Tami over at Tami's Blog is giving away a free microscope!  Prior to hearing about this giveaway I was not familiar with Discount Home School Supplies, so I spent some time visiting the website.  Wow, they have pretty much everything!  There is even Free Shipping until July 22nd on orders of $25 or more!  So, if you haven't yet gotten all your goodies for the fall be sure to stop by Discount Home School Supplies  !

*** Discount Home School Supplies is holding a contest to give away a microscope. You can choose between one of the three following miscroscopes from my website, an MSK-01 Microscope, an MFL-06 microscope, or a SMD-04 Microscope. Just blog about the contest and link back to Tami's Blog. ***

Only by His Grace,

Angi

A few weeks ago I blogged about the Revolution Money Exchange .  Well, today I transfered $70 from my RME account to my checking account to purchase a few books from ChristianBooks.com.  Where did this $70 come from?  $25 was from the sign up bonus, $25 was my husbands sign up bonus on his account and the rest was from referrals.  So here's the deal, until May 15th, everyone who opens an account with Revolution Money Exchange will get $25 and for each referral you will get $10 (up to $500).  Pretty Cool! 

There's lots more information about RME on my previous post which you can find here.

There are so many great math curriculums, how do you chose which one is best for your family?  I have a friend who will only use Saxon, she won't even look at anything else.  I also have a friend who uses Bob Jones, Calculadders, Math U See (all at the same time) and when her children get to jr high she switches to Saxon. 

Guess what?  They are both right!  Each one has decided what is best for her family and is diligently teaching her children.  That is what each of us need to do.  And what works for us could be quite different from what works for any one else. 

With all of that said, here's what we do.

In kindergarten we start off with Miquon Math and Cuisenaire Rods.  We love the rods!  For those who have never seen them, I'll try to describe them.  The rods are based on centimeters and range from 1cm cube to 10cmX1cmX1cm.  There are 10 different lengths and each length is a different color.  They can be used to add, subtract, multiply, divide and do fractions.  And, of course, a great intro to the metric system.  We start with a book called One Digit Addition and Subtraction using Cuisenaire Rods (which is not a Miquon Math book) and when the child has finished that we move on to Miquon.  Miquon is very hands on and a little outside of the box.  There are 2 books per year and goes through the 3rd grade.  However, I've yet to have a child finish them by the end of the 3rd grade, when the work gets hard we slow down.  We're not in any big hurry to finish the books, I'm more concerned that my children understand the concept and are not intimidated by math. 

For my oldest son, we used several Key To.... curriculums after Miquon.  We did measurement and metric measurement.  Then when he was in the sixth grade he did Saxon 7/6.  He hated it!  I hated it!  But it was supposed to be "the best" so he struggled through it.  And technically it might be the best, but it wasn't for us.  So when he was finished with it, I promptly sold it.  Then he did Key To Decimals.  Now he is using Teaching Textbooks for Algebra and is doing great.  Especially for a kid who has only had 1 year of "real" math!

When my second son finished Miquon, he worked on multiplication and division, facts and form for a while (mainly using stuff off the internet).   I wasn't really sure what he was going to do, but I knew we could not do another year of Saxon.  Then Teaching Textbooks came out with a Math 7 (and now 6 and 5).  So, he's now doing Math 7 with TT.  He's only in 6th grade, but I bought it in Jan.  and thought that if it gets tough he can slow down and take a  year and a half instead of a year to go through the book.  Again he's doing great and he had even less "real" math than his older brother. 

My other 3 are working a various levels of Miquon (our one staple in this whole math journey) and my third son will be finishing it very soon.  What will he do then?  He will probably have a couple of years of just playing with math (like his older brothers did) and begin "real" math in about the 6th grade. 

I know this sounds crazy, but it works for us.  I see that my children understand the why of a problem and are not just memorizing facts.  For instance, by 8yr. old knows that 6x4 means 6 groups of 4 and that is why it equals 24, but she doesn't have 6x4=24 memorized.  I'm okay with that, I think the why is more important than being fast, and the speed will come. 

So, that's our math journey.  Next, I'll share our reading journey, which has been much more stressful. 

Feel free to share your favorite math products in the comments.

Angi

Homeschool things, that is...not "doe, a deer"! 

In my previous posts, I talked about having a vision for your child and your "philosophy of education".    Once these things have been pondered and prayed about it will be easier to find your "favorite things" in homeschooling. 

