Then we looked at a couple of homemade books that my children had created, and I read them the story of "Jason and Grayson and the Missing Baseball Hat", written by my lovely and talented oldest daughter.

Afterwards, we brainstormed story ideas by listing the alphabet down one side of a piece of paper and writing down things we enjoyed or thought were interesting for each letter.


A - Astronauts, Antarctica, Alligators


B - Ballet, Basketball, Band,


C - Christmas, Cookies, China


D - Dinosaurs, Dessert, Dreams


E - Elephants, Ethiopia


etc.

As a class, we created a Jumble Story. On the whiteboard I wrote these Categories: Character, Place, Time, and Problem. The kids in the class then suggested things to put under each category - for instance, 1. Sparkle, the Dragon; 2. Precious, the Princess; 3. Connor, the race car driver... 1. in a castle; 2. at the beach... 1. in 1475; 2. in the winter; 3. today ; 1. a stolen artifact; 2. can't find his shoes; 3. best friend told a lie.......... Once our categories were filled in, I chose someone to roll a die, and the number that came up was the number we chose for Character; someone else rolled and that number was the Place, and so on. So now we had Sparkle the Dragon, in a castle, in the morning, and a stolen artifact. Paired with a partner, the kids then had 15 minutes to write a story with a beginning, middle, and and end, using those 4 elements. They really seemed to get into this and produced some pretty funny stories.


We talked about character, setting, & plot, and the fact that every story has a beginning, middle, and end. And now they have to come back next week with their own story idea, and we'll get started!



There are 16 kids in the class, ranging from age 8 to 14. We are spending the first 4 weeks learning about and writing their short stories, and then we'll move into the development and construction of a one-of-a-kind, heirloom hard-cover book! I did this project many years ago with my 3 older children, and then about 5 years ago as a class in our homeschool co-op. The project is from Valerie Bendt's Creating Books With Children. "J" is in this class with me, and I'll post more about his progress in creating a story and a book as we go along.

Yesterday was TOG Co-op day. I have a lot more prep work this year, teaching high school level literature and writing to a group of seven 14-15 yr. olds. The kids are super - I love them all - but the material is very challenging, and I am having to read their literature assignments as well as the teacher background notes and discussion script each week, and also prepare some writing instruction materials. whew! We are following the "cutting plan" laid out in the TOG Yr 2 Loom, which trims the literature assignments to make them more manageable for younger high school students. This past week we finished reading Beowulf ( from the Norton Anthology of English Lit.! ) and discussed the story and the elements of theme, worldview, characters, and "experiment in living". Next week we begin tackling Chaucer's Canterbury Tales!

I'm pretty happy with the effort the kids are putting in so far, but I'm going to need to be a cheerleader to keep them motivated through the tough work ahead. I can tell there is a lack of confidence there. This is a BIG step up from what any of them were doing last year for literature, when they were all in the Dialectic level of TOG, reading stories like The Golden Goblet, Wonders and Miracles, and Eagle of the Ninth.


Writing so far is a review of the writing process, and forming strong sentences and paragraphs, but in a couple of weeks they'll be tackling their first Literary Analysis paper, and then a 10-page research paper.


This is WAY above the kind of work I did in high school, but I am excited that my children have a high bar to work for and get to tackle such challenging material. I'm sorry that I didn't have it when my older ones were still homeschooling. They did fine and succeeded very well in college, but my goodness... after TOG, college work should be a breeze for these last two!


Last but not least, here is Jason with the Viking longboat that he made this week.
( tissue box, bamboo skewers, Crayola Model Magic, copy paper )

We spent Thursday thru Saturday at the NCHE Homeschool Conference and Bookfair in Winston-Salem. This was my 14th consecutive year attending the conference ~ hard to believe but true. It is something I look forward to each spring... a way to "fill my tank" as we come to the end of one school year and prepare to start another. Some years I find the workshops inspiring and motivating ~ this was one of those years that I was less enthused by the speakers I heard. Actually, it was the workshop topics that didn't hold as much interest for me this year. But there were a few nuggets. Tracy Klicka, homeschool mom and wife of HSLDA attorney, Chris Klicka, gave a talk called
"I Think I'll Quit Homeschooling: Five Reasons Why Moms Quit School and How You Can Keep From Becoming a Dropout". Now, I'm not thinking of quitting. But Tracy made some great comments that hit home. Here are some of my notes:

