I had the wonderful opportunity to go hear our legislative liaison speak to a group of homeschoolers this week.  Treon spoke on the situation in CA., and covered our homeschool statute and we had a great question and answer time.  But the most important part of this meeting was that God was glorified.  He was not just mentioned lightly, but He was invoked.  He was lifted up, quoted and was the first and foremost reason that we were all at the meeting.  We have chosen to do what we believe the Lord has told us to do; homeschool our children.  And we have Him as our "superintendent." 

Treon read some things to us out of a book called (I think) "Lies Homeschool Moms and Dads Believe."  I plan to look that up real quick here. It was hilarious!  But oh, so true.  We can get so caught up in those lies, and the what-ifs and the fear factor of homeschooling.  But Fear is the absence of Faith.  We can't run our lives by fearing, we can only live by Faith. 

  We might not be able to see the future, but God knows.

One of the wonderful things Treon said was "Our homeschools take on the personality of our families."  Boy, isn't that the truth? 

 We are unique. 

 We are a one of a kind. 

 We are different than any other family on this earth. 

Each one of us is unique, and all aspects of our homeschool are unique. 

 So why do we try to fit into someone else's idea of what we should be doing?  We have to answer to God, not the neighbor or relative or pastor or whoever, who might be questioning our motives and methods. 

We have to remember that God has a plan and a purpose for our children.  We need to allow God to be God.  We don't have to prove anything to anybody!  We must let God direct our homeschooling.  He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. 

If you are feeling forsaken and discouraged, then you must remember that those feelings are from the enemy.  You must be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in ALL things, and to some of us, homeschooling IS all things.

Homeschooling parents, get behind those who fight for your rights at the state level.  Join www.parentalrights.org and get behind those who are fighting for you at the national level.  When things all around us seem to be against us, remember this:

 2 Cornithians 5:7.

Have a blessed week!

Nancy

p.s. Tomorrow is the day we are picking winners for Tammy Cardwell's eBook, "The Homeschool That Handles the Hard Times."  Get over to our blogs and comment so you can get in on the contest!

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In this article, you'll learn how to use your audial students' strengths to assist them in absorbing a foreign language.

Getting Started - Audial learners do a great job listening, but they also have to speak to truly absorb! Be sure that everything they read, they read aloud, and every song they hear, the sing along. Writing is a good method too, but be sure they are speaking as they write. Any time the target language is encountered, be sure to ask, "What words did you hear?" After listening to a song, be sure to ask your student to perform it (if that's something they enjoy.)

Moving Forward - As your student picks up more songs, and vocabulary from songs and listening to CD's, watching DVD's, and listening to books, add in activities like reading aloud, or describing a picture or landscape. Be sure to pick a picture that has vocabulary from a recent lesson - or have your student draw a picture, and then describe it to you. For older students using texts, simply have them answer questions in Spanish, German, or French. Scripted conversations are a great way to begin, and then the student will be able to add and personalize answers by changing a few words, but the basic grammar structure will stay the same.

Keep on Keeping On - After a year of study or more, your student will be retaining as much as he or she is practicing. Add in movies in the target language (withOUT subtitles! No crutches please!) Begin with familiar movies, even ones they basically have memorized in English. Choose the target language in the DVD language menu, and have him tell you at least three or four words or phrases they learned. They may need to keep a log as they watch. Watch a second time and they can repeat the word as soon as they hear it. Be sure to only tackle a "chapter" at a time. Too much truly taxes the brain and causes us to tune out the foreign words, a habit we NEVER want to begin.

Any time you feel you've hit a wall, or feel like you're in a rut, play the opposite game - or a matching game, or twenty questions in the car! Scale it back a notch by CHOOSING the words you'd like to use in a game. Spend twenty minutes reading them, and then see, how many do you have in your short term memory. Audial learners usually have a  skill for picking up languages, so harness this talent and gift, and be sure to not squelch by requiring too much written work. Be ready to LISTEN!

If you're looking... for something to facilitate your student's foreign language study, be sure to post a comment, and I'll give you suggestions for your age range, or a review if I've already tried out something that you're thinking of.

Suzanne Gose (known by her students as Señora Gose) is a homeschooling mother of almost five children - baby number five is due this July.  A former public school teacher, she currently teaches over 80 homeschooling students in weekly Spanish classes at Key Curriculum in Bryan, Texas. She is also the author of the Flip Flop Spanish Workbooks and other language teaching tools. You can see them at www.flipfloplearning.com  and in the Schoolhouse Store.

