I am so excited that I won the contest for the classical astronomy curriculum! I promise a thorough review when we get it & while we are doing it.

If you don't know what I am talking about, go to http://www.ClassicalAstronomy.com and check out Jay Ryan's sight. I have been receiving his newsletters for years & I was so excited when I heard he had written a book!

If you think of me this week, pray that God will give me bucket loads of wisdom! I will be planning our school year this week. Of course you KNOW we will be doing some Classical Astronomy! :-)

 

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Here is a nifty new tool bar for the web surfing needs of homeschooling Moms.

If you go the this web sight they are having a givaway http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Tiany/551344/

If you blog about this tool bar.

http://homeschoolbar.com/

• Homeschool Resources
• The Latest Homeschool & Parenting News
  
• Web search using Google
• Integrated Homeschool RSS feeds
• Homeschool blogs
• Category browsing
• Search highlighter
• Tons of quick shortcuts
• Weather forecast
• Quick links to The Homeschool Lounge
  
• Organizing tools such as a To do list, notepad, calculator, conversion charts, maps and more
• Radio connected to "Positive & Encouraging K-LOVE" , NPR or your favorite local radio station (this feature is optional and can be added or removed, as can all features..)

Lastly, it will NOT slow your computer down!

To learn more about this amazing and resourceful tool  and download your own you can visit the Homeschoolbar website at  HOMESCHOOLBAR.COM !

If you have a blog,or website  you think the homeschool community would benefit from please contact The Homeschoolbar HERE We are also taking submissions for Homeschool Mom owned businesses!

Get your Homeschool Toolbar today! You wont want to surf the web without it!

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I have tiny little beans on my bush bean plants, a little green tomatoe growing, and beautiful flowers growing on my zucchini, and pumpkin plants! YEA! Oh and we had a salad already with lettuce from my garden, and will be picking more for dinner tonight!

Here are some pictures I took just this morning. okay 1 picture. My files are to big so I will have to shrink my pictures before I can show you the rest.

The newspaper is ugly, but so was the blankes of grass & weeds that were coming up faster than I could ever pull them, and it will break down and become compost.

I found out that I needed to ad lime to my soil. I found this out after I planted of course! My neighbor added several bags of lime to garden before planting & it is going crazy!

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This year I am going to be using Spell to Write & Read with all my Children.

http://www.morningstarlearning.com/SWR_home.html Here is a sight that tells about it. I have 3 friends who are using this program and love it. I have known that it is a great program, but it is very teacher intensive, but I found it used, and since Nate is not a baby anymore, I feel I can do it.

Well, I was going to say more but my hubby is home so... maybe later. :-)

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I just finished reading Restorer by Sharon Hinck. It is book one in the Restorer series & I can't wait to go get the 2nd book in the trilogy!

It is about a middle aged soccer mom, married about 20 yrs, 2 kids in highschool & 2 in grade school. She is struggling with feelingings of insignificance. Her husband builds her a room in the attic so she can have some quite time, and ends up falling into a portal to another world. Where she of course saves the day, while learning much about her faith in "the One". She helps save the people of the songs by by helping them remember the Songs of the One. Words in this world she falls into have an incredable affect in people. One of the enemies she has to fight poisons people with words and destroys them, and the only way to save them is with songs from the One.

It is a great allegory for how our words can and does affect people. There is much more to the book but I don't want to spoil it for you. If you have time for some reading this summer I highly recommend the Restorer Books!

PS they are published by NAV press.

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Well I think my garden is coming along okay? The tomato plants are doing great except for one who the bugs don't seem to be able to get enough of, but I am spraying it with a garlic & dish soap spray that seems to be helping keep the bugs off of my plants.  I have a couple of rows (now what did I plant there?) that don't seem to doing much.

Now the weeds! (Now I know why preachers like to compare sin to weeds! If you don't get to the root of them they just keep coming back to kill the good plants.I used to hear that & it didn't mean that much to me then.) Wow the weeds are doing GREAT. We might be eating some of them. We did last year. Did you know that baby dandelion, & violet greens taste good in your salad? I am going to lay down newspaper in between the rows so I don't have to keep pulling those, & a friend gave me a bag of nice cow manurer so I am going to spread that lovely stuff around my plants. He also gave me some stuff for my mulch pile.  :-)

I will try to post a picture soon. Here is one I took a couple of weeks ago of my bean plants coming up.

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I woke up Tuesday morning by Frank kissing me & saying "I love you honey, I'm going to FL." I just knew he would! We had been watching the Fl healing revival on line with not a lot of luck, & I had been watching the hunger growing & growing in him, & since he had no work....