5 Reasons Why Moms Quit Homeschooling

#1 Forgetting God's Call; Losing Our Vision

- does God call us to raise our children for Him?
- has he led us to homeschooling as part of that calling?
- Remember what really matters! Academics is only part of the big picture!
Deuteronomy 4:9 Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. [ oh, how easily we forget! are you writing down the things that God has done for you and your family? ] Teach them to your children and to their children after them. [ we are not off the hook even when our children are grown with families of their own - we have a responsibility to our grandchildren as well! ]

#2 Trying to Homeschool in Our Own Strength, and not God's Power

John 15:4-5 Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Praise God that our Heavenly Father is not just our children's teacher, but our teacher as well!

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Have you ever said, " I can't do this!" Good! None of us can. But God can do great things through surrendered hearts. Our children belong to him; do you trust Him enough to give control to God, and trust His leading?

2 Corinthians 12: 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." That is why I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

#3 Focusing More on being a Teacher than on being a Mommy

Proverbs 14:1 The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

Ask yourself, "What kind of house am I building?" Before we concern ourselves with what curriculum to use or how to schedule our school day, we should concern ourselves with building a loving relationship with our children!

Read Seasons of a Mother's Heart by Sally Clarkson ( or any Sally Clarkson book ~ I love them all! )


#4 Not Taking the Proper Time for Reaching the Hearts of Our Children or Training Them in Godly Character

- learning for learning's sake ( prideful) does not honor the Lord

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

Mark 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, [ get high Iowa or SAT scores, get into college, earn lots of money ] yet forfeit his soul?

What is your foundation?

Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.


#5 Stumbling Over Jesus and Having Wrong Expectations for Our Homeschool Life

-again, control is the issue; am I trying to be "king of the hill"?
-even if my desires and goals are good ones, I must yield my life and desires and expectations to the Lord, because his ways are the BEST ways

Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Bottom line - GOD IS SOVEREIGN AND GOOD
Psalm 84-11-12 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed in the man who trusts in you.

Another excellent speaker was Phil Downer, an attorney, former Marine, father of six, and president of Discipleship Network of America ( DNA ). He gave the keynote address on Saturday morning, titled "Building World-Changing Leaders for Christ". I had been feeling uninspired that morning, and had just prayed on the way into the building , saying, "Lord, speak to me through one of these speakers today. " And shortly thereafter I was in tears, as Phil's words touched my heart.

I browsed the book fair more casually than usual, because I wasn't making any big purchases this year. I have already bought my Tapestry of Grace curriculum for next year. As a result of ordering my curriculum in a "bundle", I also received some gift certificates to the TOG Bookshelf that I plan to redeem for some of the history and literature books that I need for Year 1. Other items I will buy through my local homeschool store. They are having a 15% off sale this week, but even if they weren't, it is more important to me to support this store so that it can remain in business than to save a buck or two at the conference or elsewhere.

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What a gorgeous day!  Sunny, temps around 80°, a light breeze..  Eric is in the National Home School Honor Society, and they worked on their big annual service project this morning. Members had been collecting various items to send to troops in Iraq - snack foods, gum, drink mixes, CDs, soap, chapstick, coloring books & crayons & small toys ( for the Iraqi children), magazines, batteries, and a whole lot more -  and this morning they sorted everything, boxed them up , and shipped them off.  I don't know what the total was this year, but last year the group shipped over 700 lbs.!

Amanda spent the day volunteering at a local riding stable with a number of her friends.  Once a month, they do a program called G.R.A.C.E., when children with autism and other special needs come and ride horses.  Amanda and about a dozen other young people were there as volunteers, to lead the horses around the arena.  They were taught how to groom and saddle the horses, given safety instructions, and got to ride a little bit themselves after the session was over.  Then a local animal rescue group called H.E.A.R.T. held a puppy & kitten adopt-a-thon at the barn in the afternoon, and Amanda and her friends helped out with that as well.  She enjoyed herself, but was worn out from being out in the sun and also from being bombarded with pollen all afternoon.  Allergy season has kicked into gear and we all are suffering from headaches, sneezing, and itchy eyes... 

