Does a big mess keep you from doing art projects? Here is an idea I came up with recently as I am beginning to implement the "Workbox System" into my home.

You can make up a workbox (plastic tote) for a particular kind of craft or art method.
Like watercolor painting, coloring in colorbooks, stencils, scrapbooking, lapbooking, etc.

One craft per workbox.

If you do this then all the supplies needed for that activity are there. Make sure the scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils or whatever are all in there- whatever is required to that art activity! The child just goes to retrieve the workbox and will not need to search for this and that! The bonus is that it makes it really easy to clean up and put away too!

Homeschooling Tips For Your Heart

by Susan Kemmerer

-Start your homeschool close to the same time each
day. Your kids will get used to the routine and know what to expect.


-Don’t make any phone calls before school starts. Phone calls are, for me, the
biggest derailer of my day. I get caught up too easily in the conversation!


-Have your kids do their work in a “public” room (kitchen, living room) rather
than a bedroom. Even though they say they need the peace and quiet, often it’s
an excuse to do sub-standard work. Kids need our oversight and training. God
made them that way. And you are the teacher.


-Dole out lots of physical affection, even with your big, goofy teens. They need
to know that you’re on their side, and that you’re rooting for them. Hugs,
kisses, smiles, or a pat on the back go far in creating a pleasant environment
for learning.


-Make sure your homeschool is a safe place to make mistakes. Never belittle a
child for wrong answers, academic struggles, or shoddy work. Even if the child
has willfully chosen to mess up, don’t belittle him. It accomplishes nothing.
Instead, apply patience to true academic struggles, and apply gentle wisdom and
correction to sins of laziness and willful disobedience. Remember, with sin
issues you are trying to reach their hearts, and you’ll never reach their hearts
if your homeschool isn’t a safe place to make mistakes.


-Exhibit lots of patience. Yes, I know Bobby should be able to handle this
without you constantly cracking the whip. But the reality is that you are the
mom, and your job is to train your children. If he isn’t trained yet (even at
age 16 or 18), don’t throw up your hands and say, “I shouldn’t have to tell
you...” This may be the ten-thousandth time you told him, but if he needs to be
told again, then do so with patience and grace. I even asked one of my sons if
he wanted to assume a particular responsibility himself, or if he wanted me to
continue to “nag” him. I explained to him that I really didn’t want to be a nag,
but if it helped him to be reminded of his responsibility, I would be glad to do
so. He was grateful for my thoughful question and asked me to continue to remind
him. I don’t resent that I’m still training this child. After all, he still
lives under my roof, and is still under our authority. Praise God we still have
the opportunity to train! It is a privilege
to train our children and to equip them for life.


-Recognize growth in character, no matter how small. Often growth in character
feels like a 2-steps-forward, one-step-back affair. Learn not to to focus on how
far they have to grow. Instead focus on God’s gace in how far they’ve come. My
own life is like that. There are certain areas that I’ve struggled in all my
life - and I’m 43! How slow my progress must seem in my Father’s eyes. But He
just patiently continues to whittle away at those areas, and I am growing
ever-so-slowly. I must extend the same grace to my kids.


-Don’t be afraid to switch curriculum if something isn’t working for you. Though
I’ll often try to finish out a year before switching to save money, there have
been occasions when we’ve switched mid-year. A poorly written or poorly planned
curriculum can make both you and your kids miserable. There’s always someone out
there who thinks the curriculum you hate is the best one on the market, and
would be willing to buy yours at yard sale prices.


-Don’t resent your husband’s lack of participation in your homeschool. The
reality is that he works a full time job already, and can’t be involved much.
Accept the fact that as a mother, your God-ordained calling is that of teacher
as well. You can’t biblically separate the two. Your relationship with your
husband also teaches your children eternal lessons. Do you respect his
authority? Do you honor him with your words and actions? Do you love him
passionately? If you don’t, you’ll be teaching your students that respecting
authority, honoring your spouse, and loving others are optional. My husband pays
my homeschool bills, attends homeschool conferences with me sometimes, and
listens to my homeschool woes. He takes me out on a “date night” about once a
month to support and encourage me. He intervenes in our homeschool only if I’m
unable to handle a situation. My role is to handle the homeschool. Dale has
clearly delegated the role to me, and I embrace it with all my heart.
My kids know that even though it looks like homeschool is 99% mine, it’s
because Dad “ordained” it. My delegated job (being under Dale’s authority) is to
make our homeschool a success. No whining allowed.