Since Sunday morning I have felt like it was the beginning of something good. I know I am not alone in feeling this way.                                                             I have been feeling a (holy frustration?) at where we are at. I want to pray for someone and see them healed & not just believe that something is happening. I want to see my family come to Christ! I want to see us changed into the likeness of Jesus!  I want to see happen what we read about in Acts & pray for all the time. Where is that fire in my burning my gut? My dreams are full of GOD using me to do great things. My dreams & my day dreams are of GOD working great things throughout the world.  I have been telling my friends all week, "I am tired of talking about what has happened & I'm tired about talking about what is going to happen!" It's time now! I need GOD today! I feel this desperation that if GOD does not move soon I will die. Inside I will just wither up and die.

God please come down and consume your bride! Baptize us and change us till Your fire burns inside us so hot that we can't help for it to get on the rest of the world. Set us on fire Father and purify us till the world no longer sees us and all our sins. Set us on fire till it burns so hot that when the world looks at us they see You & all You Glory. In Jesus Name Amen!

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It is time to start preparing the ground for our garden, planning what to plant, & buying seeds! Okay You can tell I'm still not very good at this or it would be all planned & seeds ordered already. But I am learning as I go & in a few years we will have an awsome garden!

Last year we had our first garden & it went okay. The tomato , lettuce & spinach did great. The squash did great till it got a nasty fungus. I could NOT keep bugs off the broccoli, and the corn did not produce.

We hope to plant a strawberry patch this year. The kids & I would love to turn the whole back yard into a garden, but I 'm not sure my hubby is up to that much extra work.

Here is a picture of it early in it's growth. We did the square foot method. I think we will again this year for part of it at least.

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I love quotes. Here are some of my favorite. You will notice most of them are about education because at this point in my life this is my pasion.

I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me. - St. Augustine

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. - Albert Einstein

I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was always at the foot of the class. - Thomas Edison

I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought about as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up. - Albert Einstein

I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas. - Agatha Christie

One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year...... It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of enquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe that it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry - especially if the food, handed out under such coercion, were to be selected accordingly. - Albert Einstein

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education. - Sir Walter Scott

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't. - Anatole France

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper. - Robert Frost

"No one gossips about other people's secret virtues."   Bertrand Russell

"There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together."   Josh Billings

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards."   Benjamin Franklin

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Well I got through the holidays with flying colors so now life can get back to normal (whatever that is).

We went to KY to see my parents & my little sis & her family . Things went pretty smooth. My 6 yr old dd & my 8 yr old niece had it out over Santa Clause. We have never done the whole Santa thing. We have read about the real St. Nick . I didn't find out about the fight until after my Sister and her family had left & I found Rachel Joy in bed crying.  She said she didn't want to argue but just couldn't take any more talk about how great Santa was. MY poor dd  was still pasty white when she went to bed. My sister was of course not happy that my dd had told her that Santa had been real but now he is dead.Don't worry my niece is still a dogmatic believer in Santa.  Other than that vacation went very well & we had a good time.

We went to the Creation Museum and ed it! I hope we can make it back this summer.

When we got back I had an e-mail from a friend saying they had a fridge in their garage they were not using & we could have. Yea!  It is probably as old as our old one but it works fine so who cares!

I really don't want to live without a fridge again, but at least the garage was cold. LOL

 

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Well I should be packing for our trip to my parents house, but my fridge died so I am cleaning it out & giving food away.

I think the fridge is as old as I am so I guess it just got tired. I mean we bought it 15 yrs ago for 75 bucks, and it was old then! LOL

I have had this feeling for about a year that it was going to die. I have been drooling at the nice shiny new ones at Lowes. Now we will have to figure out how we can afford one. Like evrything else going one right now I know the Lord knows & will take care of us. :-)

I got to get back to work!

Alisha><>

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Well It's almost Christmas again & I finaly got some Christmas stuff up! It has been hard this year to get in the spirit of things. First we find out husband is downsized & will be looking for work after Christmas. Then find out that dh's Grandma has colon cancer, & his Uncle has prostrate (sp?) cancer.

Tomarow we will finish decorating & thank God for his abundant provision, & thank HIM for keeping our family safe & that Grandma's & Uncles cancer was caught early & will be fine, by HIS good grace!

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I wrote this for mothers day & even had it published! Okay, It was a very small e-zine & I didn't get paid zip, but it's a start.

My Name is Alisha. I am a homeschooling Mother of five. Why do I home school my kids? Well, to answer that I have to tell you about a Mother named Vicki.

