I am excited to say that I just finished up my latest book!

"The Parables of Jesus" is just that - the parables of Jesus!

I wanted to take Charlotte Mason's advice and have my kids memorize some of Jesus' parables.  I thought this would be easier if they were all contained into one book. 

Want one for your homeschool?

Just e-mail me, visit me at http://candyfoote.com/

or just simply leave me a comment.

This is an e-book in the King James Version.

It is available for $14.99.  I accept paypal, checks, or money orders.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Comment and let me know that you were here!

We  have really enjoyed our reading this week.

Jordan stayed up until almost 11:30 the other night reading The Hittite Warrior.

What a great book!

Jacob is reading The King of the Wild.

Olivia is reading Drummer Boy at Bull Run.

Family read alouds are Paddle-to-the-Sea

and Justin Morgan had a Horse.

We are also working our way through The Fallacy Detective.

I have been reading A Charlotte Mason Companion and Created to be His Helpmeet.

We love to read at the Foote house!

Nice weather makes eager students!

Everyone is up early and eager to get their school work out of the way so they can head outside.

Ahh, I love spring!

1.What are three new and excited things happening in your life this year?

1. My first grandbaby in June!

2. My second grandbaby in September!

3. The potential of moving to another state.

2. What are some of your favorite things to do in the Spring and Summer?

1. Gardening

2. Swimming

3. Nature walks

3. If you move which state would you rather go to: Alaska,Wyoming, or South Carolina?

 ALASKA

Would you love to read some excellent books with your kids that you can't seem to find at the library.

Not only that, but the price of books, when you are able to find them still in print don't seem to fit into the budget.

Check out Amblesideonline.org

It is filled with wonderful links that lead to full books that can be either read online or printed out.

These books are in public domain.

There are many books on great literature and history.

Check it out, but be warned, it will take more than one day to view all of the wonderful things this site has to offer!

Hey, don't forget to come back and let me know what you think!

There have been some renovations over at http://candyfoote.com/

Check it out!

Don't forget to let me know what you think!

It's hard to believe that Sarah will be four months old on the fifth of March.  She just grew out of her premie clothes this week.  She looks like she grew by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait for her doctor appointment on Tuesday to see how much she weighs now!

As many of you know, I just love family read aloud time!

It is not only an educational time, but it is a family bonding time!

I am excited that soon I will be reading not only to my children, but to my grandchildren as well.

My adult children still enjoy coming home to find that they popped in right at family read aloud time.

It is not necessary for your children to answer every question at the end of each lesson in history and science. 

As a matter of fact, I find that it tends to make them hate even the thought of doing those subjects.

Why not simplify things for both the children and yourself?

I like to teach my children in the same manner that I learn myself.

Many times, we simply read history and science textbooks during family read aloud time.  We have wonderful discussions on what we have read.  Often the kids want to go to the library to get books to further their study of a topic we covered.  They also love to go off and do science experiments.  We create timelines in regular single subject notebooks.  Well, the list goes on and on, but you get the picture.  We not only learn a lot this way, but we enjoy the learning.

Math class in action.

My husband and children have been renovating our entire dining room!

Yeah, for math class!

My husband used to be a teacher's aid in the public school system for teenage kids.   They couldn't use a tape measure or do basic figuring!

So, what's on the agenda for science class today?

I hope everyone will be staying up to watch the lunar eclipse!!!!

Make some popcorn and hot chocolate, and enjoy the night!

We have been enjoying our read-alouds lately!

We just  finished reading Laura Ingalls Wilders',

"Long Winter" because it sure feels like a  long winter!

We had fun reading how they kept warm!

Then we read, "The Wind and the Willows," again.

I love that book.  I think we read it every year.

We are going to read, "The Prince and the Pauper" this week.

So, what have you been reading?

My two and four year olds kept jumping on their beds one night.

I told them to go to bed and to say their prayers.  My two year old kept jumping while saying, "Jesus, watch me jump."

Teaching small children math can be as easy as one plus one is two.  To begin with, teach them how to count through games.  My children learned how to count by playing hide-n-seek and having jump rope contests.

Teach them to write their numbers by connecting the dots.  Just "write" the numbers out using dots and have the children copy over top of your numbers.

They can easily learn to recognize their numbers as you point to the numbers and count.  Another fun way is by playing cards.

Finally, they can learn to add, subtract, multiply, and divide by reciting the problems.  "One plus one is two.  One plus two is three," and so on.

Your children will be working with math problems throughout their lives.  you might as well teach them to enjoy it.  Pushing textbooks onto them too soon causes them to dislike even the mention of math.  Remember to have fun in learning!

Here's an update on Sarah Jane.

She's three months old now.

She weighs 7 pounds and 9 ounces.

She is doing great!

