I have no real title for this entry, once again I have let months slide by without keeping up on this wonderful blog. Please do take the time to read through old entries if you are here visiting. You may have found me through my book with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC ("Dreams and Designs") or through my daughter's book "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" --either way, I hope you will take the time to get to know me a bit.

I am looking for thoughts on reaching young people about purity. I've begun work on a possible article about purity and the call to fathers in giving away their daughters. We have survived the wedding of our oldest, and it was a glorious day. She was simply beautiful and their love for each other really did radiate from them and encompassed the entire ceremony. We could not be happier.

I am thankful for her innocence and their excitement in looking toward their honeymoon--it is sadly so rare today. In this society it is almost expected that young women would be promiscuous. It is as if it is "a given" that virgins no longer exist, that it is too difficult to stay pure until marriage, and that it really isn't worth it to do so. Isn't that just sad? And it is so terribly wrong.

My savior, Jesus Christ, is truly amazing and a miracle worker. My God can forgive all things, but this does not mean that we can afford to teach our children impurity is acceptable on any level, or that they can err in this area and then simply seek repentance. So how do we keep them on the straight and narrow? Our 2G18 is another young woman I am praying desperately will make the right decisions and remain pure until her wedding night. And then our next three children are all boys. I want to know there will be young women out there for them, who find it valuable to retain their virginity and sense of innocence until married.

I would love to hear your thoughts on purity. How can fathers teach their daughters to remain pure until the moment they give them to their groom? What should we be doing as mothers to be an example to our daughters and other young women of purity and modesty? How do we teach our sons and daughters to seek innocence in others when seeking a partner for life? And what influence can we have on the friends of our children to help them stay focused on keeping themselves until marriage?

I'd love to hear from you!

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

If you are just visiting for the first time and have found my blog through my book, "Dreams & Designs" from The Old Schoolhouse, WELCOME!! Please drop me a comment so I know you stopped by and feel free to browse my entries. If you haven't seen the book, and would like to learn more about it, check it out here:  Dreams and Designs: Homemade Supplies to Complement Your Homeschool (http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=334_425&products_id=12024)

I apologize for my absence from blogging, it is an incredibly busy time for our family. We are in the midst, and now only weeks away, from the wedding of our oldest child. It is a time of wonderful memories, and a bit of intrepidation as I let go of my first baby...and of course, she'll always be my baby.

At 22, 1G22, will marry a young man of 25, who is already serving his country in the service, and currently completing his degree in Aerospace Engineering, just like her. They have much in common while being really fantastic individuals and make a truly wonderful couple. I am praying for God to bless their union, as I am sure you will join with me in praying for as well.

We continue work on book two in her series and you can still check out book one on her site (www.jessicalynncampos.com) or at amazon under the title "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of It All" or her name. The editing process is slow as we are certainly more focused on her wedding right now. We've also put on a few activities at her site if you go and check out the "Book One" tab and find at the top of that page "Available Activities Corresponding to Book One." I'd really love any opinions about the activities. I hope to work out an entire little unit study of some sort, I just don't have the time right now. But soon.

Homeschooling is forging ahead and 3B10 continues his work with reading. My Reading Coach continues to be a tremendous blessing for him, I don't know what I would have done had we not reviewed that program. He still complains at times, but then, some days I can't blame him. A lot of learning is work for him, I don't know if it is the autism or just him, but it is work. We make it as fun as possible and the Workbox system continues to yield wonderful blessings in that area as well. I can hardly believe 2G17 begins her final year next month officially. They truly do grow up too fast.

We began mounting 3B10's artwork for "grading" by other family members and his drawing is improving. I wasn't sure how well he would take to the idea, but he jumped on it, and has taken to heart the tips and advice offered by his older sisters. Anyone can do the same using sticky notes at the bottom or around a picture with whatever grading scale suits their family. The activity really does depend on the child because I would never use it with a child not interested in the idea, then you might do more harm than good, and we'd never want that. But for him, it is working wonders. He just posts a new picture and lets everyone know, or when we notice it we'll "grade" it appropriately, and then he checks out his grade. He has even gone to some of us to ask why we graded a particular way, wanting to know how he could improve, which was a HUGE thing for him. Having any consideration about what other people think of his work, or anything else for that matter, is one of the big drawbacks with autism, these kids just don't have it--they very literally couldn't care less. But this has really drawn him out as he has discovered that he can make improvements by considering other people's opinions. A new thing!! And a really great way to introduce it.

