What about you?

After seeing someone post about Sally Clarkston's website I found an interesting way of looking at things.  She states that she has always told her kids "I have always told my children that if you stand up to lead, you automatically become a target."  This makes so much sense in our world.  It doesn't matter if you are a child or an adult.  We are all God's  children trying to make our way in this world  We all want to make our own footprint here but with doing that comes persecution.
When we made the decision to homeschool all of the children this year and not just Jacob...we fell to many a comment against us.  I was warned by our homeschool support group leader to expect this.  Not just comments, but illnesses and other difficulties...they are all not God's doing but just a distraction.  
We are so far ahead in our schooling that us taking this week off from school will not hinder us at all.  I have been under the weather for awhile now and just couldn't do anything this week....plus, I need ink!! I think we go through a cartridge of black ink a week.  Fine...and a new dry erase marker.


How are you raising your children?  Thank you Sally for writing things a little simpler to uncover our eyes.


Here is the website that was shared on fb:http://www.itakejoy.com/are-you-raising-warriors-or-refugees/

Cool weather is coming

Have you dusted off your crock pot or slow cooker yet?  About this time I start getting antsy to bake and make chili...I LOVE CHILI!! I would eat it year-round but the family wouldn't.  This is one of my favorite websites http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ where there are tons or recipes to choose from.  I believe most is gluten free too.  I had bought the cookbook but let someone borrow it and it never was returned :(  It is sadly missed daily in the slow cooker season.
A friend of mine swears by this recipe  http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/02/asian-peanut-butter-pork-crockpot.html  I am one day going to set off on my day to make this and see if my family likes it as well as her family does.  Take a look around and check out their recipes and see if some can be adapted for yourselves.  I know in our family a meal that can be cooked without much prep and constant "needs" is great for us!  I am still looking for the book 101 things to do with Ramen or something like that.

New Resources...

As I have had a restful week while feeling under the weather I came across some resources in this month's Family Circle magazine.  There is an excellent article entitled, " Leader of the Pack".  I highly recommend you to read this article so rush out to your magazine stand to read this article.  Just a few pages before this article is another one called "Live and Learn (online!)". There are a few links I would like to share with you from this article.

ITunesU...we have all heard of this and know what content they cover.  I am actively downloading the new version of ITunes right now.

LiveMocha.com...I have checked this out briefly.  It looks to be a good solid resource for a language tutor.  It is connected to facebook and you have tokens that you can buy...this makes me a little standoffish (my word) when I see tokens and paypal used in the same sentence.  So is this really a free program.  I am not sure yet.  I will play more around with it.

Academicearth.com...looks like recorded lectures and they do have courses you can take for credit and the courses look to be under $500.  The one I looked at was at Oxford for about $424...it is comparable to the local university possibly depending on added fees.

Einztein.com...has a claim to be a learning social network.  I think this is probably a coming of age website that is looking for its niche in the social network marketing.  Looking for a specific group of people to boost their name.  It looks promising from what I have viewed.


Do pick up a copy of this month's Family Circle...it is a good one this month!

Prayer Pail Project

 The kids are working hard at creating our family and prayer prayer pails.  See, pinterest has its quality moments that are useful besides just sitting and pinnning stuff.  We are putting it to good use.  The purpose for me to have them do this is to get them excited to pray for people and to learn to pray too.  So far they have been adding tons of people to the popsicle sticks.  I fully intend to let that person know on facebook (if they are on there) that they are being prayed for today.

Not much going on today except that I will be giving the kids some paper to write down who they would like to add to the prayer pail.  If anyone else would like to make the same thing I would love to see your pictures too!
I posted a picture last night of what it will look like.  I will post later on what ours looks like.

Find yourself first...

If you figure out yourself first then everything will fall into place.  I have found this out in more than one instance.  God opens doors for you but if you aren't aware and in tune with God you will miss it.  In the past 7 years   our family has evolved.  Some good, some not so good but that isn't part of the point.

I had a stroke 5 years ago and felt at my lowest.  I got back in the swing of things about 3 monthhs later.  Now, I only have 1 just 1 class left to finish my bachelor's degree.  Right now it doesn't seem to be the priority. My health is my priority and then my children. If I'm not well then the kids suffer.

