running a fever when he went to bed tonight, so it looks like another sick day tomorrow......

So, what do you do when you can't have school due to a sickness or emergency on a certain day? Usually, I would suggest planning another day to do school in place of the one you miss. I find it works better that way in our family. But, on occasion I think it is alright to mark your child "absent" for the day, and count it as a school day anyway. You will want to consider your state laws as you decide what is the best for your family. In Tennessee, we are required to school 180 days out of the year. Not every state requires a mandated amount of days though. You can check the laws in your state at www.hslda.org.

The other consideration when missing days is what to do with the work that was planned for that day? This can be really easy or somewhat of a difficult question depending on the materials that you use for school. I personally just prefer to bump the day's work up and start on the missed day when we resume school. I use a white out pen to change the dates on my planning sheets (I usually do detailed planning sheets about a month in advance, which also serves as great records of what we are doing), and go right along. Some homeschoolers choose to try and catch up on the materials by doing a little extra work daily for a specified period of time.

Don't forget to Exercise!

It is easy to get caught up in the business of the day and leave out exercise! However, getting enough activity helps us to feel better, it helps us to *think* better, and it can go a long way in allowing our children to be calm enough to do school work! In our family, we try to exercise every morning before we start school. Most days, we actually accomplish this!

When weather permits, we enjoy taking a walk through our neighborhood (my older children like to ride bikes/scooters, skate or they race each other running half the way!). When it is too hot, too cold, or too rainy, we have exercise videos that we love! Our favorites are Billy Blanks Tae-Bo for kids, and Rich Grogan's Kick to Get fit.



My daughter loves Denise Austin's Fit Kids, which has 2 workouts, one of which is for families! I really like it as well, but my oldest son is not wild about it.

Whatever way you choose though, I challenge you to make a plan to exercise with your kids every day! You will really notice a difference in how it helps them (and you) during the day, and it teaches them a wonderful like skill!

Curriculum Review- Math

Math was one of the most difficult subjects for us to really get going with through our years homeschooling. We started Kindergarten with Singapore Math, which I *loved*, unfortunately Brandyn did not. So, we tried other math products- Saxon, Miquon, and various other materials. Nothing really worked for us though. I really felt like math was one topic that my son just was not getting, so I had him tested in 2nd grade to see if I was just being paranoid or if I should be concerned. His scores were not bad, but they were not as high as the rest of his scores and I could tell that he was not getting it in math. I wasn't too worried, but I knew we needed to get with something that would get my child where he needed to be, so I wouldn't have to worry! After a lot of looking, we decided to try Alpha Omega's Horizons Math. This begins our third year using the program and we love it! I have seen my math reluctant child, who would take an hour and a half to complete one math lesson and disliking it all the while into a someone who usually completes his math lessons in 45 minutes or less and does really well, not just in lessons but test scores. His last test scores for math put him in the 97th percentile. Needless to say, I am a big fan! The teacher manual is laid out well and easy to use, the student books are colorful, they are Christian, and they do an excellent job of teaching math skills. They currently only offer grades K-6 (which I am hoping changes soon!), and they are priced reasonably and consistently.

Give Away

In celebration of my new blog, I am giving away a copy of "Parenting Isn't for Cowards" by Dr. James Dobson. Please leave your name and email address in the comments section, I will draw a winner on Saturday afternoon and post it here!

Make A Plan

For a long time, not wanting to pass up any great opportunities that came up, I resisted following a daily schedule. I had this crazy notion that if I planned out my time, all the fun things in life would pass me by and I (along with my children) would be stuck in this never ending gray abyss of *the schedule oriented life*. It took me years to realize that a schedule set me free! It allowed me the time to complete all the things that I needed and some things that I wanted to do, while still prioritizing our school work. This doesn't mean that I don't rearrange the schedule as needed! We take days to do fun things like field trips and activities (skating and bowling or play dates with friends) often! Making a daily plan (or schedule, whatever you want to call it!) is easy. I have seen them laid out in time blocks-

6am-8am Morning Routine (get ready, breakfast, start laundry)
9am-12noon School Work
12- 1pm Lunch Break/Cleanup
1pm-2pm School Work

I personally prefer to plan within half hour time slots. Now, this does mean that there are more times when we have to adjust some things, but it lets me plan better for when I can do more labor intensive activities, with my baby in mind.
I not only break this down by half hour, but also by person. So my daily plan will show what we goal for each person to do at any given time. Now, as I said, it doesn't necessarily get followed to the minute, but it gives us an excellent guide.

Starting The Year

August 19th, 2008 will begin our 6th year homeschooling! I am super excited to begin the year, we have so many exciting things to do and learn. Every day is such an adventure! Of course, we never can seem to begin the year in such a way as I'd like (you know, organized and all!), but then who needs organization anyway? Tomorrow we have well child visits scheduled in the morning (never mind that two of my three children are sick! These things never do happen at a convenient time!), and later in the evening our homeschool support group will sponsor an Ice Cream Social kickoff in the park (of course the sick children will stay home with Daddy!). Tuesday morning we will begin our year. My oldest son will start 5th grade, and my daughter will be in K4. My youngest isn't near school (or pre-school) age just yet!
I must admit this year is looking quite different from the last several, as we've chosen a different type of material to study. I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, and that still remains to be seen. However, as I have been going through the materials and preparing for this year, I have found myself pleasantly surprised with the options available. This material is more workbooky than I prefer (I am not a big workbook person), but I found a lot of supplemental material was available and I really like the basics presented in the student books. It usually takes a little while to get into the routine of school again, but by the time we do I think I'll have a more definite idea of how this material will work for us.