I have no real title for this entry, once again I have let months slide by without keeping up on this wonderful blog. Please do take the time to read through old entries if you are here visiting. You may have found me through my book with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC ("Dreams and Designs") or through my daughter's book "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" --either way, I hope you will take the time to get to know me a bit.

I am looking for thoughts on reaching young people about purity. I've begun work on a possible article about purity and the call to fathers in giving away their daughters. We have survived the wedding of our oldest, and it was a glorious day. She was simply beautiful and their love for each other really did radiate from them and encompassed the entire ceremony. We could not be happier.

I am thankful for her innocence and their excitement in looking toward their honeymoon--it is sadly so rare today. In this society it is almost expected that young women would be promiscuous. It is as if it is "a given" that virgins no longer exist, that it is too difficult to stay pure until marriage, and that it really isn't worth it to do so. Isn't that just sad? And it is so terribly wrong.

My savior, Jesus Christ, is truly amazing and a miracle worker. My God can forgive all things, but this does not mean that we can afford to teach our children impurity is acceptable on any level, or that they can err in this area and then simply seek repentance. So how do we keep them on the straight and narrow? Our 2G18 is another young woman I am praying desperately will make the right decisions and remain pure until her wedding night. And then our next three children are all boys. I want to know there will be young women out there for them, who find it valuable to retain their virginity and sense of innocence until married.

I would love to hear your thoughts on purity. How can fathers teach their daughters to remain pure until the moment they give them to their groom? What should we be doing as mothers to be an example to our daughters and other young women of purity and modesty? How do we teach our sons and daughters to seek innocence in others when seeking a partner for life? And what influence can we have on the friends of our children to help them stay focused on keeping themselves until marriage?

I'd love to hear from you!

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

1. Maybe I should be.... doing bookwork.

2. I love....... sunny days on the beach.

3. People would say that I ..... think too much.

4. I don't understand...... SOOOO many things!

5. When I wake up in the morning..... I just want my coffee!

6. I lost....  all hope of completing these home repair/remodel projects anytime soon.

7. Life is full of...... twists and turns.

8. My past taught me.... that I will survive and that we are tougher than we think.

9. I get annoyed when.....  people whine and complain.

10. At a party I......  like to watch people.

11. I wish......we lived in the country.

12. Dogs......  are a wonderful thing.

13. Cats......  well, cats are cats.

14. Tomorrow.... is a busy day.

15. I have a low tolerance for.....  whining. Did I mention that?

16. If I had a million dollars..... I'd finish our house, fix up our church, help out my kids, travel on mission trips with the kids.

This site has some great daily good deals. Today you can get a Wilson Leather Youth Baseball Glove for $4.99 and $5 shipping. So under $10 for the item, shipped. Have a birthday coming up? Or just think ahead for next spring. This site is worth keeping an eye on.

A couple months ago I bought a Polaroid 7.1 MP camera for my daughter (it’s pink) for $39.99. It’s put away for Christmas.

If you are just visiting for the first time and have found my blog through my book, "Dreams & Designs" from The Old Schoolhouse, WELCOME!! Please drop me a comment so I know you stopped by and feel free to browse my entries. If you haven't seen the book, and would like to learn more about it, check it out here:  Dreams and Designs: Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool (http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=334_425&products_id=12024)

I apologize for my absence from blogging, it is an incredibly busy time for our family. We are in the midst, and now only weeks away, from the wedding of our oldest child. It is a time of wonderful memories, and a bit of intrepidation as I let go of my first baby...and of course, she'll always be my baby.

At 22, 1G22, will marry a young man of 25, who is already serving his country in the service, and currently completing his degree in Aerospace Engineering, just like her. They have much in common while being really fantastic individuals and make a truly wonderful couple. I am praying for God to bless their union, as I am sure you will join with me in praying for as well.

We continue work on book two in her series and you can still check out book one on her site (www.jessicalynncampos.com) or at amazon under the title "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" or her name. The editing process is slow as we are certainly more focused on her wedding right now. We've also put on a few activities at her site if you go and check out the "Book One" tab and find at the top of that page "Available Activities Corresponding to Book One." I'd really love any opinions about the activities. I hope to work out an entire little unit study of some sort, I just don't have the time right now. But soon.