-Educate yourself constantly. Never assume you know everything there is to know
about homeschooling and parenting. Be teachable yourself. Attend conferences
with an open, teachable spirit, and allow the Holy Spirit to continually
strengthen and equip you. Read books on the subjects of parenting and
homeschooling. Get plugged in to a solid church and make yourself accountable to
others.


-Be humble. Ask forgiveness from your children when you’re impatient. Listen
with an open heart to their struggles. Don’t condemn them.


-Pray. God is more than willing to meet us with His grace!



Used with permission.


By Susan Kemmerer
(c) Schoolhouse Publishing
www.shpublishing.com

We ALL feel some days like we can't homeschool. But we do it... by God's grace. The character issues and trials in our lives are enough to cause us to doubt our abilities. We homeschool because we know the Lord has called us to do this and because He has, He will work it out when we trust Him to do so.
 
No homeschooling family is going to tell you that it will all be easy or every day will be easy, but we are here to lift each other up during the hard times. This why homeschool support groups are essential.
 
There is a saying in homeschool circles and I do not know where it started or who said it first: The worst day home educating is better than than the best day in government school.
 
Your children are sure to have bad days whether they are in gov't school or private school or at home. That is just fact. It has nothing to do with where they are at physically. All people have bad days. You will and do have bad days! The character issues we each deal with within our families are worked out when we are together not separated- and on our bad days the heat gets turned up on those issues.

My family has grown so much in the Lord because of this type of testing and refining! Because of this process, we actually care about each other in deep ways and seek to keep our family unit serving the Lord in every area of our lives. We are far from perfect or harmonious! But we seek to truly love our neighbor by beginning within our own family. The opportunities (a.k.a. trials!!)  for this to happen are abundant when you home educate (or as some say "family discipleship" )
 
Remember, that is one of the main reasons for a homeschool group! To encourage each other! Share! Support!
 

Some good online places to buy used curricula are:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

http://www.vegsource.com/homeschool/

http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/

http://www.curriculumexchange.com/

http://edaccents.com/

http://www.edexbooks.com/

http://www.discountcurriculum.com/

http://www.exodusbooks.com/

A Mile Wide … An Inch Deep
Written by Christine Field

Have you ever heard someone say, “He runs a mile wide, but only an inch deep”? I’ve heard it used in a few contexts, but the basic reference is to shallowness. A shallow person intellectually, or a shallow person spiritually. We want to be neither.

We want our children to run deep as well. Is it too much to ask to be a mile wide and a mile deep?

You can do neither if you are too scattered. We were often guilty of spreading ourselves too thin. You can’t go deep into God’s Word or anything else if your time and energy are stretched too thin. Are you reviewing the school year or planning ahead for the new? Trying to jam too much in will guarantee a light coating. Focusing on fewer, more meaningful studies and activities will allow greater depth. 

How are you streamlining for greater depth?

Christine Field is moderator of the LifeWay Homeschool Community, and the author of several books, including Homeschooling the Challenging Child and Homeschooling 101..

Can Your Children Explain Why They Homeschool?

Written by Zan Tyler of Lifeway

My children grew up with television cameras in the living room and school room. We began homeschooling in 1984, and it was a controversial decision to say the least. As we marched through the process as a family of lobbying for homeschooling legislation, my children were asked a thousand questions:

• What about socialization?
• Do you like homeschooling?
• Do you have any friends?
• Do you feel like you are missing anything?
• Why does your family homeschool?
• Can you play sports?
• Will you ever be able to go to a prom?
•  Where do you want to go to college … do you think you will be able to get in?
• Are you learning anything?