First, let me say that homeschooling should be a joy not drudgery.  If it is drudgery for you, I want to encourage you to seek God and ask Him to give you joy ~ for only he can give true joy~ and discernment~ what needs to change; curriculum, attitude, schedule.  I'm not trying to imply that homeschooling is easy or should never be hard or even frustrating.  Joy has nothing to do with how hard something is.  Joy is bouyancy amidst the storms  of life.  It's knowing that you're doing what God wants you to do and having the faith that He will take care of the results. 

I have had to learn this lesson the hard way and through this journey I have come across things that have enriched our homeschool experience.  I'll be sharing some of these things over the next few blogs.  These are things that God has lead our family to, that doesn't mean that these are things He wants your family to use.  That's where the discernment also comes in. 

We are very eclectic homeschoolers and very laid back.  I believe that children need lots of time ~ time to explore their world, time to get bored, time to be creative, and time to work.  If they are spending all their time doing paperwork or playing video games, these other things will not happen. 

We like things that we can do together and are good for multi ages, unit studies are a good fit. 

Since we love to read, we love the Five in a Row series!  This is a literature based unit study.  I didn't do much reading as a child and therefore was very overwhelmed when I first started taking my children to the library.  This series gave me the names of some really good books that were age appropriate for my children and even activities to go along with them.  The idea is that you read the same book for five days in a row, hence the name Five in a Row, and each day you focus on a different aspect of the story, maybe geography on Monday, art on Tuesday, character on Wednesday, ect.  We didn't always do this "exactly" the way the authors suggest, we tweaked it to fit our family. 

Other unit studies we love are the Amanda Bennett unit studies.  Most of the units are four weeks long.  There's work for older children and younger children, wonderful read alouds and family projects, great copy work and the price is very nominal.  These studies come on a cd-rom or you can save a few dollars on shipping and order a downloadable ebook from CurrClick .  Some of the titles include Elections, American Government, Gardens, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Pioneers, Scrapbooking, Birthdays, Baseball, Car Racing, Light Houses and Flight. 

There are many other unit studies that can be found online, some are even free, and I've written some for our family to use.  What I really appreciate about Five in a Row and Amanda Bennett's unit studies is that most of the prep work is done for me, all I have to do is get the books and supplies and we can start.  With some studies that I found online and with the ones I wrote, I spent much more time planning than we did learning.  Which led to much frustration for all of us. 

What are some of your favorite unit studies? Feel free to share in the comments.  

Next time we'll talk about math. 

Several people have told me about the Revolution Money Exchange.  It's similar to PayPal, however they don't charge a fee for sending or receiving funds.  If you sign up by April 15th they will credit your account with $25!  For everyone you refer who sets up an account, you will receive an additional $10 (until you reach $500) and they will get $25!  

If you're interested in learning more just click on the Revolution Money Exchange button on the right hand side. 

Since this is the time of year I'm looking for books for next year, the extra $25 will come in handy.  I signed up today and my account was credited $25 so I'm off to see where I can spend that $25 to help with my ever increasing book list!

In my last blog I mentioned that several questions must be answered before we can decide what curriculum is best.  The first question is "What is my vision for my child?"  The second question is "What is my Philosophy of Education?" 

Some may be asking "Do I even have a Philosophy of Education?"  I think everyone has one, but not everyone realizes they have one.  A Philosophy of Education is nothing more that what *I* believe is the *best* way to educate a child.  Do I believe that workbooks and textbooks are the way to go?  Or should education be child directed, meaning that the child learns whatever he is interested in, with very little direction from the parent (lots of support, but little direction)?  Or something in between? 

Traditional schooling is textbook and wokbook based.  Some familiar companies that publish this type of curriculum are Abeka, Bob Jones, Alpha Omega, etc.  This type of curriculum is great for people who are concerned about their children learning the same stuff at the same time as the children in public or private schools.  Or for someone who has just pulled their child out of a traditional school setting and wants something familiar for the child, or is not sure if they are going to homeschool for the long haul.  Terri Maxwell at www.titus2.com has written a great article on the joys of using textbooks in her homeschool.  Click on the "Dad's and Mom's Corners" and scroll down to May 2005. 

There is also Classical Education.  Veritas Press, www.veritaspress.com is a good example of Classical Education.  The Bluedorns have written several books on Classical Education, www.triviumpursuit.com.  This approach utilizes some workbooks, but is based on classical literature, greek/latin (at an early age), logic, etc. This is a great approach for someone who wants a systematic way of homeschooling their child but does not want to use textbooks. 