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                I can remember my first son going through this “spurt towards manhood” as I like to refer to it.  It seemed like it happened overnight.  It seemed to me that one week I was chiding him for not speaking or singing loudly enough in his role as Charlie Brown in the musical “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” and the next week we knew why he was not able to speak or sing as loudly as I thought necessary.  I honestly thought he just wasn’t trying and truly didn’t believe him when he said his voice felt weak.  It never even crossed my mind that his voice might be changing.  MY little boy turning into a man already…it couldn’t be!  However, only ONE week after completing the musical, his voice fell through the floor and the voice that came out of his mouth sounded like a bass trombone.  I even thought there was an intruder in the house one morning after my husband had already left for work….only to find out it was my son’s voice that I was hearing downstairs.

                Along with all the physical changes, comes the observation that our “young men” are truly trying to become independent, trying to assert themselves, to begin to make their own decisions, to form their own opinions, and to make much of what we have tried to teach them, their OWN set of beliefs and convictions.  This process is exciting, but it can also be a little nerve wracking as we realize that we can’t really “control” them like we had in the past. Yes, we are still the parents and yes, they should respect and obey us….but oh, my goodness, in some cases, they are towering over us as their mothers, and sometimes we can feel as if we have now become the children and THEY are the adults. (at least in a physical sense)  

                   It can be difficult as a mom knowing how to handle the ever expanding desire of our sons to “rule and conquer” the world.  It’s a challenge to know how to balance that attribute with their responsibilities and the respectfulness needed within a family, especially toward their mothers.  Some of the qualities that sons are exhibiting during this “spurt toward manhood” are God’s way of enabling them to develop into the type of man that can lead their families and be providers.  Yet, as we know, there must be a balance between that and the parameters in which they must exist within our families.  However, I have to admit that as I have observed over the years, I have seen moms of boys, more often than not, err on the side of thwarting their son’s sense of independence and need for assertion rather than moms learning how to properly deal with this need within their sons and even learning to nurture it within the parameters of family. 

                As your son enters the beginnings of manhood, I would highly recommend a couple of books for you to read.  One of those books is, “Becoming a Modern Day Knight”   and the other is “Bringing Up Boys” by Dr. James Dobson.  These books contain wisdom and practical applications that will help you as a mom understand this transition more easily and understand ways in which to help your son during this process.  In the meantime, spend some time as a couple talking about areas in which you can allow your son some independence and even leadership within the parameters of your family.  Help direct your son towards involvement in things that will allow him to develop and stretch his leadership skills.  Find areas in which he can prove to himself that he is growing towards independence and self-reliance.  However, most importantly direct him towards continuing to develop his own personal relationship and communication with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Ultimately, his relationship with Christ will be the deciding factor in your son becoming the man that God intends for him to be. 

                Faith and Courage,

                Lori Lane 

Lori is married to the love of her life John and together they have four sons ranging in age from 22 down to 10.  She is the author of “Beginning With The End In Mind”, a frequent speaker on home education, family and the arts, as well as serving as the Executive Director of Master’s Academy of Fine Arts and Artios Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts.  You can see some of the pictures of their home in the central Colorado Rockies by visiting Lori’s website at www.theendinmind.net where you will receive encouragement for the journey.

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Hi. I’m new to this blog but not to homeschooling. I started back in 1985. My oldest son graduated in 1998 and my youngest in 2003.

By my second year of homeschooling, I was headlong into helping others get started. For the past ten years, I’ve talked with about 400 new homeschoolers a year, and I can tell you the face of homeschooling is changing – and so is the face of public schooling.

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the stories and experiences I’ve had helping “newbies.”

In the early days, and even up till just five years ago, most calls came from parents with young children – people who were thinking carefully about the upbringing of their little ones before getting too far into the job.

Today, almost all my calls come from desperate parents entangled with the public school system. I always wish they’d called earlier, because once you find yourself doing battle with guidance counselors, principals and social services, you’re basically between a rock and a hard place. Getting out of the situation is not always as easy as simply not sending a child back to school and starting to homeschool.

Two weeks ago, a mom called with a two-child problem. Her ninth grade daughter had turned from a sweet girl who was close to her parents into an angry monster who screamed and swore at mom and dad and wouldn’t tell them what was wrong.