As usual, 2G17 is remaining very busy with summer activities. This year she has worked as a counselor at a camp for the middle schoolers in her youth group, has attended for the second time a leadership training camp, and just last week was out for the standard week long summer camp with her youth group. We have missed her as at times I feel she is just a blur I watch run in and out of the house!! We also enjoy quite a few evenings with all of the kids over at our house to watch movies, which I really love! It is nice to know they have a safe place to go and hang out together, and I really appreciate that they feel comfortable in our home. Stocking pizza rolls, taquitos and popcorn probably hasn't hurt either. ;-)

Wedding plans are crazy! We are so close now, less than three weeks. We are knocking out the little annoying details at this point. Decorations for the reception, plans for a bridal shower this weekend, going through her things to determine what she wants to keep/give away/or have us store indefinitely for her. I am so thankful we really do have the space to do so, I only wish we were more organized about it. And my mind seems to be reeling almost constantly. There really are so many aspects to a wedding. And my 2G17 is busily making plans for her "some day" ceremony and all that she may want to have take place. I pray God brings her the right young man in His time, and that he will be a wonderful leader for his family.

I will post our curriculum plans after the wedding has passed and life quiets down again. For now, things are good. 4B4 is into everything and will begin more little activities this year. 5B2 is as adorable as ever and really does think he is "all that and a bag of chips" and regularly cracks us up. And as I said, 3B10 continues to work through his schoolwork fairly well and is enjoying summer afternoons in the little blow up pool their uncle gave them last year. We are blessed this summer, I hope that you are too!

Tell me what you are up to??? I'd really love to hear it.

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

Recently we reviewed a fantastic product called "Sue Patrick's Workbox System" for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC. You can find it at her website, www.workboxsystem.com. This is an awesome product that helps you organize your school day while placing more responsibility on your children to complete their assignments and activities. Please go to the site and check it out, buy the book, and consider using this, it is really awesome!! Since I am actually writing this blog about changes we made to the idea, you need to have a good rundown of the system as it is designed to better understand the changes we made, so please check out her site FIRST.

Part of the concept is about having boxes for the various assignments on a shoe rack, each filled with a particular activity. All activities are "listed" on a handy little strip with velcro to hold handy little numbers to direct your child to the numbered boxes and complete their assignments. This motivates children beautifully because of their desire to clean up the shelf, it is highly rewarding to watch the boxes be cleared out, and the more full boxes be set aside as completed when containing larger items.

The problem we ran into is that one of the things that bothers my son, who functions on the autism spectrum, is disorganization or any mess in his workspace. So we had to make some creative adjustments to the system in order to make it work for him. Add to that, the system uses numbered cards to mark the various boxes for work, along with a strip to place corresponding cards on to guide the student through their day. This is reminiscient of PECS (picture exchange communication system) for us and so we decided to run with that idea because it works very well for our son. SOO, rather than shoe boxes, we converted to a plastic seven drawer system from Walmart for $20. We chose the one with the four small drawers and three larger ones so that we could fit more games and things in the bottom ones and workbooks, reading books, etc. in the top ones. I still use the system base idea, having ALL of the items necessary for each assignment in each drawer, which at times means having pencils in every drawer, scissors or glue in several, etc.

Because we already had PECS for many games and things, we have placed a Picture of a particular game on the strip as an assignment, numbers are used for the drawers, and since the instruction strip provides up to sixteen assignments/activities for a day, we can still be completing that many activities while only using the neat seven drawers for some of them. And some things on the strip may be "lunch" or play in the yard, etc. His assignment strip includes game pictures (he knows to find them at the kitchen table where we complete activity center work), pictures of various work locations for our homeschool (I took pics or pulled them off of Google images of our write on wipe off board, pocket chart, computer programs, even the wii fit jogging program to fulfill Sue Patrick's running on days when the weather is bad.). These pictures are what we place on his instruction strip and he knows where to go, along with the numbered strips for a particular drawer in his stand. This kept things neat, gave me space to place bulkier items because most things do fit into the larger drawers when necessary, allowed us plenty of activities to still list on his assignment strip, and has fulfilled his need for neatness in the process. It also gave me the ability to roll his cart out of the way when not in use, even to another room when we have company, which is awesome!