The Charlotte Mason approach is a "living" approach to education.  Learning is something that is done all the time not just on *school* days.  "Living" books, ie. biographies, complete fiction works (not just a chapter of this book and a chapter of that book),  are used instead of textbooks.  Narration is used instead of worksheets.  Many homeschool books are written using some of Ms. Mason's philosophy.  There's even a free website dedicated to helping those who want to use this approach, www.amblesideonline.com .  This approach works well for those who want to have less distinction between "school" and "life". 

"Unschooling" was coined by John Holt.  With this approach, the parent acts as a supporter and mentor but not a teacher.  When the child is interested in something he is free to explore that area and learn all he can while the parent supplies a rich enviroment for that exploration.  This approach works well for those who provide a rich environment for their child and are okay with the child directing a good portion of their education.  For a great article on unschooling go to http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/earl_stevens.html .

As with all things in life, people don't fit usually fit in nice, neat little catagories for homeschooling.  So there's aslo the Eclectic Approach.  Which means a parent takes what works from these other approaches and throws out what doesn't work.  I think most people are in this catagory.  Maybe we use a workbook or textbook for math, but a CM approach toward history, a classical approach with literature and study Greek and Latin roots and an unschooling approach for art and music.  But next year we might change it all up, maybe we'll take a year off of phonics for that struggling reader even when it doesn't make sense to anyone else but we know that's what we're supposed to do. 

So, what is your Philosophy of Education?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, leave them in the comments.

Next, I'll be blogging about some of my favorite curricula, both past and present. 

Jen over at "Jeneric Jeneralities" is hosting Rosetta Stone Contest and 1 lucky winner will get the newest Rosetta Stone absolutely FREE!  Here's the details:

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

That's the question that most potential or new homeschoolers ask first.  And I'm convinced that its the wrong question, because the answer to this question depends on the answer to many other questions. 

Since this is the time of year that most of us start looking toward and planning the next year and when potential homeschoolers start researching educational opportunities, I thought it would be fun to blog some of my thoughts on choosing curriculum.  This will probably take several blogs.

A better first question is "What is my vision for my child?"  Proverbs 29:18 says, " Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law."  Vision is what keeps us from floundering from on educational philosophy to another or switching curriculums every 6 months. 

Vision is knowing what kind of person we desire our child to be as a adult and willing to do our part to become that person.  I'm not saying that we have the power to determine who our adult children become, that is between them and God, but we do have the power to dramatically influence their lives.  For instance, if I desire my child to have a good work ethic as an adult, then I would not want to allow him to spend hours each day playing with his gameboy or watching tv.  Instead,  I would want to provide projects for him to work on that required diligence and hard work and reserve the gameboy and tv as a treat. 

The vision that my husband and I have for all of our children is that they desire to walk with the Lord for all the days of their lives, that they are fully servicable to the Lord, that they are willing to do whatever God calls them to do, even when its hard.  In order to see this in our children, we must first become that person.  In J.C. Ryle's sermon The Duty of Parents, he quotes John Tillotson "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is the same as pointing out to them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them down the road to hell."   Very sobering!

After vision comes goals - your vision is the ultimate goal, broken down into smaller goals.  These goals should be short term (a year or less), mid range (2-5 yrs) and long term (5-10 years). 

What will you child need to be the person in the vision?  What character traits does he need?  What acedemic skills will he need?  What non-acedemic skills? 

Here's some of the character traits we desire for our children, spiritually strong, a knowledge of God's Word, selfless, generous, merciful, forgiving, have an understanding of biblical submission, have a heart for the lost. 

Here's some of the acedemic skills we desire for our children, love of learning, read well, have a basic understanding math concepts.  These are the basic goals we started out with nine years ago when our first was in kindergarten.  As our children have gotten older we've included being able to write well and speak well. 

Here's some of the non-acedemic skills, be able to keep a home tidy, do laundry, cook a complete meal other than mac and cheese, do basic home repair, basic car maintenance, grow a vegetable garden, live within a budget, and the list goes on and on and gets bigger each year.

Here's the thing, our vision and goals for our children may not necessarily be your vision and goals for your children.  Our vision is based on time that we have spent asking God what He wants for our children.  So,  you can't just take what God has given us and plug it into your family.  You need to spend some time asking God what He has for your family. 