The mom finally took the girl to a therapist and the wise man told her to get her daughter out of school before she killed herself. It turned out she was being dragged into the restroom by other girls nearly every day and threatened in all manner of unrepeatable ways. The mom called me to find out how to homeschool, but the girl had already been out of school for a couple of weeks and had returned to her happy and secure self.

This mom also had a fourth grade son who had been in special-ed reading since first grade. He read well at home but not at school. Among other things, the mom was told she should not allow her son to read books about science at home because “they’re above his level and not on our reading list,” and he was chided for bringing pretend gems to school for Show & Tell from a faux archeological dig his family had gone on because the subject and some of the vocabulary necessary for telling about his experience was “above the heads of the other children.”

I’ve listened to thousands of similar stories. These are not exceptions. They happened in what is considered a good school district. It’s extremely important for homeschoolers to remain aware of what’s going on in public schools, because all too many feel tempted to use them as a solution when things get tough.

I believe we must face the fact that state schools are not an option for our children. They are increasingly centers of not only godlessness but outright abuse. We would never choose a child abuser as a sitter for our children then try to reform him even as we leave our children in his care. We would not consider it an option – period. The same goes for public schools. We must free ourselves of all mental and emotional dependence on them. Some good people may work in them, but good people work in prisons, too.

More stories next week.

Tammy Drennan has homeschooled and helped others start homeschooling for 23 years. Her web sites and blogs include: www.homeschoolstarter.com  and www.educationconversation.wordpress.com.

Comments

May. 10, 2008 - Hi

Posted by rainstar13

Hi I like your blog! Everything I've read defently is based on a biblical point of view and I love reading your posts. Could you please add me as a friend?

May. 12, 2008 - Thank you

Posted by JacqueDixonSoulRestES

for bringing this experience here before our eyes. There is a lot of fighting the HWTB team of homeschool moms on our opinions and experiences, because, well, they are just our own, and many do not deem that reputable enough.
Yours are your own, but also those of so many other parents who feel trapped, and I am thankful you are bringing it out here and leading these parents to a road and plan of freedom to educate and help their children become themselves.
A homeschool mom and I were just talking yesterday. We met on HSB and are both the parents of high school age girls who blog, and she mentioned that she was just so surprised at how blogging had changed her girls lives. They can be themselves and are blogging what they have learned, and it is opening them up to a new world of becoming who God has created them to be. The girls are so darling and talented and considerate.
There are so many opportunities for our children to grow and be blessed and be real people. Thank you for being there for so many. I pray that God blesses you greatly for it!

I also want to wish a very Happy Mother's Day to some of mostest-favoritest-moms in the whole world!! I love you all, Gena and the HWTB team!!
You are all a blessing to not just me, but our entire family, and I love you all!!
((HUGS from Indiana!!))
J

May. 12, 2008 - Thank you...

Posted by Buckeyeblog

...Jacque...for your sweet, kind words. Right back at 'cha, Sweetie!! ;-)

...Tammy...for being one more voice concerning what is REALLY going on in public schools and the problems that parents share with homeschoolers. On May 20th I will wrap up 11 years as our county's homeschool coordinator and I, too, have heard all those heart-wrenching stories about what students (AND PARENTS) go through -- NOT just from other students -- BUT from teachers, "advisors," principals, superintendents and other administrators!

And, like you, I have also noticed a SHARP increase of parents taking older students out of ps, and at anytime during the year. It used to be that the bigger influx of "I want to take my kid(s) out of ps NOW!" calls came during Christmas break (or "Winter Break" in ps). NOW...they come at a fairly steady clip ALL YEAR LONG. I JUST had a mom of a 9th grader start homeschooling last week! Last year I had a mom start homeschooling with 3 weeks to go in her district and another mom called to take her son out with ONE WEEK to go in her district!!

Public schools are so far 'gone' and they will NEVER be the same. They are NOT the place for children to be - especially Christian children. DO NOT fall for the lie that Christian children need to be in the public school to evanelize...God NEVER sent children to evanalize...NEVER. SEND CHRISTIAN TEACHERS but NOT kids!! And then PRAY for those teachers.