Homeschooling is forging ahead and 3B10 continues his work with reading. My Reading Coach continues to be a tremendous blessing for him, I don't know what I would have done had we not reviewed that program. He still complains at times, but then, some days I can't blame him. A lot of learning is work for him, I don't know if it is the autism or just him, but it is work. We make it as fun as possible and the Workbox system continues to yield wonderful blessings in that area as well. I can hardly believe 2G17 begins her final year next month officially. They truly do grow up too fast.

We began mounting 3B10's artwork for "grading" by other family members and his drawing is improving. I wasn't sure how well he would take to the idea, but he jumped on it, and has taken to heart the tips and advice offered by his older sisters. Anyone can do the same using sticky notes at the bottom or around a picture with whatever grading scale suits their family. The activity really does depend on the child because I would never use it with a child not interested in the idea, then you might do more harm than good, and we'd never want that. But for him, it is working wonders. He just posts a new picture and lets everyone know, or when we notice it we'll "grade" it appropriately, and then he checks out his grade. He has even gone to some of us to ask why we graded a particular way, wanting to know how he could improve, which was a HUGE thing for him. Having any consideration about what other people think of his work, or anything else for that matter, is one of the big drawbacks with autism, these kids just don't have it--they very literally couldn't care less. But this has really drawn him out as he has discovered that he can make improvements by considering other people's opinions. A new thing!! And a really great way to introduce it.

As usual, 2G17 is remaining very busy with summer activities. This year she has worked as a counselor at a camp for the middle schoolers in her youth group, has attended for the second time a leadership training camp, and just last week was out for the standard week long summer camp with her youth group. We have missed her as at times I feel she is just a blur I watch run in and out of the house!! We also enjoy quite a few evenings with all of the kids over at our house to watch movies, which I really love! It is nice to know they have a safe place to go and hang out together, and I really appreciate that they feel comfortable in our home. Stocking pizza rolls, taquitos and popcorn probably hasn't hurt either. ;-)

Wedding plans are crazy! We are so close now, less than three weeks. We are knocking out the little annoying details at this point. Decorations for the reception, plans for a bridal shower this weekend, going through her things to determine what she wants to keep/give away/or have us store indefinitely for her. I am so thankful we really do have the space to do so, I only wish we were more organized about it. And my mind seems to be reeling almost constantly. There really are so many aspects to a wedding. And my 2G17 is busily making plans for her "some day" ceremony and all that she may want to have take place. I pray God brings her the right young man in His time, and that he will be a wonderful leader for his family.

I will post our curriculum plans after the wedding has passed and life quiets down again. For now, things are good. 4B4 is into everything and will begin more little activities this year. 5B2 is as adorable as ever and really does think he is "all that and a bag of chips" and regularly cracks us up. And as I said, 3B10 continues to work through his schoolwork fairly well and is enjoying summer afternoons in the little blow up pool their uncle gave them last year. We are blessed this summer, I hope that you are too!

Tell me what you are up to??? I'd really love to hear it.

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

Oh my goodness! This is so funny! This website tracks currently playing movies and lets you know when is the best time to “run pee”. Sadly, for those of us with weak bladders, this tool may actually be worth using!

Not only does it tell you when to run to the bathroom, there is a box that you can “unscramble” to see what you will miss if you stay gone a bit too long.

What do you think? Cool idea, or just weird?

Are your kids great spellers? I have some that are and some that aren’t, but those that are, come by it naturally. Spelling is one of those subject areas I seem to find myself skipping more often than I should. I purchased AVKO spelling and my kids really liked it. The problem was that I never got around to quizzing them. Since AVKO is a “start at the beginning” program, I was working with my 9 and 11 year old on the same list. First, when one child was available, the other was working and, two, one child was much quicker than the other.

I kept reading about SpellQuizzer spelling software on different blogs and forums and decided to give their 30 day free trial a whirl. The website had a list of frequently misspelled words by grade level so I imported those and let my kids try the program. They LOVED it! In fact they regularly asked if they could “play” SpellQuizzer. Um…sure! lol Since I was just getting an idea of how the program worked, I never got as far as trying to make my own lists.

However, I was thrilled to be asked to do an actual review of the program, recently. To do the review I had to re-download the program to make sure I had the latest version. The download process was simple and easy to follow. After download, you’ll find a SpellQuizzer icon on your desktop. Simply click the icon to start the program.

Now, you may be caught off guard when the program starts as there are no instructions. You’ll simply see a screen with options for “Quiz me on a list”, “Create a spelling list”, “Edit spelling lists”, “import spelling lists”, ”Export spelling lists”,and “Help”. And, really, it’s so simple instructions are unnecessary.