And his responsibility level? Wow, it has improved greatly!!! I wholeheartedly recommend this book and the system. And I would definitely purchase the support materials because it will make your job so much easier when you first get started. We mounted the matching velcro to the drawers for both the numbers and the "Work with Mom" PECS and have also expanded our PECS offering to everything I could possibly categorize in our home school. I actually found a pocket chart for 100s made up of 100 two inch squares that hold the PECS perfectly and is awesome for me when planning because I just look over the items we have for school and pick what he needs to work on, then I record it on Sue Patrick's scheduling sheets to track what we have been doing. Awesome system!! Seriously. And you don't have to do what we did and make a bunch of PECS for all of your items for school, but we had many PECS already and they just slid right into this system beautifully. And of course, he loves the little pictures of his many activities!

I will try to get pictures on here soon of exactly what we had done. But I encourage you to try this product, if the boxes hold you back, give it some thought. This is the best thing we have ever done for our home school and for the independence of our children to handle their own work load. And I haven't even touched on the tremendous help it provided for me as I schedule our days. I use Sue Patrick's Workbox System right along with my high school daughter's schedule to make sure that my one on one time is scheduled perfectly for each child. This system allows me to easily see when my son will need me and when to schedule independent work for him while I work with my older daughter. If you put your mind to it and really read her book and understand the concept, try it as suggested for a while, and then adjust it to work best for your family. We have found a very happy medium with this and thank Sue Patrick for a tremendous product for homeschoolers. She took many ideas and trial and error and rolled it into a truly usable and helpful way to organize our days successfully!!

Pictures to follow below, check it all out!

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

As you can see, we place the numbers for each drawer down the left side, I placed velcro in the center of the drawer for the "Work with Mom" card when necessary, and just for clarification the right side has a PEC of the activity or work inside. Drawer number one contains our Awana workbook, pencils, and scripture memory. Drawer number three is hard to see, but it has his handwriting work for cursive inside of it, along with sharpened pencils and paper. And drawer number six, actually has supplies for lapbooking. I know it is hard to see, but I used a picture of kids holding a completed lapbook in demonstration for the PEC.

Here is an example of a few assignments for the day on the velcro strip you can purchase through www.workboxsystem.com. It is awesome! First is a reading assignment, set up on the couch and he would know this. Second is computer work with a program on disk, third is drawer #2 in 'our system' of drawers, and fourth is a Write on/Wipe Off activity that I have set up for him and he knows where to go for that. The second strip continues his work with a game of chess using an educational chess curriculum, drawer #3 in 'our system', running time on the Wii fit (and yes that is a screen shot from Google Images) and last is drawer #6 of 'our system' with a lapbooking project.

As you can see, below is a 100s chart we utilize for storage of our PECS. It is actually placed on our upright freezer using heavy duty magnets, you can see the little circle magnets in some of the pockets.

As he  completes his assignments, we splurged and purchased a multi level business card holder that he places his PECS in for everything he has completed. Notice, on the front of this holder I placed velcro to hold his "I need help" cards. If he needs extra help he has to give one of these to me, which he hates to do. As the program explains, this helps the student become more responsible. The first day he still had all four of his helps left he was so excited!!! He had completed all assignments without extra help. This does not mean I do not help him or teach throughout the day. Some activities come with "work with mom" for the assignment and we go through all of the assignments at the start of the day, because he needs that anyway. But he has stayed on track and worked beautifully using this system.

As you can see, if you read up on Sue Patrick's Workbox System, she tells you that you can adjust it as necessary AFTER YOU TRY IT AS PRESCRIBED!! I think most children will work very well as the system is designed, we simply had a personal issue over the design and had to adjust it accordingly. This was our adjustment and it has worked well for our family. Your family may come up with another way that will work perfectly for your family.

CHECK IT ALL OUT at www.workboxsystem.com for Sue Patrick's Workbox System and all support materials. I strongly encourage you to purchase the additional physical support materials as they will make set up so much quicker and easier!!

Copyright 2009 Donna Campos

End of school year, approaching vacation, and wedding plans, have ALL been keeping me very busy. I miss keeping up on blogging better.

Around here things are good. Everyone is growing so quickly. The big boys (Dad and 3B10) had birthdays at the start of the month and now we have the little boys (4B4 and 5B2) this weekend. Time does go by too quickly.

Our oldest will be married in August, so plans have begun in earnest for the big event. Very exciting. Her fiance is a really wonderful young man, we really like him. Planning for her has brought back wonderful memories of our first days as a married couple. We may have to plan a second honeymoon soon, just to relish the memories.

Our second child is busy completing her junior year of high school, although we school year round I am blocking out more of a summer this year. She will need it with the many church youth group events she has coming. School will continue for 3B10, more because of his needs than for any other reason. We continue using "My Reading Coach" and are thoroughly thrilled with it. I want him to continue through the summer and not miss a beat with it. Otherwise, I hope to enjoy some swimming and relaxing and a lot of read alouds.