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We spent several days last week making gingerbread houses to enter in a contest at Homelight Books, a homeschool store here in Wake Forest. The contest was the idea of a homeschooled 16-year-old girl who wanted to find a way to help a shelter for battered women and children in Raleigh.  Twelve houses were entered and are on display this week.  Visitors to the store can pay 50 cents each to vote for their favorite(s).  On Friday afternoon, all the votes will be counted, and the top 3 vote getters will each receive a WalMart gift card and some other goodies that have been donated.  The entry fees ( $15 per house ) and money from the votes will be donated to the shelter.

We had so much fun!  Jason and two of his friends created a candy cottage, decorated with pretzel sticks, fruity cheerios, lifesavers, pillow mints, peppermints, jellybeans, and gumdrops. A marshmallow snowman and ice cream cone Christmas tree decorate the front yard. I cut out and baked the gingerbread pieces, and the boys assembled the house one day, and decorated it 2 days later. 

Amanda and 6 of her friends decided to enter 2 houses - a dollhouse and a lighthouse.  All the girls helped to design, bake, and assemble both houses. They then divided into 2 groups to decorate them. The dollhouse is decorated with candy cane hearts, graham crackers, and wreaths made of apple cinnamon cheerios. A marshmallow reindoor is nibbling on a green icing bush. Inside, there is furniture made from marshmallows, graham crackers, gumdrops, pretzels, and fruit roll-ups.  The lighthouse has a speckled jellybean chimney, a light on the roof made from candy canes and gumdrops, a Starburst walkway, and mini Nilla wafer siding. 

Here is a website that had lots of great photos of gingerbread houses ( for inspiration!) as well as recipes, assembly tips, and decorating suggestions.

http://home.comcast.net/~frankysattic/index.html

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I found another great free resource for a Thanksgiving lapbook, or "learning folder".   If you join the Live & Learn Press Yahoogroup, you can access and download several free lapbook kits. We started working on the Thanksgiving one yesterday. We probably won't finish the whole thing by next week, but we can add onto it next year!

www.liveandlearnpress.com

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/LiveAndLearnPress

Tuesday night was our monthly support group parent meeting, and the topic was "Homeschooling Through the Holidays".  We talked about various resources and ideas for weaving our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations into our homeschool days, and shared some very meaningful traditions and activities.

One of them is to spend some days or weeks doing a unit study that pertains to the upcoming holiday.

Here are some great websites with plans ready for you to use. 

Pilgrim/ Thanksgiving Unit Study -  http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/pilgrimCL.html

Thanksgiving Bible Study based on Psalm 100 - http://www.teachinghome.com/newsletters/vol_2-no_20.cfm

Teaching Thankfulness, Part 1 and 2 –

http://www.teachinghome.com/newsletters/vol_2-no_100.cfm

http://www.teachinghome.com/newsletters/vol_2-no_101.cfm

Thanksgiving Crafts, Decorations, Worksheets, Activities and Printouts –

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/thanksgiving/

The Names of Jesus Unit Study

http://happyhomeschool.familyclassroom.net/Archives/Holidays/JesusName.shtml

Symbols of Christmas Unit Study

http://happyhomeschool.familyclassroom.net/Archives/Holidays/Christmas.shtml

Christmas Carols & Hymns Unit Study

http://happyhomeschool.familyclassroom.net/Archives/Holidays/ChristianMen.shtml

20 Christmas Symbols Unit Study

http://www.athomeschool.com/unitstudy/christmas_symbols_01.htm

Handel’s Messiah Unit Study -  http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/handel.html

Governor Bradford’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

http://holydays.tripod.com/brad.htm

Family Fun Magazine online – crafts and ideas for your family celebrations

www.familyfun.com

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Today Jason and I, along with our friends Christie and Nathaniel, went on a field trip to Alamance Battlefield in Burlington, NC.  Every October they have something called "Colonial Week", where interpreters demonstrate a variety of things from the lives of backcountry farmers during the Colonial period.  Alamance is the site of a battle between the Regulators and the Governor's militia, about 10 years prior to the start of the American Revolution. The Regulators were farmers who were fed up with the excessive taxes and corruption of those ruling the British colony.  