First, click “Quiz me on a list”. You’ll find the program is loaded with several grade level sample lists. Click on one and then click “OK”. The program immediately starts quizzing the student. For the Grade 1 sample list, you’ll hear “Cat. The cat played with the ball of yarn.” In the box provided, your child will type the word cat and then either press “enter” or click the “check spelling” button on the screen. If the answer is correct, the program reads the next word. If the answer is incorrect, a small screen shows the child how they spelled the word and how it should be spelled. Click the “OK” box and continue with the quiz. When the quiz is finished, a small screen appears telling you how many errors you made. Click “OK”. You will then be asked if you want to retry the word you missed. Click “Yes”. Try the missed words again. When finished, a box tells you that you’ve correctly spelled the word and another asks if you want to start over. Click “No” and you’re done. A sentence showing “5 of 20 words” displays over the spelling screen as your child works through the test so they always know how many words they have left. The whole process is simple and intuitive.

For my free trial I imported all the frequently misspelled word lists from the SpellQuizzer website. My 6th grader quickly worked through them all, even the “college and above” list! The import process is very simple. I just saved each list to my computer then, in the SpellQuizzer program, clicked the “Import spelling list” box. A screen asks me where to import the file from, I choose the file, check the box for that file in the import box and check “OK”. That’s it. The list will now be available in my “Quiz me” list.

One thing I had not tried with my free trial, was creating my own list. I was a little concerned about setting up the microphone, but that proved to be simple as well. I had a microphone headset I use with our Rosetta Stone software so I just used that. If you don’t have a microphone, you can buy one for around $10.

I plugged in the headset and clicked the “Create a spelling list” icon. First, a box appears asking you to name the list. Since I use AVKO I named they by the book and day. For instance the 7th day list in Book 1, I named AVKO 1.7. A screen will appear with the cursor in a “word to add” box. Type the word. If the word is case sensitive (August, Joe, Mr. Wood) there is a box to check. Then, under the sentence “click Start button to begin recording”, click “Start”. Say the word and a sentence using the word, then click “Stop”. To hear how it sounds, click the “Play Back” button. If it sounds good, click “Add Word” and the word is in your new list. My recordings were a bit crackly, but perfectly acceptable. I’m not sure if that’s because of the cheapie microphone, or what.

At the bottom of the screen is a box to “Adjust Audio and Recording Levels”. When I first recorded there was silence when I hit the “Play Back” button. Oh dear. But I checked the “Adjust Audio” button and got a screen that allowed me to increase the Master Volume, Wave Volume, and Microphone. I moved the Master Volume and Microphone sliders to the top and it worked fine. (I don’t have a clue what Wave Volume is) Once your list is all in, click the “OK” button at the bottom and the list will be in your “Quiz Me” options. If you accidentally click the “OK” button instead of the “Add Word” button (like I did the first word I tried to add) you can easily fix it. Go to the “Edit spelling lists” icon, find the list you were working on, and keep going.

If you don’t have, or don’t want to use a microphone, you can still use the software by typing in “reminder phrases”. For example, for the word “dog” you might put “ours is named Sam”. While I like the idea of this, I’m not sure how well it would really work in practice. Microphones are inexpensive and well worth purchasing to let the program work well.

The program has some really nifty features. The lists in the “Quiz Me” section can be sorted by either name or by date created which makes it nice if you want to quickly find the last list you entered. You can also export lists that you have created. That means if you are part of a co-op and create a list based on your lessons, you can export that list and email it to your members, who can then import it to their own SpellQuizzer software.

The SpellQuizzer spelling program website also has a lot of resources to take advantage of. There are several lists available on the site including holiday lists, religious themed lists, seasons, months and days, and much more. You’ll also find video demonstrations showing how each part of the program works, in case you have any problems.

The only thing “missing”, in my opinion, is a way to record scores or see progress. My kids are good about honestly telling me how they did, but if you had a problem child, that could be an issue. Still, you could have your child show you the screen with their score when they finish and again, once they’ve fixed the misspelled words.

I really like this software and my kids love it. I can just upload my lists when I have time and assign them to the kids to complete. They can move ahead at their own pace. The program can be used by all your children and, in my opinion, is well worth the $29.95 price. If you’d like the software available on up to 5 PC’s (and includes a CD), you can purchase the Family Pack License for $49.95. If you need help with fitting in spelling quizzes, be sure and check out the free trial, for sure!