These gals are seriously not to be taken serious!

Just reading about them should make us want to be more silly and have fun.

WHO THEY ARE:  The ZANY Red Hot Mamas are nothing but unique, capturing the hearts of all ages  The group is composed of women with a Genuine Zest for Life, who are over 30, a MaMa, GrandMaMa, Great GrandMaMa, OR just plain Great!  The Queen Mama is currently 80 years young, with most members ranging in age from 30 to 60 ( But don't try guessing which ones are over 60 unless you can run real fast!!)  The inspirational double amputee Drum Major is everyone's hero.  Hi-Spirited, Vibrant, Full of Fun, and definitely: ONE-OF-A-KIND!!              (Click for pictures)

WHAT THEY ARE:  The Red Hot Mama Parade Unit is a dance/drill team featuring strollers, milk jugs, mops, shopping carts, or any other idea we get.  The combination of drill team precision and outrageous costumes cause a Rip Roarin' Riot wherever we go. The theatrical group produces musical/comedy shows, and is well known for spoofs such as "The Blues Mothers", "Rappin Mama", "Riverprance" and "Rebah Man I'm Tired", as well as infamous ballets to Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.  Singing, Dancing and "hold onto your aching stomach" laughter abound.

THEIR EXPERIENCE:  Their "showcase" performance is the 2006 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and it was their honor to be invited by the president to the 54th and 55th Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C. They appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, MTV and ABC's Nightline.  The London, England New Year's Day Performance is their "crowning" glory. They have performed in a variety of parades and festivals nationwide over the past 10 years including the Philadelphia Independence Day Parade, Hershey Centennial Anniversary, Fiesta and Holiday Bowls, Seattle Seafair, Boise Riverfest, The Portland Rose Festival and Spokane's Lilac Festival.  Many stage performances have been donated to fundraisers such as Red Cross Relief Fund, Habitat for Humanity, American Cancer Society, Cancer Community Charities, Children's Village, Service Organizations and Retirement Communities. 

This is the newest quarterly freebie from Hands Of A Child.

It is a lapbooking package!

Ready to assemble, hands on unit with reproducibles.

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/Zebras-Ebook-P898.aspx

Enjoy!

Trying to plan out your homeschool year can be a daunting task!

I like to do it. It forces me to really think things out.

I am far from an expert in this area! But...

Here is what I can share from my experiences.

Some people like to have at least a general layout for the year of what will be studied when and for how long.

I try to work that out on a word document over 2-3 months here and there. I make a table on Word and then I can copy & paste and move stuff around or add to it and the table will grow or shrink accordingly. I find that handy. This would be a great area to add a section on ebooks you have collected. Like if you were going to study Egypt for 6 weeks- type "Supplements" in that area and then add "Ebook: Egyptian Culture Lapbook" and then you could add "Website: www.Pyramidsforkids.com" and if you bought some cool books "Book: Pharoahs" "Field Trip: online field trip at www.walkingwithancientkings.com".

Now if you had a planner- just write the stuff out on lots of those tiny post-its and you can move them around in your planner as you work that all out. Then when you turn to the first week of December you will open to find 3 post-its on Christmas related projects or ebooks you have. Or if you turn to October you may be very happy to see that week three begins your Egypt unit and there are the post-its to show where all your stuff is. Now you know what you need and where to find it.

My best planning is on paper (preliminary) and then some kind of planner/calendar thing
and gets a lot more detailed. I mark it with a highlighter as it cements. My
oldest gets pink highlighter, my son gets a blue highlighter and I
get yellow. My littlest will get orange as she gets incorporated when I
begin "Before FIAR" with her sometime probably after next January.

This all coincides with my MOTH schedule, too. It sure is nice to have that set up already!

Got a toddler or pre-schooler?

These two sites are great! I especially love the one with the ziplock activities!

Little Blots

Ziplock activities and other great ideas!

 

I have been homeschooling for several years now “officially”. Every one has a different definition of just when you can claim beginning homeschooling. This is especially true if you have a learning lifestyle- which we always have had.

I have read and skimmed through some homeschool method books before we started this last year of school. Not sure what motivated me to do this! The Lord has already refined quite a bit of what we do ("we" mostly means "I"). I have tried many different ways of doing things and little by little have come to where I stand now. You could say learning to homeschool is a process or an adventure- if you are willing to take it. If you are willing to grow as the Lord is leading.