I cringed. From my son’s perspective his answer was absolutely true and important to him. He had been in preschool before we started homeschooling where he couldn’t do those things when he wanted to. But that’s not what I wanted being discussed on the nightly news.

It was my fault. I failed to realize that lawyers prepare their witnesses to be interrogated. It doesn’t mean the answers aren’t sincere and genuine, but they are thought-through as opposed to spontaneous. Sometimes spontaneity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! Adults prepare for job interviews, so they are able to put their best-foot forward for the potential employer.

If adults need to prepare for interviews and interrogations in the real world, how much more does a child need to prepare and rehearse? I set to work and from that point on my children gave thought-out answers to the list of questions I thought they might be asked in an interview situation. And no age is too young for preparation!

All of life is an interview.

Every child is asked a thousand questions in his growing-up years. If that child happens to be homeschooled the tally rises to a million fairly quickly! You know how it is--you can't go through the check-out line in the grocery store without you and your children being riddled with questions. Homeschooled children are questioned by friends, by relatives, by people at church, by strangers, and occasionally by a TV reporter or a legislator. And sometimes well-meaning friends and relatives can't wait to get your children alone so they can find out what they really think and feel.  

You will be doing your children and yourself a great service if you teach them how to handle questions in a graceful, confident, knowledgeable way.

The process of preparing children for interviews-

1. Brainstorming. We had a white board at the time. I began by drawing a line down the middle. I then asked  questions like the ones at the beginning of the article. Each child would give his response. If the response was appropriate for the interview, I wrote it down on the right side of the board. If it were appropriate for private conversation but not necessarily an interview situation, I put it on the left side of the board.

2. Tweaking and polishing. At the end of that exercise, we then looked at the answers on the right side of the board and we began to tweak and polish them a bit.

3. Role playing. Then we role played. I would be the reporter, and I would ask the boys questions. Then we would switch roles and they would ask the questions and I would answer. It gave them a chance to hear my responses. We would continue until they were too tired to be productive, or we had an answer relatively down pat.

4. Practicing. Once we had gone through the role playing, we would practice—sometimes formally, sometimes informally. If we were in the car, I would throw out one question and have them answer it. Sometimes we would go back to the white board and have a more formal training session. If a new question arose, we would go through the process again of brainstorming, tweaking and polishing, and role playing again.

A great resource  

The Little Book of Big Reasons to Homeschool is a 70-page little book written by my friends David and Kim d’Escoto. Because it is a quick and easy read (and is only $7.99), it makes a great book to keep on hand to give those who are interested in homeschooling.

But I have also discovered another great use for this book. Have your children read it—or read it out loud together as a family. (And count it as part of your school day.) This book gives a little history on homeschooling and then has sections on the benefits of homeschooling to the mind, to the body, and to the soul.

This is a perfect forum for beginning to teach your children how to answer the countless questions they will encounter about homeschooling. Go back to your white board at home. Divide it into three sections—mind, body, and soul—and list the benefits of homeschooling provided in this book. It will be a great springboard for discussion. You will have reasons to add in addition to those listed by the author. Some reasons will be more important to you than others—or more important to your children.

The point is this: begin the discussion. Prepare your children well to answer the questions that will arise almost daily in their lives concerning homeschooling. They are truly some of the greatest ambassadors homeschooling has.

You can transfer this process to other areas.

• Your children will be questioned about their Christianity as they grow up seeking the Lord. Use this same process to teach them how to answer questions about their faith.
• As they prepare for job and/or college interviews, they will benefit greatly from these same interview skills you have instilled in them as children.
• And through this process of questioning and answering you are helping them develop powerful critical thinking skills.

 I got hooked up with this website recently and it is not hokey or some scam. You get free coupons for your groceries or whatever (and even for free stuff) from a community of people just like us. The people are soooo nice and helpful! I am so impressed with it all.

My husband lost his job over three months ago and I need the help. Even if he still worked, a single income family needs to do what it can to save money.

Anyway, take a second to go check it out, you will be glad you did!