Reviews are going along well enough, I am still completely in love with the job and The Old Schoolhouse magazine! I hope to get an ebook out soon, but we'll see whether or not I can actually hold up to the experts...I'm still thinking it may not turn out well enough. Anyway, I am enjoying the effort and hoping to help a few others with some good ideas. I have failed to keep up on blogging well enough to regularly encourage others, this could me the next best thing.

1G21 is still writing and we are still hopeful to complete editing on book two of her series very soon. Wedding plans may throw a bit of a wrench in our efforts, there is only so much time in a day. You can still find her at her website (www.jessicalynncampos.com) and the book received a wonderful review from a TOS Reviewer. You may look it up by book title "The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark; Book One: The Dawn of It All" on the TOS site top left under Resources and then Product Reviews, in the books section. Take a moment to check out some of the other books that have been reviewed, you'll find some great information.

Home stuff is going well, I've been painting and finally got the kitchen done. Next is the boys bathroom, which is actually the master bathroom. Then I hope to take off some doors this summer and sand and repaint them smoothly. The previous owners textured everything in our house: doors, frames, outlets, didn't matter. Very annoying now. So I am slowly trying to rectify the problem, but it will take years!

So do you have big summer plans? How are things at your home? I'd love to hear from you!!

It is official, I am slacking on my blog writing. I can hardly believe so much time is going by so quickly. I must admit, part of the problem is the discovery of Facebook, which has taken a bit of my time. Overall, the excuse must come down to family, which makes the excuse tolerable for me, since family does come first.

Things in our home continue to go along well. We are staying incredibly busy with schoolwork and reviews for products with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC. Everyone is well overall, hubby still has a job and is working very hard to take care of all of us. And we are looking forward to the end of the school year bringing good closure to assignments and reorganizing things for summer schoolwork since we school year round.

Since I have become rather sluggish in my writing, I think I will try to put on a few pictures, perhaps this will keep a few of my loyal readers happy while I continue juggling life commitments that are keeping me away from this wonderful blog.

I hope each of you are enjoying a good year and I would still love to hear from you. Hugs!!

Before I know it, two weeks will already be gone for this new year! Where is time flying to? It seems we are constantly accomplishing quite a bit, but I am missing the moments of slow down and really need to find a few quiet moments for myself.

Our New Year has brought a straightened and sorted storage room, which excites me very much. We actually spent a week of vacation cleaning and sorting the basement, which has included really digging through a mess of a storage room. Previously, we could hardly walk into the room, and I certainly didn't know where much of anything was in all of the mess. After hauling literally loads and loads of junk to the garbage, we have a newly organized junk room. It is still a junk room, unfinished, and filled with storage, but it is a straightened junk room. I was stunned at the amount of cardboard we had been storing. Boxes for computer parts. Boxes for baby strollers. Boxes for car seats. Boxes for toys. Ridiculous. I really have no clue why I felt the need to save such things, but they are now gone. I just had to keep the ones that we rotate through, things like playpens and swings and such still have their little cardboard houses to return to when not in use, but all of the rest is GONE!! I'm so glad.

School is going along well enough. 2G17 and I are filling extra class time with whatever books or bible studies interest us. It has been so fantastic to work through some classes more quickly, spending additional hours on an area just because we became more interested! The joys of homeschooling! She is going to join me in Genesis of a Legacy soon. And I am thrilled to have us both wander the house and grab whatever book interests us to sit down and read together. Our discussions have grown tremendously over the years and I treasure these moments.

3B9 is learning all the time and surprises us regularly. He is quickly testing into his grade level and managing subject matter that has been causing heartache for him for far too long. It is true that unschooling and natural homeschooling and all of the other things people call it when you let children have some freedom to grow, expand in their own right, and learn from their own interests--children learn quite well on their own. Now, don't get me wrong, we have been using curriculum like crazy, but I had come to understand that he needs to learn things from about a million different angles and ways (or methods and styles), but he is learning. I am so proud of him.

Before I know it 4B3 and 5B20months will officially enter our S.T.A.R. Academy. (Shooting The Arrows Righteously Academy Home School) They are both growing up so quickly. It seems that at any given moment and time of day, they are either giggling together, or fighting. Toddler/Preschool boys, what a treasure. And I really do mean that. They cause me days of grays, but the wiggles and giggles easily overtake the stress and make up for any mess. I love my little boys, they crack me up.