It was a beautiful fall day, and the boys really enjoyed themselves.

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Amanda had a volleyball game this afternoon against Crossroads Christian School.  For a new school, they have a good middle school team! They trounced us.  Our girls looked young and inexperienced ( which most of them are).  As a biased mom, I can say that my daughter played very well, however.

Jason had science today at the Barton's house. He goes to their house two afternoons a week to do science with two other boys his age. It is something he really looks forward to.  Last week, Tammy took them to a nearby rock quarry to see if there was anything they could see, since they were studying rocks and minerals.   A man in the office there actually got in their van and drove them around the quarry and showed them all kinds of cool stuff! The boys were thrilled. 

Eric had his Eagle Board of Review last week, so now he is officially an Eagle Scout.  Congratulations, Eric!  

Basketball practices have started two nights a week~ Mark is coaching the varsity boys this year, and Eric is playing on that team.  Mark really enjoys coaching, and has been reading coaching books and spending lots of time planning out his practices.  Jason goes to the practices too, and the 8-year-old is right in there doing drills with the high schoolers. 

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Tomorrow night at our monthly support group meeting, we'll be talking about "A Typical Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom (or Dad)".   This is a frequently asked question from new homeschoolers.  However, my first reaction is "there is no such thing!!".  I have the plan that I make on paper each summer, of how our days MIGHT look, how they COULD look if all went as planned, how I'd LIKE them to look.  But I don't know if one of those days ever actually materializes.  Hmmmm   

This isn't exactly encouraging for other moms to hear. Or is it?  Maybe if they hear that even the "old pros" are not just clipping along with everything falling happily into place, they'll realize that they are doing okay!  I mean, who says that those plans I wrote on paper are the way God wants our day to look?!  We make adjustments daily to the situations we face as a family, and we try to deliberately be available for what I like to call "God appointments". One of the kids isn't feeling great?  I let them sleep in a bit, maybe cut back on their schoolwork so they can take a nap or snuggle up on the couch and listen to an "Adventures in Odyssey" CD.   The house is a wreck?  We spend extra time on "Home Blessings"   ( chores).     Grammy & Grandpa come to visit? We put away the books and play board games, work on projects like sewing and building, go visit local attractions.  A friend has an emergency and needs someone to babysit?  We do a quick clean up and get out the toys and videos and make cookies for our visitors.  All this is part of the lifestyle we call homeschooling. 

Okay, so how about the days when we DO get to the academic work!?  What does that day look like?   Well, that has changed over the years, but nowadays, I get up between 7:00 and 7:30 AM, shower & dress, do a quick swish & swipe of my bathroom, make my bed, start a load of laundry, and go check my e-mail.  Then I usually have my daily time with the Lord, reading my Bible and journaling, maybe reading a devotional, memorizing scripture. But I have to confess that lately I have been lax in this area, and desperately need to reestablish that Quiet Time.   I usually wake the kids between 8:00 -9:00, but it isn't uncommon for them to still be dragging themselves out of bed at 10:00 AM.  We all tend to stay up late at night, so none of the kids gets up early unless they have some kind of appointment. They do their morning routines and we all eat breakfast, and then we either jump into schoolwork or work on chores for a while.  We generally do schoolwork from 11:00 AM  until 4:00 PM or so.  Of course, depending on the day, there are classes, co-ops, choir practices, volleyball practices /games, volunteer work, trips to the library, errands, and other things. Lunch is normally 12:30 or 1:00, dinner is 6:30or 7:00.  During lunch break I usually try to declutter a bit, and get on the computer for  few minutes. Evening activities might include Scouts, Youth Group, soccer  or basketball practice, support group meetings. My husband often has to do overseas conference calls as part of his job in the late evenings. On most nights I sit down on the living room couch with my younger two children around 9:30 or so for bedtime reading. I am currently reading "Indian in the Cupboard" by Lynn Reid Banks. This takes an hour at least.  Then I tuck them in (even the 13 year old still wants to be tucked in!), go clean up the kitchen, maybe fold some laundry. I normally spend 1-2 hours on the computer before I go to bed in the wee hours of the morning ( my hubby has been in bed for hours by now)

Well, that's it in a nutshell.  Typical?  Depends..... But for us it works pretty well. 