Homeschooling allows us the flexibility to be able to say, "Today we are not going to have any schoolwork" maybe it is something I planned and didn't share or maybe something I didi on a whim.  I know each of my children and how they each tick.  Homeschooling is a right to me and most days I take it as a privelege for my family.  I know the government could overtun things pretty easy as our gov't officials aren't very stable right now, this is my opinion of course.  I am grateful each day that I get to wake up and have kids around me.

Here is my priority list:

1. God - all the time  Now to make this the kids' priority too
2. My husband - without the love and strength I gain will be put to good use in the household
3. My children - keeping them safe and educating them in the best way we know how to do.

Really I only have those priorities b/c worrying about money, weather or bills kind of fall under God and My husband...you see there is a communication connection there.  I admit, I would much rather communicate with God as we strive to keep peace in our household.  We are going places as a family.  It may not be a travel thing but really we are traveling by the seat of our pants!

Pray and ask God to help you be the host of your school day.  Even if you have to take all of your young children to the grocery tomorrow.  That time will be over soon.

Pray and ask for help from others.  Ask if you are in need of something.  People don't read your minds and know when to ask you.  You would be surprised at the amount of people God will bring your way.

Pray for your family and friends!  Prayer works and it would be a great way to show the kids how faith works with that mustard seed.  I found a pinterest item to share that we are totally going to put together tomorrow. Wonder if I should make a praise bucket too then we can transer our sticks to the  other pail.  I pray that my children will grow up to have compassion for each other and then show compassion to others no matter who they are.

Source: growingupourstyle.blogspot.com via Regge on Pinterest

Let's talk about Pinning...

It seems that if you are pinning and repinning you have joined the new hype on Pinterest.  I explain pinterest to people as being the facebook of this time.  It is nice  b/c it doesn't invade your privacy that I have been able to tell.  Its pictures for pete's sake!!  But not just pictures...its ideas at their bests.  Ideas that have been passed along to share in other people's households.  I thought I would share a few that I have pinned too.

Source: notmartha.org via Regge on Pinterest

And who doesn't like bacon and cheese?  I am sure this uses the inside of the muffin tin to mold..I even found something to make with the opposite side of the muffin tin.  There you have it for today...things you can make with a few things and a muffin tin!!

Labor Day

I certainly did not labor today.  What did you do for labor today?  Did you cook, grill, clean, do lesson plans or just took a break?  I took a break and was able to sleep in and wake up to the sounds of the trees blowing in the light wind.  Kids were outside playing all day until just a few minutes ago.  We had friends and family here grilling and I just sat back and had a wonderful dinner.  My daughter is spoiling me right now with a foot massage...does it get any better?  To the kids it does.  I let them know that this week we will not do school on the pretty "play-outside-kind-of-days".  I know we have rain coming in later this week but for now we will take the high 70s temps that have been promised to us!  I look forward to the changing of the leaves...its season is almost here.  The colors are exquisite.    See the beautiful colors I am blessed to see outside of my window when I wake up?  These were taken last fall.  Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Sunday's blurb...

Blurb...it is a word, right?  Well, it's my word for right now.  As I sit in my chair and listen to kids get settled in and quiet for the night I thought I would share some information I have acquired that I thought would interest others.


1.  I have an Android phone and Budget Savvy Diva found a really cool app that I am learning!!  Anything that can make my life a little easier is worth a try in opinion.   It is called Our of Milk and you can scan items on your pantry shelf and it will find the picture of, say...velveeta cheese!  Cool, huh?  So click on her blog to check this out!!


2.  Somehow when I looked at my twitter this morning I saw that a link was redirected to me.  Not really knowing what that I meant...the day just moved along with no extra thought of it.  Then I looked at the twitter mention again and caught on....HEY!!! They must have liked what I posted so much to add it to their Homeschool Daily website!  The information that I did pass along was accurately accredited to the original author...still pretty neat anyhow.    The information is all about the discounts homeschool families can get at bookstores, office supply stores and such...Go check out the Frugal Girls as they have a LOT of great finds!!

Another week finished...