But bring your children HOME WHERE THEY BELONG!! What about socialization? HOME is where good...REAL...socialization happens! I don't see that public school socialzation is very successful. But I CAN see that my children...and nearly every homeschooled child I've known IS successfully socialized, mannerly, polite, well educated, happy, engaged...I could go on and on. I CAN see that people such as Winston Churchill, General Patten, General McArthur; Presidents Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman; Ansel Adams, Charles, Dickens, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and the Founding Fathers certainly seemed to be well educated...at home...and well socialized.

Let the proof be in the pudding. I've got all the proof I need when I see the sadness, anger and hopelessness of the public school kids walking around the malls contrasted by the happy, mentally healthy, hope-filled, motivated homeschool kids that we know. WHAT A CONTRAST!! I've got all the proof I need when I hear tearful parents calling me about how to start homeschooling NOW because their child has been beaten up in the locker room for the 4th time and the school won't do anything about it...AGAIN. It's self-expression and their child just happens to be the canvas! I don't hear about that nonsense going on with homeschoolers around here. Do you?

Oh, the stories we could tell! Bring them HOME WHERE THEY BELONG!!

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

May. 12, 2008 - Thanks

Posted by mpnauthor

I appreciate the comments people have shared. Like Kim, I also get calls from parents pulling children out of school with only a month or even weeks to go in the year. I've also gotten calls from teachers and from quite a few social workers -- a couple wanting to know how teens in group homes or detention centers might homeschool themselves. A significant number of calls from teens, too. There are so many sad situations out there -- so many children and families suffering. Homeschooling offers these people hope, but it also creates a challenge for the homeschooling community. The more troubled young people who enter the ranks, the more criticism we'll face -- accusations of homeschoolers in trouble with the law or exhibiting social or moral dysfunction, as well as a dilution of the test scores so many hold so dear. It's a challenge we'll have to embrace.

Tammy Drennan

- Home Where They Belong

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Physical Science can be intimidating to parents and students alike.  Parents sometimes feel they have to have a strong background in science to even begin teaching it to their children.  Don't let that happen to you!  Science is fun and science is everywhere!  Watching the weather together, watching a pot of water boil, even watching an ice cube melt.  It's all science and we see and experience it everyday.  You don't have to rush to the nearest college to brush up on your chemistry or spend hours pouring over books from the library trying to figure out the four different states of matter, the three different parts of an atom, or how to read the Periodic table! 

All you need is a cup of water to conduct a simple experiment about matter with your child.  Have your child pour the water into the cup and explain that the water is in the liquid state of matter.  next, have your child place the cup of water into the freezer and wait for it to freeze.  When you have ice, take it out of the freezer and touch it...this is water in the solid state of matter.  Leave the ice out and wait for it to melt.  When it is back to the liquid form, place a couple drops out on the counter and leave it there to evaporate.  When the drops have evaporated, the water has turned into a vapor or gas state of matter. 

The amazing thing about matter is that it can change from one state or phase to another simply by adding or taking away energy!  Talk to your child about hwat made the water turn to ice and what made it melt again and eventually evaporate.  Your first science experiment...fun, easy, and it didn't take a master's degree in science to teach! 

Katie Kubesh is co-owner and writer/researcher for In the Hands of a Child.  Recognizing that hands-on projects are essential to the learning experience, In the Hands of a Child has created Project Packs that go beyond the hands-on aspect.   They have taken the preparation time out of the parent/teacher job description with Complete Ready to Assemble Lapbook-style units that are available in Ebook, Printed Book, and CD formats.    Please visit their website at www.handsofachild.com.

©2008 Katie Kubesh

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Are UFOs out of control in your home? If your house is like mine, perhaps sometimes you glimpse an Unidentified Flying Object out of the corner of your eye–some new motorized helicopter, paper airplane, or other airborne objects.

I won’t try to tell you how to rid your home of flying things. Instead, we will look at another kind of UFO: Un-Finished Objects.

Yes, those partially done cross-stitches lurking in the work-basket are UFOs. Perhaps you have a dress fabric cut out, but have yet to introduce the fabric to the sewing machine. Did you leave off spring cleaning with only half the windows washed? Is the new shelf, purchased for your laundry room, still sitting unopened in the depths of the coat closet?  

Perhaps some of your UFOs are homeschool related–I know I have all of  last quarter’s work to file in my children’s binders, and there is an art curriculum that sits on the shelf begging to be used.

Some UFOs are even relational. In my case, there’s a few friends I’ve been meaning to call or email, but fail to make the time.