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I got up early the other morning and color-coded my calendar.  I have a large, desk-sized calendar that I hang with magnets on the refrigerator, and that is where we write what everyone is doing during the week - classes, volleyball practices and games, soccer, church activities, meetings, birthdays, appointments, choir, Scouts, etc. There was so much stuff written on it, that I had to organize it by color so I could figure out who had to be where!  I am blue, Amanda is yellow, Eric is red, Jason is orange, Mark is green, and if something involves the whole family, it is pink. I used highlighters and crayons to color the entries.  Whew!   I also wrote myself several notes on Post-It sticky notes and stuck them on the shelf above the computer ~ where  I'm SURE to see them!  Those were for projects that had to be done this week.  oops! I just remembered that today is the deadline for sending announcements to our support group newsletter! Got to run....   

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Looks like we've got the computer issues solved for the moment ~ AOL is reloaded and I can add new entries again.

School is going well so far! We started off with a limited amount on week 1 and are adding subjects each week until we are up to a full schedule ~ partly because some things are being done in classes or co-ops with other people. This week we add Latin and Writing to Amanda's schedule; and next we'll add modern world history to all three.  Eric will also add his Civics from a Christian Perspective class next week.  This allows us time to adjust to our new school schedule without being so overwhelmed by new materials. Just one of the many ways we do things "outside the box".

Another example of "in the box" versus "out of the box" thinking  occurred last week in circumstances surrounding my daughter's volleyball team. Our homeschool support group has a sports program for middle schoolers - high schoolers  in girls volleyball and boys and girls basketball. My husband and I are both involved in the committee which oversees the program. This year we were invited to join a middle school league made up of small  private and charter schools.  While the schools all base their player eligibility for playing in middle school on grade level , our association rep. had to spend a lot of time explaining to the coaches and ADs from these schools that we only use age requirements, because as homeschoolers, grade isn't always easy to determine. Kids can be working in 2-3 grades at one time, since they can often move at whatever pace they are capable of in each subject area.  This was a hard concept for them to grasp, and apparently they DIDN'T grasp it, because our volleyball coach was confronted at a game early this week by the AD from one of these schools, accusing us of playing a 9th grader on our middle school team.  The girls on this team are all 11-14 years old. One of the girls is doing some 9th grade work - really not that uncommon for a 14 yr old.  But according to this person, that was not allowed according to the league by-laws, no matter what the player's age. After a flurry of e-mails and phone calls, we were told that we could no longer be in this league; all future games between our association and these schools would be non-conference.  That is really okay with us. But it was frustrating to try to explain a concept that makes so much sense to me, but that seemed so foreign to those entrenched in "traditional school" mentality-  that children not defined by what "grade" they are in.  Sadly, smart kids, who are able to work at a higher level academically, are penalized in this system by being told they cannot participate in sports with kids their own age / size, but may only compete with older kids who are their same "grade"!!! Does that make any sense whatsoever?

Here is another entry for the "Jillion Reasons Our Kids are Better Off at Home" file.  One of my friends made the decision to place her two boys, ages 6 and 13, back in public school this year.  I saw her today and asked how the boys were doing.  She said her older one was adjusting very well academically, and he was making friends and feeling good about being in school. But one morning this week his dad dropped him off at school a little late, and he entered school through a side entrance rather than the main entrance because it was closer to his homeroom, and he was mugged by an apparent homeless man who was inside the building.  The man grabbed him and demanded money. When the boy said he had none, the man ripped open his backpack, grabbed his lunch sack, and ran.  The boy went to the principal, the police were called, school security was beefed up....my friend is both furious and scared stiff, her son is trying to make it out as no big deal.....thankfully God was with this boy and he was not harmed.  But what a way to start off the school year...