I want to encourage you to spend some time alone and with your husband (or wife if your the husband reading this blog) asking God what He desires for your children.  You might be surprised!

I'd love to hear the vision and goals that others have, so feel free to post those in the comment section. 

Part II will be  " What is my educational philosophy?"

Only by His Grace,

Angi

The other day two of my boys were fussing at each other.  I know its hard to believe that my sweet adorable angels would ever argue, but it does happen occassionally here at our house.   Anyway, the 10 year old was kind of mocking the 13 year old.  I wasn't really paying attention, preferring instead that they work it out on their own. 

Then I hear my older son say, "Do you know what Proverbs 19:25 says?  Because if you did, you wouldn't be acting this way." 

I'm all for using Scripture in our everyday issues, but I wanted my older son to realize that the Scripture applies to him also.  You see, I thought he was quoting Proverbs 21:23, which we loosely translate "Keep your mouth shut and you'll stay out of trouble."   So I say, "Instead of just quoting Scripture, you should put it into action." 

The next thing I know, the 13 yo slapped the 10 yo!  

"What are you doing?"  I asked.   "Puting action to the Word."  He says.  In the meantime, my 10 is crying.  I get him settled down and sent him off and turn my attention to the older boy. 

"Can you quote the Scripture to me?" I ask. 

"Sure, Mom.  It says, ' Strike a mocker and he will learn a lesson, but correct one who is wise and he will gain knowledge.'  And Mom, you're the one who said I should put it into action."  LOL! 

We had a great conversation about what God probably ment in that verse, and it was not that you can hit your brother whenever he mocks you. 

So, what did Mom learn?  Mom learned that her children are growing up and learning many things, including God's Word, on their own.  Mom learned to not assume she knows what a child is thinking.  Mom learned that God wants to teach her so much through her children.  What great lessons...

I had hoped to post some of the crafts we did for Christmas on the blog.  But, we were so busy doing them that I didn't have time to figure out how to put pictures on the blog.  Anyway, here's some of the things we did:

We made homemade gift tags using some old business cards that my mother in law gave us.  A friend came over and we stamped some, used stickers, and even used felt and embroidery floss.  They looked so nice on our gifts.  My daughter (age 7) made ALOT of gift bags out of fabric, so we can use them year after year.  We also went to the newpaper got a unprinted newsprint.  Since we homeschool, they gave it to us for free!  We used this to wrap some gifts. 

We made each of the grandmas and aunts a jewelry set which included a necklace, a bracelet and earrings.  My husband and children made each of the grandpas and uncles (plus a few friends) checker boards out of some scrap wood that they got from a man down the street who was building a house.  They didn't quite turn out like to picture in the Lowe's Wookworker magazine (we decided not to spend $100 on a biscuit joiner) but they turned out really good and they kids had fun making them. 

We also made tamales and read Too Many Tamales, yummmm!! 

We baked LOTS of goodies, including truffles, Reese's peanut butter cup/chocolate chip cookies and melty mints.  We decorated brown paper bags to put the goodies in.  We gave them along with homemade hot chocolate mix to people in our community, like the ladies at the library, the mail lady, the trash collectors, the police dept. and fire and EMT dept and of course, our neighbors. 

Our church put on a live radio broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life.  My husband was several characters and my oldest son helped with production stuff.  It was great!  It was even broadcast on a local country radio station for 2 nights.  The night that we listened to it, they didn't cut it off and go back to their regular programing until after one of our pastors presented the gospel! 

On Christmas Eve, my dad and stepmom came to visit for a few hours, so did my brother.  My sister came and stayed until Christmas night and my husband's brother and his wife also came and stayed until Christmas night.  My husbands parents came on Christmas day and stayed for the day.  It was such a wonderful family time! 

So, now were back to the daily grind!

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Our plans changed at the last minute and we stayed home instead of going to visit my 91 year old Granny.  We're planning on going to see her in a few weeks when we can have her all to ourselves. 

Because we stayed home I had to cook - more than the mashed potatoes that I usually take to my Granny's house!   I had lots of help and we had lots of fun.  On Wednesday evening Gabriel made Cranberry Bread from a recipe from the book Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin.  Its a fun book we read each year and we eat the cranberry bread for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. 