People often wonder about how we run our homeschool.

One popular question is concerning the days off we take.

Our schedule does not coincide with the public school system.

We do take summer vacation and Christmas vacation. We don't take off Columbus Day, Labor Day, President's Day, or snow days!

We do, however, take all of our birthdays off!

Plus, it seems every couple of years we tend to take maternity leave!

That pretty much covers our days off.

Our homeschool is very family oriented.  That's why I love the "everyone's birthday off" days.

We also try to work our schedules around Dad's days off.

The kids enjoy spending the day out back with Dad cutting wood.

They help him work on vehicles, chainsaws, generators, and other  engines.

It's always a busy time when Dad is home.

I call it our vocational school time.

Many times he takes them on side jobs with him.

They learn many trades, including sheetrocking, carpentry, roofing, mechanics, wiring, farming, haying, etc.

The list is too long for this post!

Are you not sure how to run your homeschool schedule?

Keep it family oriented.  Make sure your family life is the focus and center of everything.  Honor your husband by having Dad Focus Days when he has a day off.  Have fun!  Enjoy your family!

My computer crashed!  Ughh!!!!

My awesome, wonderful husband bought me a new Dell computer!

Yeah!

Isn't he great?!?

I'm still trying to get back to normal - whatever that is!

Sarah is 2 1/2 months old.  She weighed in at 6 pounds 14 1/2 ounces today!

We started back to school a couple of weeks ago.  That helps to bring some order back to the house!

I had a great report at my check-up last week.  I am no longer diabetic!  The doctors were concerned because I had problems with gestational diabetes at the onset of this pregnancy.  They thought for sure that it didn't leave after my previous pregnancy.  Woohoo! The two hour gluclose tolerancy test came back normal.  Thank you, Jesus!!!

In other news, I'm going to be a grandma this year!!

Both of my married children are expecting babies this year!

I have always wanted to be a grandma, so this is pretty exciting.

All of the fun and none of the work!!!

HERE'S SARAH JANE!!!!

HERE'S SARAH JANE!!!!!!!

I'm still preparing for the holidays.

I'm not quite where I want to be - are we ever?

I have about $30.00 worth of non-perishable groceries left to pick up.  That includes both Thanksgiving and Christmas though.

I will be picking some things up after my doctor appointment on Monday.

The kids are doing great!  They are right on schedule.  Six children are totally finished with their shopping.  That includes gifts for the "shoe box" kids, wrapping paper, and tape.  They even have their gifts all wrapped up!

My four year old has her shopping partly done.  She plans on finishing up by next week. 

That only leaves my 2 1/2 year old.  She is excited about getting her turn to go shopping!

Well, there are the three older "kids", but they are all grown up now, so they will have to handle getting their shopping accomplished!  LOL

I have had fun working with them too!

I talked to my new daughter-in-love about making a Christmas notebook, and starting goals early.  She has had a great time working on her notebook and preparing for Christmas. 

My married daughter  brought over her Christmas notebook when she came to visit.  We talked about different gift ideas.

I have been busy collecting things to throw into the gift closet.  I love to shop all year long because I can take my time and find the best bargains! 

I've been sewing and crocheting a lot of gifts this year too.

We have been working on our stuffed animal collection.  (We hand them out at the nursing home on Christmas Eve.)

So, what have you accomplished????

Kids are soooo funny!

Don't you just love the way their little minds work?!?

Here is a conversation that I had earlier with my 6 (almost 7) year old daughter.

Mom - "What does Genesis 1:1 say?

Daughter - "Ummm...."

Mom - "In....."

Daughter - "Oh, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Mom - "Very good!  Who was the first man and woman?"

Daughter - "The first man was Adam and the first woman was Eve."

Mom - "Where did they live?"

Daughter - "In an apple tree."

I love jars!  Yes, jars!

We started a penny jar a few months ago. 

What fun!

We started out with a quart size canning jar and kept throwing in our pennies.  Every time someone comes home with pennies, into the jar they go.  Pennies can always be found under the couch cushions or thrown on the floor in some corner.  The kids have a great time searching for them.

We had to move up to a gallon jar a few weeks ago.  We are almost to the half way mark!

My two year old loves to get the pennies out to play with.  Earlier she made a big pile, then ran and jumped into them.  (I guess she had more fun jumping in those leaves the other day than I realized!)

The other kids like to get out the penny jar to help them to do their math problems.

Sometimes it's fun to take them out and simply count them or just look at them. 

Everyone is guessing how many pennies can fit in a gallon jar.  So, what do you think???

Another fun item to collect in jars is buttons.

The kids love to cut the buttons off from old clothes in order to throw them into the button jar.  They are fun to look at and count too.  They also work great as a math manipulative.

I use glass gallon jars in the kitchen too.