Our week is wrapping up nicely!  Kids know that today is Friday and that all the schoolwork has to be finished by today.  Jesse and Elizabeth have seemed to be working well together today.  Jesse said that he would help guide her today.  That takes a lot off me but they also know that they can come to me if needed.  I like that the kids are pretty independent with their schoolwork.

This weekend I am going to show Jacob and Emily how to lesson plan so they can make their lessons whichever way they want to.  I think they both like just doing one subject a day and prefer this over doing a little each day of all subjects.  Jacob seems a little distracted today as I can hear him walking back and forth from the girl's room.

I am so excited for fall to get here!  My favorite time of the year.  Can't wait to take the kids outside for class time.  Looking forward to the leaves changing and taking pictures of the kids!!

Great Ways to Fund Your Child's Education...sometimes even FREE!

Here are two links from the Christian Home School Hub (you can find their button on the side!)
Part 1
http://christianhomeschoolhub.spruz.com/pt/Homeschooling-Doesnt-Have-to-Cost-a-Fortune--Part-1/blog.htm

Part 2
http://christianhomeschoolhub.spruz.com/pt/Homeschooling-Doesnt-Have-to-Cost-a-Fortune--Part-2/blog.htm

Ants, Ants and more Ants!

We read our story about Ants today from Edhelper.com.  Answered about 4 questions about the ants.

Used this as printout as a visual of the life cycle.

Then watced a few youtube videos about ants

This one included a bee and butterfly too..

.

After we were finished she decided to lay down for a rest

So I think we are done for the day!!

Sitting back and listening...

I sat back in my chair and just carefully listened to the chatter of the kids upstairs.  They were getting Tuesday's work done but in a creative way.  Emily had her cell phone out and found some sounds that were the same as fire drills at school and earthquake and tornado...lol  So they were doing emergency drills today in the girl's room.

A short time later I kept hearing more of her cell phone noises...now they had a school bell going off and then I would hear the stomping (not pitter patter) of their feet as they ran to a spot and sat down where they had a timer.  Now they are working on their schoolwork..."school" style.

Kind of reminded me as a child on my perspective of what real "school" would be like and the imaginative play that friends and I would take part in.

stick bugs and variables, oh my!

Elizabeth is working diligently on her copywork and just finised reading about stickbugs.  Now she is answering her questions about stickbugs...I didn't learn anything about stickbugs...darn! Can't see her?  She is hiding behind her lap desk while she writes her sentences.
Jesse is working on some make up math work that I found out he didn't finish last week...so he gets to start off his week finishing up last week's lesson plans in a few subjects.  He is still working through his Magic Tree House Book "The Sunset of the Sabertooth"  Sounds like fun to me!  He has a weekly journal that he keeps track of his reading times and summarizes what he read for the day.  Thank you edhelper.com!
Also found some science work through edhelper to work into his book.

Jacob has found a quiet spot at his desk where he switched around his lesson plans.  I think next week he can make his own lesson plans.  He decided to only do science today.  But he is doing his science assignments for the whole week in one day.  However he wants to do it is fine with me.  He likes the block scheduling better I suppose.

Emily has also changed what she wanted to work on today too.  She likes to do research and two of her research papers are on a possible career and a college she might like to attend.  She has already finished her math for today.  Emily is smart and really could do anything she wants to do in life.  She is so enthusiastic and loves the flexibility and choices that homeschooling has allowed her to do.  Now if she could just keep a cleaner desk.... LOL!


As for the mama...I am enjoying some coffee and listening to the quiet of the house...and sometimes a question is here from one of the kids.  After everyone is finished we are going to pull out one of our travel maps and work on map coordinates!

Looking ahead

Not sure about how the week will go but all of the children have their workboxes completed for the week with a planning sheet.   I was able to complete all 4 of there planners in 3 hours this week instead of 16 hours last week...eek!  I printed a lot of subject packets from edhelper.com so that made it a bit easier too.  This should make for an easier week on them too.  I will have to get the whiteboard out for Jacob and Emily...we seriously need to go over proportions and cross multiplication.  They aren't grasping the concept as well as I thought.  My plan with Elizabeth is to be able to get down to her level and put some sentences together this week using her word cards.  Here is a long list of links that can help others too!  Lots of information and printables.