On Thanksgiving Day, Christian got up first thing and made some homemade cranberry sauce with a new recipe he heard about on the radio.  It was very good, we have a little left and I think I'll add some apples and make a cranberry apple pie tomorrow.  After he was done, Carl took the 4 boys to a friend's house.  We have been cow and goat sitting for a few days.  They fed the animals then went exploring in the pastures and found LOTS of scorpions!  Gabriel has been keeping scorpions as pets!  While to guys were gone, Phoebe and I made the stuffing, mashed potatoes, twice baked sweet potatoes, picked green beans, lettuce and spinach from the garden.  Phoebe made the filling for pumpkin pies and I made the crust.  It was amazing how quickly it all went with so much help.  When the guys got back home Carl put the turkey in the oven. 

Carl's parents and his moms sister came that afternoon and stayed until Friday afternoon.  We had so much fun hanging out and playing cards and other games.  My sister and a friend came Friday for the day and it was more of the same fun.  That evening we went to the movies and saw Enchanted, it was really cute - although I doubt my boys will want to see it again. 

On Saturday we took down the fall decorations and painted the livingroom.  I decided that between seasons would be a great time to do this.  The kids spent most of the day playing cards and board games. 

Today we put up the Christmas decorations!  We are making a lot of our gifts this year and so they will slowly begin showing up under the tree.  I'll post some pictures of the things we are making as we finish them. 

We had such a great weekend, we have so much to be thankful for!!

Our church is going through some changes.  Therefore, our family is going through some changes.  My husband is a pastor so this is nothing new, we seem to live in a lifestyle of change, but it is hard none the less. 

In an effort to figure out what is happening, people are talking.  The only problem is, people are talking to others who are just as confused as they are.  People who don't know but want to know.  The snowball of gossip is rolling.  People are worried, concerned, hurt, scared and every other emotion you can think of.  We seem to want a black and white, right and wrong situation so that we can pick sides.  We want someone to be totally right and someone to be totally wrong.  We want to have someone to blame.  We want to understand. We want for everything to be okay.... to be just like it was.  We want to hope.

So I was thinking of Sarah, 1 Peter 3:3-6 is speaking directly to wives, but I believe God is speaking to all believers who need hope.  "For in this way in former times holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands.  Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by fear. " 

Sarah is most remembered as the wife who laughed when God said she would have a baby in her old age.  That doesn't sound like her hope was in God!  But wait, there's more to Sarah's life than that.  In Gen 12 we find Abram and Sarai leaving Ur and following God to a place he hasn't told them yet.  As they go through Egypt, Abram tells Sarai to tell the Pharoah that she's his sister and not his wife.  Why?  Because Sarai was beautiful and Abram was afraid that Pharoah would kill him to take Sarai.  Sarai submits to Abram, God intervenes and Sarai is saved.  Abram doesn't just do this once, he does it twice.  In Gen. 20, after he has been promised a son by God, he tells the King Abimelech that Sarah is his sister (after all they have the same father, just not the same mother) but mentions nothing about her being his wife.  Once again God intervenes and Sarah is saved. 

As a wife, I cannot imagine how hard this was for Sarah.  Abraham was supposed to be her protector and all he could think about was himself.  But Sarah knew something that most of us do not.  And that is that our hope cannot be in man(people), whether that man is our husband, our pastors, elders, deacons, our hope must only be in God.  Then we can do what is right without being frighened by fear.  If I put my hope in man I will be disappointed, because the only perfect man is Jesus Christ.

I know that the leaders of our church will make mistakes, they're human, but more importantly I know that God will do what is right even if mistakes or bad decisions are made.  My hope is in God even when I don't understand. 

I  been thinking about blogging for a long time, and have finally decided to take the time to set it up.  That was my real hesitation, you see I'm a little technically challenged. 

There are times when I have something to say and "have" to tell someone, but I'm not real sure that someone or anyone really wants to hear.  So now I have a "someone" to tell all those crazy things to, like:

I just love my children, they are the absolute best kids in the world.  Yes, we have our moments, but really they are the greatest, just ask me!

I also really love my husband, he is  the greatest husband in the world.  Just ask me!  He is a better husband than I am a wife.  He is a pastor and he actually practices what he preaches about a husband laying down his life for his wife, like Christ did for the church.  WOW!  Can't get much better than that. 

I'm sure I'll post other things that are dear to my heart, like homeschooling, raising the next generation for God's glory, etc. so check back often.