Count your blessings.

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Now that Alex and Sarah are settled into college, I can start thinking about starting our homeschool year...  Eric has started his two classes at the community college.  Jason is starting his science co-op this Thursday, and Amanda will start her science co-op next Friday.  Most things will wait until after Labor Day, though, because I just can't  seem to get my ducks in a row. ( interesting expression, eh?)  I need to get online and start reserving library books for our first couple of weeks of Tapestry of Grace .  I think I'll start our new Bible curriculum from Deeper Roots first.  It looks really great ! 

Amanda's volleyball season has started, and the girls have had two games so far.  Today all the girls on the team went ice skating at the local rink to celebrate one of the girl's birthday. One of the things I love about the homeschool sports teams is how close-knit the players are!  Most of the girls on Amanda's team are new this year, but they have already bonded and are very encouraging and supportive of one another.  That atmosphere is fostered by the coach, and also modeled by the varsity team. 

Mark and I will be driving up to Appalachian again this weekend to deliver Sarah's computer to her.  I talked to her a little while ago and her first day of classes went well.  So far so good.  She wants me to bring up another batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies, because "the boys have eaten them all!"  What!!?!??!?!

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During this vacation, I have been spending a good amount of time planning for the coming school year.  Not being a naturally organized-type of person, this is somewhat of a challenge for me!  Choosing the materials isn't the problem, but breaking them down into weekly lessons and setting up a workable schedule is .  I have found the printable forms on donnayoung.org to be very helpful.  I have printed off the semester planner, quarter planner, and weekly planner pages, as well as yearly calendar, and put them in a 3-ring binder with dividers for each of my children.I am trying to plan out the first 18 weeks ( 1st semester ) pretty well, with the 2nd at least roughed in.   Well, that is my goal anyway.  Right now I've got part of the first 4 weeks done.

Here is the plan for my THREE children this year ( two now in college! ):

Eric ~ 11th grade

Survey of World Literature (Smarr)   - co-op

Applications of Grammar (Christian Liberty)

Worldy Wise Bk.7

Civics from a Christian Perspective (class)

Pre-Calculus ( community college)

Modern U.S. & World History (Tapestry of Grace, Yr.4 )

Spanish (Rosetta Stone )

Computer Office Applications ( online tutorials )

Bible : Rooted & Grounded ( Deeper Roots

Amanda - 8th grade

Literature  ( Tapestry of Grace, Yr. 4)

Worldy Wise Bk. 4 or 5

Write Shop I

Latina Christiana I ( w/ DVDs)

Pre-Algebra ( Teaching Textbooks )

Exploring Creation With Physical Science (Apologia ) - co-op

Modern U.S. & World History (Tapestry of Grace, yr. 4)

Art ( Artistic Pursuits)

Discovering Our Amazing God ( Deeper Roots )

Jason - 3rd grade

Reading ( no curriculum - just daily oral practice )

Phonics / Spelling ( Phonics for Reading and Spelling )

Daily Grams :2nd/3rd Grade - pink book

Copywork & Dictation

Horizons Math 3

Science ( various self-designed units )

History & Geography ( Tapestry of Grace, yr. 4)

Art ( Artistic Pursuits )

Bible

( right now I think he'll join in the Amazing God Bible study with Amanda~ it hasn't arrived yet,so I'm not sure how easy it will be to adjust for the younger age )

For P.E./Health, Eric runs and plays basketball , Amanda plays volleyball and basketball, and Jason plays soccer, basketball and baseball.  We also have some exercise DVDs that we do occasionally.  For music, Amanda sings in a Homeschool Girls Choir, I teach Jason piano, and Eric might possibly take piano lessons again this year.  And of course, we add Life Skills  -  sewing, cooking, cleaning, car maintenance, yard care, home repairs, time management, budgeting, hospitality, etc.

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