Have you read any homeschool method books before and thought “wait a minute… we do that!” or “that’s what I’ve been saying!”

The books that kind of took me by surprise were:

• You can Teach Your Child Successfully  by Ruth Beechick

• Heart Of Wisdom Teaching Approach  by Robin Sampson

• Charlotte Mason Companion  by Karen Andreola

It seems that Charlotte Mason and Ruth Beechick sat in on our home school day and wrote books about it. LOL!
And Robin Sampson hits really strong on Bible first-and-all-day-in-every-subject .
Sampson also is a big promoter of the 4mat method which in a nutshell is: get them excited about the subject, study it, and show what you learned. You show what you learned best by lapbooking (scrapfolder) or notebooking or some other project- maybe a diorama or something.
Well, I am a strong believer in lots of Bible, but I did not teach it all school day. So, in that area, I was really challenged. I have committed to do this now.
If you have not read her book… I cannot recommend it highly enough. No other homeschool book has been more valuable. Worth every penny.

Isn't it funny to see that you didn't make up something- that it was already around- you just did not know?

This plan is built around two students: 8th grade & 3rd grade

I teach based on the Heart Of Wisdom Teaching Approach. So, I am not classical, principal, or whatever. Basically, I put Bible first and foster a love for learning. This can be tricky, but we have benn VERY successful using the HOWTA method. Wish I had done it right from the beginning. It is a lot of Charlotte Mason.

Some subjects/items I have listed here will be taught together: Heart Of Wisdom history/Bible, International House Of Prayer curriculum, English From The Roots Up wordcards.

I am still considering on how to handle teaching out of Writer's Inc with an 8th grader and a 3rd grader at the same time. I may just teach my 8th grader from it and teach my 3rd grader out of it in the future.

I am also excited to implement Managers Of Their Homes. I just read the book and I am fixing to write out my first schedule using the method. All my past attempts at scheduling were great looking and well researched/thought out but never worked. I believe the MOTH method will work. I am hoping that I will be able to allow for doing art and experiments or whatever. This is all while potty training my toddler girl and having a newborn (September 08). We will see.

MATHEMATICS

Teaching Textbooks

          Algebra

Making Math Meaningful

          Level 3

LANGUAGE ARTS

English From The Roots Up

Volume 1 Wordcards

IEW SWICC B

Write-Source Writers Inc

LLATL Orange TM & Student

Progeny Press Literature Guides

Wordly Wise

          Level C

          Level 8 (2^nd edition)

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

International House Of Prayer

Workbook & CD

Pearables Christian Gentleman’s Series

Lessons In Responsibility For Boys

HEART OF WISDOM- YEAR TWO

Mystery Of History 2

          Materials & books related

          Early Church, Vikings, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation

SCIENCE

Apologia

          Physical Science

Apologia

          Elementary level: Swimming Creatures

OTHER

I Can Do All Things Art Program

My Father's World (ECC) Exploring Countries & Cultures

For New Homeschoolers Can we really do this? What about testing, socialization, finding resources? What's unschooling? Basic questions answered!	HEM's Q&A Column Reader Home Education Magazine's popular Questions and Answer Column. Edited by Laura Weldon.
Teaching and Learning Wondering what to teach and how to teach it? Should you teach or just "facilitate learning?" Readin', writin', 'rithmetic and more!	Older Homeschoolers Is it harder to homeschool older kids, or does it get easier as they take more responsibility for their own learning? And what about work or college?
Foundations Of Freedom Who's changing homeschooling laws, and why? What about testing, OBE, research, school-to-work, curfews, truancy, and misguided lawsuits?	Special Situations Military and foreign homeschooling. Special needs. ADD, ADHD, LD and other forms of alphabet soup. Resources and information.
Networking and Communications Articles about support groups, national organizations, online networks, conferences and more.	Support Groups and Organizations Where can I find a support group thats right for us? How about a National or International Organization?
Index of Information Files An index of free files available via email: Starting out, homeschooling dads, unschooling, high school years, college admissions and more.

 

Christian families suffer today because they fail to capture the hearts of their children. Too often they fail to communicate vision, convictions, and wisdom to their children. In the battle between pagan culture and the Christian family culture, paganism often wins. The sad response is that too many Christian parents simply give up. Others set their goals so low that their best strategy is simply to see their children “survive” a little bit longer, or to lose the battle for the generations as slowly as possible.