Way back in the early eighties Vicki had two little girls in the public schools, one in 4^{th grade & one in 1st grade. The oldest little girl was having a terrible time in school, not being able to read or subtract, always being sent to the Principles' office, nightmares at home & would cry & beg every morning not to be sent back there. The youngest girl had her own set of problems at school, she had to go potty a lot & the teacher would not let her go often enough so she would wet her pants & Vicki would have to go and bring her a fresh pair of pants. This would happen quite often. Vicki and Ron (the little girls Daddy) knew something needed to change, but how? They could not afford the Christian school in town.}

One day while ridding in the car they heard about homeschooling on Focus on the Family Radio show. Raymond & Dorothy Moore were guests that day, and were talking about the benefits of teaching your children at home. Well, that was a strange idea! Was it even legal? How can someone teach their own children? As it turned out homeschooling in that state was not legal. But at the end of the year when they wanted to hold back the 4th grader a year & said she was unteachable, and they were trying to label the 1st grader as retarded, the parents of the two little girls knew something drastic was needed!

So the next year the two little girls sat happily at home and learned with their Mommy. The two little girls that had been told were unteachable & retarded learned by leaps & bounds that year! When Vicki tested them they were a full two years ahead of where they were supposed to be! The little girls had to be very careful not to tell anybody that they were taught at home, & was careful not to be seen during school hours, but they were very happy.

The years passed and homeschooling became legal, the girls were doing well. One year Vicki became very ill & almost died. Homeschooling became very difficult, and the oldest girl felt she was missing out on all the fun her friends were having. So Vicki & Ron decided the girls were older now & doing great with their school so they enrolled them in the local public school.

Well! That did not go well at all. The Principle decided that since the two little girls had been taught at home they needed to be tested to be sure they had not been brain washed or abused. Meanwhile the oldest girl was shocked at how behind everybody in the classes were, how mean the kids treated her, and how they treated the teacher! In fact the teachers never really seemed to teach anything that day they just tried to keep everybody busy. That night Ron & Vicki told the principle that the two little girls would not be back!

Well as you might have guessed I was that oldest girl, and I was VERY happy not to go back to public school. I knew then I was not missing out on anything! I was very motivated to do my school work after that, & though my Mom had a long recovery & it was not easy to keep on homeschooling her two girls she did. She taught me perseverance, selflessness, and a love of learning. Now both my sister & I home school all eight of her grandchildren. So I just want to say… THANKS MOM!

Alisha Hauser ©2007

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 You know how things happen sometimes. First the van dies. The Transmission, we won't be fixing it again. Then I get my first (and last, thank you) ticket ever. No, I was not speeding, our tag was expired. We had not been driving that car because the motor mounts are broken. “Sigh” Well there went our schoolbook money.

I was not upset over this. (Which shows I must be growing in the Lord, because a few years ago I would have gone nuts!) I am a pretty smart woman, I knew the Lord would get us a van somehow, and I have a room full of books. I can come up with interesting units to do next year, I've done it before. :-)

Then a new friend was telling me how she has a friend who passes down their Sunlight to her & would I like it when she is done with it? Would I? Ummm YES! So we will be doing Sunlight this year with all the books and everything. I am so pumped! Thank you Lord! I know it is just a matter of time before He provides a van or a way to get one, because the Lord always provides. :-)

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My new thing is Kombucha. No, I didn't just sneeze!

It turns out to be a yummy & very nutritious drink that my children beg for & even my husband will drink! My 4 yr old calls it pepsi! LOL (It doesn't taste like pepsi by the way.)

It is very easy to make, the hardest part for me was finding a large enough jar. Here is a couple of great links about Kombucha & how to make it.

Have Fun!

http://www.kombuchatea.co.uk/how-do-i-make-kombucha.asp

http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?search=s&terms=kombucha&cat=&daterange=All&type=full&perpage=10

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Moms get to do whatever they want?

 

“I can't wait till I am a Mom so I can do whatever I want.” This is what I over heard my 6 year old daughter say the other day.

You'll have to forgive me, but this just hit my funny bone. I just Had to run with it. What happened next went something like this....

Mom: MOMS GET TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANT?

Rachel: Yes.

Mom: Well nobody ever told me! That means I don't have to fix dinner tonight! I don't have to Finnish the laundry; in fact I think I will just go shopping and buy whatever I want and leave you guys home! Ha Ha! Tomorrow, no school, I am just going to take pictures and read all day while you guys clean the house and teach yourselves. Ha Ha!

Rachel: Just looking at me like I lost my mind.

Abigail: Giggling.

Christina: Rolling her eyes.

Thomas: "Yea right Mom".

Well, they did not see the humor but I got a kick out of it.

As a Mom you have to keep your sense of humor! 

Alisha ><>

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