Click here: A FULL CUP

We did MFW Adventures a couple years ago. I even had my then 6th grader do it with my son (then 7yrs old). Consequently, she was doing two separate history 'classes', but she loved it.
 
We did not do any baking, but some of the recipes were pretty cool and we have plans to make those ones.
 
The state coloring we did was fun. Instead of using the Dover book they use (with special copying allowance given by Dover) we used United States Coloring Book by Rod & Staff. We did have the Dover book in our currculum kit, however, I liked the idea of both my children having their own book to color in and not photocopies. This ended up being cheaper for us than copying that many pages... at only $3 for each book, too. (http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/2932/)
 
I felt the science was a little "young". Maybe my children were just more advanced in science-y things. (Not trying to sound like my kids are geniuses! They just read a LOT of science books on the free time.) Because I felt that MFW science was light, we kind of winged science for the year. I would pick a subject like space and then we would learn about it by checking out library books and such.
 
We had a great time. There is a yahoogroup for mfw, MFWfamilies. Even one specifically for Adventures! I recommend you sign up there. Also there is a forum that is the best curriculum specific one I ever saw at the mfwbooks.com site. (http://board.mfwbooks.com/)
 
It is a great program. We did not do any years after that as I did not like the emphasis on greek philosophies that were in Creation To The Greeks.

But, I do like ECC (Exploring Countries & Cultures) and bought it to use this last year- however, with potty training and a newborn... the thought of doing most any mom-involved-education was not realistic for me and I still have ECC sitting here unused. Sigh...
 
One of the best things I learned from My Father's World?
The book basket!
Wow! Every book written for the "new homeschooler" & every website catering to new homeschoolers, should tell people about this concept. I had not heard about it the whole time I had been homeschooling, although I did do a version of it myself before. MFW has a homerun here!
 
I do not agree with the statement that "MFW Adventures is full of busywork" that I heard someone make some time ago. Personally, I hate busywork and do not assign it.

If you do go with My Father's World, any "year" unit study, make sure you make the student copies all at the beginning of the year like they say to do in the teacher instructions at the beginning of your manual.

Our year with MFW Adventures was our most fun year homeschooling so far. But highly educational at the same time. How cool can it get?

HSLDA article
 
 
"Homeschoolers Get Blamed, Again"
 
On January 22, a committee of the Rapid City School Board implied that homeschoolers were to blame for the school system losing thousands of dollars in funding. Just six days later, the Clear Lake Courier blamed homeschoolers for the loss of $41,000 in school funding.

When homeschoolers are wrongly accused of creating financial problems for public school systems, it’s time to respond. HSLDA attorney Scott A. Woodruff sent the following letter to the editor to the Clear Lake Courier:

Dear Editor:

By leaving the blame for the school system losing $41,981 at the door of area homeschoolers, your recent article, “Students and aid lost from open enrollment,” encourages your readership to think that homeschoolers are the problem.

But it’s perfectly logical to reduce a school’s funding when it serves fewer students. If there are fewer students, the school needs less money.

The question that then remains is: “Since the opportunity to serve someone is a privilege, not an entitlement, what does the school plan to change to reduce the erosion of confidence among area families?” That’s the $41,000 question that went unasked and therefore unanswered in your article.

Next time the Clear Lake Courier talks about schools “losing” money because of homeschoolers, please mention how much homeschoolers save the taxpayer by educating their children at their own expense—not the taxpayers’. Homeschoolers are some of the best friends the taxpayer has.

Sincerely,
Scott A. Woodruff, Esq.
 

 

A friend of mine was thinking the other day that maybe for those kids who are not "math minded" maybe the program should not be over explained. Maybe they do best with straight forward ..with a lot  of review. The program she switched over to explains much more the why.. almost to the point of making it too abstract, in her opinion. She was thinking maybe not all people need to know the inner workings...just how to do it and get there.

In a lot of ways, I agree.

"Did you hear from God?" or "I need a sign to confirm this."

I think this can be a crutch we lean on.

Waiting and waiting to hear from God. Or all the other things we use as some form of a "fleece". It is often our flesh trying to find a back door out of something. Kind of an escape clause.