This week, target a few specific UFOs to eradicate

I'll share my list for the week:

• File work and catch up on entering our last few weeks of school in Home School Tracker
• Write a letter to my friend.
• Sew up the petticoat that’s been cut for a year
• Do something with a bag of cherries in the freezer that has outlived its welcome
• Tackle the mending (the ominous mending)
• And, my fun UFO: Finish compiling our book inventory with  Library Thing

Go forth and eradicate some Un-Finished Objects!

Domestic Chaos Tamer and Homeschool Mom of Five, Dell  writes about home, heart and hearth.

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My heart is broken for this family.  Dixie Cajun's husband was killed in a terrible accident.

Other family members have blogs here at HSB as well. LivingfortheKing, ryansgirl, dixiebeauty,  and dixiefiddler. 

Please keep this family in your prayers. 

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

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The craft project I just finished is a tile mosaic table top.  It was something I’d wanted to do for a long time and finally had the opportunity when this particular table was given to me by a cousin.  The green color scheme on the table didn’t work with anything else we had so I decided to try my hand at doing the tile work. 

I browsed through the idea books that I could find at the library and got the basic tips I needed to make my ideas workable.  Here is the list of equipment that you will need for this project. 

MATERIALS NEEDED 

Table or other flat surface
Sharpie marker
Design idea
Wall tiles in your choice of colors
Hammer
Newspapers
Mastic (tile adhesive)
Grout mix kit in your choice of color
Rubber grouting trowel
Tile nippers 

First give the surface you will be covering a good cleaning and allow to dry completely.  Take your marker and draw the design you want to make.  Since this was my first project, I chose to go with only two colors and a bold/large design.  For this design, I took a small salad plate upside down on the table and drew around it in four places.  I then took the marker and drew wavy lines going from edge to edge to make it look like loops of ribbon.

The tile will need to be broken and that is why you must choose the thinner wall tiles versus the thicker floor tiles.  I was surprised by the lack of color choices available at my local Lowe’s and Home Depot stores, just the white, black and cream/natural colors were carried.  I already had the blue tiles as we removed them from the counter backsplash in the kitchen during a recent remodel project in there.  The amount of tiles you will need will be determined by the size of the surface you plan to cover.  Since most tiles measure 4” x 4”, you can take a measurement of your table and see about how many would cover it if you left them intact.  You may end up with a few more than you need, but that’s better than not enough.  Begin by laying the tile in-between several layers of newspapers then smack with a hammer a few times to get it broken then dump them into a box that is large enough to easily sort through the pieces.  Use one box for each color tile.

Start with the main design by merely laying the tiles on the table until you like the way they fit together.  Leave small gaps between the tiles for the grout, then adhere these pieces first using the mastic and some sort of spatula; I used a large popsicle/craft stick.  After you get the main part done, start with the remaining ones.  I started with the tiles in the middle of the circles the worked around them like I was outlining them.  After you are happy with so many, adhere them with mastic and keep working with the rest.  After doing the outline then I started around the edge of the table.  Once all the tile was used that had been broken with the hammer you’ll need to use the tile nippers to get the pieces in just the right size and shape to fill in all the little gaps.

Let all this dry for about 24 hours or whatever it says on the mastic container.  Look over the tile and make sure no mastic is sticking up over the tiles and not mastic is smeared on the tops of any.  It’s easy to clean up and easier when it is totally dry.  Mix up the grout according to the manufactures directions, the kit should come with everything you need except for the rubber trowel.  I actually forgot to buy that trowel and used the fake credit cards that come in the junk mail and they worked wonderfully and just tossed when finished.  Do this in a well ventilated place, and wear the gloves that come in the kit.  Also, since the tile is now in smaller pieces, plan on using about 3 times the amount of grout the container says you will need for a wall the same size.  After you’ve applied the grout, let set for 20 to 30 minutes then using the kit’s sponge, and a bucket of water mixed with a splash of vinegar, use some elbow grease and get the grout off the top of the tiles before it dries hard as cement. 

That’s it, you now have a finished mosaic tile table top that you did yourself!   

My name is Dianna and we’ve been homeschooling for 4 years and we have 3 wonderful children.  You can check out my blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/maxwellacademy.  Leave me a message and let me know what you think of this craft project.  I promise to post some that are not as labor intensive, but I’m actually pretty proud of this project and wanted to share it with you.