They make great containers for flour, sugar, oatmeal, or anything else you may use a lot of.  I put a pretty cloth top on them with a piece of matching paper that says what it is on the front.

The ideas go on and on.

Like I said, I love jars!

I have some faithful readers of this blog within my own community!

I want to take a moment and thank a few of them.

Thanks for reading Sherry, Dannielle, Katie, and Christi!!

Want a fun way to teach the three states of matter?

Take ice (a solid) and put it into a pan.

Heat it up and watch it turn into water (a liquid).

Keep heating it until it starts steaming (a gas).

Have fun!

Want to start teaching your little ones alphabetical order?

Not sure if they are too young?

Not sure where to start?

Have them write out the alphabet in large letters.  Next, have them cut them out and shuffle them up.

Simply have them put them back in order!

(If your child can't write the alphabet by himself, simply "dot" it out and let him copy it)

I had a very frugal day yesterday.  We needed a new VCR and I found one while out junkin'!!!

I paid $3.00, and the lady told me that if it didn't work to bring it back.

Well, it works great!

Everyone is happy, except for my son who gets to break out those algebra tapes now!

Have you gotten your free t-shirt yet?

Better hurry on over to http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/boutique/399307/?#c7

We recently purchased Rummy Roots off from e-bay.

What an easy way to teach Latin and Greek roots!

It's great for both older and younger children.  Hey, it's great for me too!

If you're looking for a simple way to teach those important Latin and Greek roots, check out Rummy Roots.

(No, this is not a paid advertisement!  I just really like this card game!)

I love blogging!

Have you checked out my homestead blog lately?

http://www.homesteadblogger.com/CandyFoote/

I had such a blessed day yesterday!  My husband took the day off.  All eleven of our children were at home!  YEAH!

The weather was great!  It's hard to believe that it's almost October!

We decided to take advantage of the weather, and of our family being all together.

We set off for the nearest apple orchard.  We had a great time picking three bushel baskets of delicious apples.

When we finished up at the orchard, we headed over to my dad's for a BBQ.

What a great day.

Thank you, Lord, for your awesome yet simple blessings!

Crocheting is the new hobby at the Foote house.

The kids saw me crocheting and they got hooked.

(pun intended!)

Both the girls and the boys have been making chains.

We are going to put some on the Christmas tree this year!

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JaimieFoote/205758/

Check out my daughter's tribute to September 11th!

Leave her a comment to encourage her.

I'm telling you, homeschooling is fun!  We are having a great time studying about the continents.  The younger kids are learning the names of the continents, where they are located on the globe, and which continent they live on.  The older kids (with the littlier ones listening in) are studying South America.

We are also learning about deserts.  We are reading a book during family read aloud time that is teaching us quite a bit!

The kids are also having fun learning Latin, Greek, and Spanish.  After a Spanish lesson, they decided that they were only going to speak Spanish from now on.

Hmm, a little tricky, since it was their FIRST lesson.  They have been having a great time!

Is it legal to have fun while learning?!?

Does teaching school only consist of book learning?

Not at the Foote house!

My husband starts taking our kids along on side jobs when they are 7 and 8 years old!  He teaches them many trades.

We know that they will always be able to at least be able to put food on their tables through the trades that they are learning.

Here is a short list of some of the things that he has taught them over the years:

-roofing (and are they ever good!)

-sheetrocking

-building a barn

-building a house (this covers it all - from the foundation to the floor laying!)

-plumbing

-wiring

-hooking up solar power

-automechanics (from changing the oil to changing a motor or transmission)

Like I said, this is just a short list!  He has taught them soooo much!

Our oldest son made extra money when he was in missionary school by sheetrocking houses.  He has been putting himself through pilot school by doing carpentry and construction.

Our oldest daughter is an expert roofer!

And the list goes on and on!

Does your homeschool consist of more than book learning?

Is your schedule driving you crazy?

Are there too many things on your to do list to accomplish in the time that you allowed for it?

Here is a simple reminder - You made your schedule!

Adjust it to fit you.  Don't let it drive you nuts!

The English word 'wife' is akin to the Swedish word 'viv' and the German word 'weib'.

Viv and weib have the same root word as the word 'wife'.

So, what do the words 'viv' and 'weib' mean?

They mean:

-to twist

-to turn

-to wrap

What do I get from this? 

A wife is to twist, turn, and wrap herself to her husband.  In other words - adapt.

The dictionary says that the word adapt means:

-to adjust

-to conform

-to fit

While I was there, I checked out the definition of the word 'mate'.

Mate means:

-one of a pair especially a matched pair

-a husband or wife - a spouse

-an equal

-a fit associate

-a companion

-a fellow worker

-a comrade (a friend, partner, or close companion; one who shares common interests and activities)