I hate to use the term "err on the side of caution" because we should not be operating in fear, but that is what comes to mind when I think about this sort of thing. If God says to do something we often just stand there and wait for more confirmation. We should be moving instead. 

Often I hear from people "I don't want to go if God isn't going, just like Moses said!" It can be good to do this, but often it is a cop out.

Like if you always wanted to heal people and are praying for the gift, you should be praying healing over people at every opportunity- not waiting for some bolt of glory to come out of the sky and the Lord's loud voice saying "My child go and heal My people and I will give you favor wherever you go!" Or the Lord may be waiting to open up that job wherever or put you in that ministry thing you desire, but He is waiting for –you- to start the thing in some way. It often takes our step of faith first. Are we ashamed to be loopy for Jesus?

Why don't we just do it?

I am guilty, too. I find myself waiting for God sometimes when I already know.

Fact is, He has usually already given the green light and the ways & means.

We've been looking at adopting again. We keep being drawn to it. What is the Lord up to with that? The strange thing is, because we now have four children, many countries exclude us. And, if you want to adopt here, most birth mamas want to give to childless couples. I can understand that, I suppose, but we are really dedicated to our children and love them to pieces. We love children so much, we want more!  The notion tht you only have a measure of love to give is a complete myth- this is a truth that a teen mother cannot understand. Anyway, I keep looking. One option is african-american babies. Less red tape, faster turn around time, younger children. I will keep you all updated on this journey.

After yesterday's confession of my day working with my son and his "training", my good friend emailed me this story and I was so encouraged. I hope you will be too.

A Tale of Two Women by Kevin Swanson

I must tell you the tale of two women. There was the first woman who was very neatly put together. She had inherited three generations of faith. Her great grandmother, her grandmother, and her mother were Christians.

She had a very neat life. The furniture was covered. And she hardly ever sinned. The children were placed in boarding schools and she never yelled at them, even once. The pastor never had to deal with her problems. In fact, once or twice he commended her from the pulpit.

But let me tell you about another woman -- she had no godly mother or grandmother. Her father was an alcoholic, and, to tell you the truth, she was not so neatly put together.

One day, she brought her children home from school and engaged in a real relationship with them, and let me tell you, it was messy. She yelled at her children, too much. She was afraid they would be permanently damaged by her yelling. At times, she thought maybe they were a little too close to observe her ways.

Her house was often disorganized but the stacks were neat. But she engaged in hospitality anyway. She had never done it before, but her husband thought it would be a good idea. Loving strangers? It was hard enough loving her own children! But she did anyway, and she did it badly.

Her children gave her their hearts and they did observe her ways. They observed her yelling, her tears of repentance. Yes. They observed her fears that they might pick up her sinful habits. They observed her struggles to overcome her anger, the time she ran into the [bedroom because she was afraid she might say something ugly. They saw it all. They saw it all. And, trust me folks, it was a big mess.

The pastor was not very happy with this woman and her family. They seemed to require more prayer and counsel than anybody else in the church. "VDP's" he called them. "Very Demanding People."

She would bring the big mess to church with her and fall on her face and say, "God have mercy on me, a sinner." But, let me tell you, that woman went home justified!

The moral of the story is simple. God is good. He does really well with big messes, but he doesn't do as much with those who are so neatly put together.

As Jesus taught us in his parable, it is not how many talents you start with that matters. It is what you do with the 0.2 talents you had at the beginning. What really matters is the risk you take, the sacrifice, the heart molding, and the willingness to uncover the mess and to remove the layers of plastic, sterile, institutionalized, white-coated plaster. If you would try risking your furniture, your relationships, and your otherwise neat life for Jesus, and bring the whole mess to the cross, you will find great blessing indeed.

Yes, it has been one of those days.
A day of character training full of preaching, lecturing , repentance, crying.
My son's question, "can I do my school now?"
Me, "This IS school today."

.

FREE Toys, stickers & puzzles for the winter crazies, just for fun or incorporate it into your children's art class! There are probably hundreds of wonderful things to check here!