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This is the first article for learning and teaching a foreign language while paying attention to learning styles. We all know that children learn differently from one another, and differently from the way we learn very often. (Which is frustrating, isn’t it?) So paying attention to learning styles will help you to overcome fear and barriers while tackling the daunting task of teaching a foreign language. This week will be for all those visual learners.

Getting Started – Use pictures and the target language concurrently. One thing new speakers get stuck in is translating in their heads. If a student can learn a word based on a picture, rather than a written word, this is a way to overcome and train the brain to think in the target language, rather than taking the extra step of translation. For an introduction to the language, Rosetta Stone software implements this truth to a very high degree. (Though it lacks in other areas, it's great in this way!)

Moving Forward – As your student picks up more vocabulary from flash cards or books, or just text books even, add in games of Pictionary, Memory (only use the cards you know he knows), charades, and puzzles. Add a time issue to it - can he do it faster and faster? The anxiety that comes from trying to think in German or French or Spanish quickly is similar to the anxious feeling we get when trying to communicate. PRACTICE overcoming that anxiety to become proficient in the language!

Keep on Keeping On - After a year of study or more, it will become difficult for your student to break out of wanting to SEE the words, or see a picture with the words, unfortunately, this is not the way we communicate in the real world. So, ease yourselves out of the comfort zone by choosing the Language track on a favorite DVD movie (cartoons work best, so the dubbing isn’t as distracting) in the target language. Tarzan is GREAT in Spanish, as is Peter Pan. Beauty and the Beast takes on a whole new feel in French! Lovely!

Any time you hit a wall, or find yourself in rote translation mode, stop and draw something, or pull out the picture flash cards again, or just describe pictures in books or commercials, or as your drive through the city. If you get stuck, write down the English word and look it up when you get home. Stick that list back in the car for easy access next time you practice your lessons on the way to the grocery store.

Beware of - Music CD’s and Speaking tracks are NOT helpful for this type of student. If that’s all you have, be sure to hand him the transcript to read along for at least the first session. Learn in Your Car Spanish will simply overwhelm and frustrate, while DVD’s of learning lessons like Muzzy or Spanish Champs might work better. Finally, be careful to require your student to speak. Though that’s not his “learning style,” he still has to use the language! So be sure he can read, and see, as well as speak, repeat, and understand. A learning style is a method of absorption, not a crutch to keep you inside your comfort zone of speaking English only.

And remember - the KEY to truly learning a language is MOTIVATION!

Señora Gose
Flip n Flop Learning LLC
senoragose@verizon.net

Find Great language learning resources here!
www.flipfloplearning.com

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You will need a few supplies for notebooking.  I have created a list for you to use as a guide.  **Remember: you can be as creative as you like.**

I will put the shopping list as a PDF you can download so that you can bring it with you while you shop.  Just click below.

Notebooking Shopping List

Notebooks or Binders—We have used both.  The clear cover binder will allow you to make your own personalized cover pages.  Checkout places like Sam’s Club or Costco for some of your list items.  Sometimes (NOT always) they will have the best bulk price.

Plastic Sheet Protectors—These are splendid for binder!!  It protects the childrens hard work from tears or smudges.  I buy these in bulk for I use them for my home keeping book and numerous other projects I have going.

Paper—for binders.  You can choose any type you like.  The variety is ENDLESS.  Colored paper, construction paper, card stock, printer paper.

Scissors—ALL kinds!  The fancy edge scissors make a nice presentation for pictures.

Pens and pencils—ALL types!!  Highlighters, color pencils, markers, gel pens, glitter pens.  The assortment is INFINTE.

Camera—Any style.  This is NOT a must.  If you do have one let me encourage you to use it.  A digital is great for you can insert your pictures right into your word document for easy printing and creating.

Glue and Tape

Stickers—Stickers can add a little “panache” to your creation.

Rubbers Stamps—These are great fun to use.

**TIP:  I like to purchase the hard back book journals and sketch books at Border’s Book Store for special projects.  They cost around $5-7.  They make an impressive presentation.

**TIP2:  Take a look in the scrapbooking section of the craft store.  There are TONS of items to help you create “outside the box” notebooks!!

Happy Homeschooling,

Lisa Golda

Lisa Golda lives in Texas with her husband Tom and their 2 daughters Katie and Maryanna.  She has homeschooled for over 10 years, creating notebooking pages and ”how to’s”.

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