To achieve victory, first you must seek it.

In the battle for the family, this means making God-honoring and strategic choices which cultivate an environment of honor, faithfulness to Christ, and generational- minded strategic choices. (Doug Phillips)

For more:  Victory For Your Family

I have camped IN THE RAIN and MUD many many times here in Oregon. (groan) I grew up here camping in the rain- and making midnight trips to the outhouse, through the mud, in my jammies. Black plastic awnings so you can play cards at the picnic table. We had to dig a ditch around our tent to keep the rain from pooling under it! It may sound like I am exaggerating, but this is all true.

Last year my husband and I decided that, after using someone's camper trailer, a camper was going to make camping more a reality. I have a personal goal every year to camp at least twice and that is hard for me to do around my husband's schedule and with 3 kids and tent stuff. (Give me a break!) Now I am pregnant, just to add another short person to the mix! That makes six of us.

We just bought a camper trailer. (yippee!) Now I can take all my children camping with, or without, my husband. We will be dry! And quite safe, too. This is really free-ing for me. I feel like I just won some big prize!

I am not talking about TVs, satellite, cable, spa tub, loud music. Just something that you can lock at night, have prepacked with all the crud, and dry when it rains.

I have children ages 13 to toddler and one on the way.

In our home, we call chores RESPONSIBILITIES.

We all have a part of this family and we have responsibilities that keep the family home working.

Our "chores", as people call them, DO NOT ROTATE. They are that person's responsibility.

As they get older and can take on more responsibility, they get harder jobs and maybe more of them depending on the tasks. We do not have the arguments associated with switching all the time- nor the complication of charts and figuring this and that out.

We do not pay our children for doing what they are responsible for. Sometimes they have opportunities to earn money by doing a special job, especially if they ask.
Another thing to note. Attitude is key.

We find that this works well for us. Everyone knows what is expected and it flows. Nobody needs to ask who forgot to unload the dishes, change out towels or whatever. We all know.
 

If never before, NOW is the time to cry out for repentance to sweep this nation.

Sad, but unfortunately a reality...

After being interviewed by the school administration, the teaching prospect said, "Let me see if I've got this right:

You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, and make sure that they all pass the state exams.

You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate  regularly with their parents in English and Spanish by letter, email, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

You want me to do all this and then you tell me that I can't pray?"

The famous story teller Jim Hodges is giving away his audio book by G A Henty "With Lee In Virginia". This is his all time best seller.


     With Lee In Virginia

     ...A Tale of the American Civil War

Setting:    AD 1860’s – American Civil War – Slavery and state’s rights.

Story:    Few wars have been fought by each side with greater intensity of conviction in the rightness of its cause or with more abundant personal heroism than the War Between the States. The story begins with a great responsibility falling on Vincent Wingfield, the teenage son of a widowed Virginia plantation owner. Vincent must decide what course of action he should take when a problem arises on the plantation. Unlike many stories of this American war, Mr. Henty brings to it a European viewpoint that differs drastically from the current views on the nature and reasons for this struggle. Henty’s "With Lee in Virginia" will introduce the reader to many of the famous battles of the 1860's along with learning much about the character of Robert E. Lee and his lieutenants.


GA HENTY - With Lee In Virginia

Free eBook Download

Getting It All Done   by Marilyn Boyer

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the demands of parenting? Life is certainly a challenge for parents, and especially those who accept the added responsibility of home education. But there are ways to make life easier and more productive, and this workshop discusses some of those.

Marilyn Boyer, mother of 14 children and a veteran home educator of 22 years' experience, shares her techniques for accomplishing a mammoth amount of housework while giving her children a superior education at the same time.

Download Free eBook

IMPORTANT: You MUST select "Ebook" when you click your selection. Only the Ebook "Getting It All Done" is free. Then enter code TTH in checkout. It is free, just complete checkout without inputting your credit card.

Ever heard of a homeschool lobotomy? It’s the non-surgical condition most moms experience around September 1 and the commencement of homeschool. Chores and responsibilities pile up. Relationships begin to unravel. Suddenly you can’t complete a sentence without forgetting what you were going to say. You walk into a room and can’t remember why. You forget appointments. You feel snappish. You can’t fall asleep at night as your mind circles around and around the day just past. The morning comes all too soon, and you can’t pull yourself out of bed, overwhelmed with all you face. Homeschool lobotomy.....or stress?

Want the answers? Go HERE.