The oldest is staying incredibly busy juggling her book writing along with continuing school. Summer of 2010 both girls will be graduating; one from high school and one from college. Wow, time flies. Her website is still going along and she has fairly regular hits, which is good. You can still check out her book at www.jessicalynncampos.com. Or on Amazon, search her name or pull up "The Risen, he Chosen, and the Dark: The Dawn of it All" and you'll find her. She will graduate with a double major of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Religous Studies.

And my honey and I? Well, we are staying busy just keeping it all going. I am determined to finally get some weight off before it completely destroys my health. And he is diligently working his job, particularly as it seems more and more people are hitting difficult times finding employment. Our small business is moving along and we hope to send out a mass email in the near future to inform family and friends of our "extra job" that has been keeping us extra busy. Good days. And it is tax time, so we'll need to make time to get all of that done, such a joy.

So, what marks the new year for you and your family??? How is your school year going? Share!!

Is an ObamaNation an Abomination?

As an historic inauguration approaches, I am making my first ever political blog entry; brace yourselves. I have heard so many comments and opinions throughout this voting year, many have saddened me as they reveal the limited amount of information utilized by people as they voted this year. I have heard from people who voted for Obama on the basis of skin color alone, and from those who did not vote for Obama only because of his skin color. Others voted for Obama because they were against a woman being on a ticket. Still others, in their honesty, voted democrat because “that is what their parents did.” The fact is, people voted, and Obama has been voted in as our incoming President.

My heart is sickened because not all people voted according to the issues. As a Christian nation, it is time that we stop living the 90/10 rule so often ruling most of our churches where 90% of the people “live” with whatever is done by the other 10% who step up and perform jobs and do whatever is necessary. More of us should be doing our part in our local churches all the way up to our government. Perhaps there would be fewer of us complaining if more of us stepped up and educated ourselves as to the issues. God calls us to value life. We should place a President, and all other politicians, who care about the sanctity of life on all levels, from the unborn, to the long lived. Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone, (Isaiah 44:24) God calls us to marriage between a man and a woman. And the LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:22-25) We should hold that sacred union as a most valued institution. Adultery, homosexuality, and all other sexual sins should shock us, not blend into the background as if they are a necessary and accepted part of life. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders (1 Corinthians 6:9) Poor business practices should make businesses fail, we should be placing politicians into office who believe the nation’s money belongs to the people, who will take the weighty decisions they make seriously while understanding the long term ramifications for our children and grandchildren. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (Colossians 3:23-24) Terrorism should end, and people should not so easily forget the attacks on our nation only a few short years ago, for as history is forgotten, it will surely be repeated.  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.(Romans 13:1) Our military servicemen should be honored, and surely, our Commander-in-Chief should have served before commanding. These are only a few of the many, many issues involved in our recent election process, voters should know where candidates truly stand, and then vote on the side of God, not skin color or any other non-issue. We are of one race, the human race, created by a heavenly Father who has provided rules to live by for all of us. We should vote according to God’s standards, not those of man. Above all else, after the voting is over, as Christians, we should begin praying for our leadership, regardless of our personal vote. Prayer still changes things, perhaps when God’s people pray, HE will bring about change!

An Abomination is a Christian nation who has drifted from Godly laws, that fails to vote, and when they do, fails to vote with Christian principles. In prayer, let us call to God for strength and change, may the change Barack Obama consistently called for throughout his campaign become the very tool God uses to guide our next President to God Himself for guidance. I pray Barack Obama will take us back to the nation we were designed to be, that God can use him, as He has used many other leaders throughout HIStory. God’s people should pray. The Bible has been called God’s letter to His people, we are truly one letter away from becoming an OsamaNation today. That letter, is the Bible. An ObamaNation might as well be an OsamaNation when we allow ourselves to drift from being the Godly nation of our forefathers. I would much rather be in a Biblical nation, than a Sinful nation. Will you pray? Pray that we all return to God’s Word for His guidance, not the Koran, not to our inner selves, not to any other religion or intelligent designer, but to God…we are His nation, a nation of Christian believers, may we turn our political powers back over to God? Begin to pray, today.

(I have not written this blog entry in any way to entice discussion, arouse anger, or bring about any party debate. This was written to remind us all that God can, and will, move mountains. If only His people will change their ways, and return to Him. I pray we begin today.)

I will add that Barack Obama is married, has two children, and presents himself to be a positive, loving family man. And beyond all of the facts, opinions, and hype in one direction or the other by the news and individuals, he is a child of God. And in every case, none of us are any better, none but Christ Himself. Barack Obama CAN be used by God, he CAN change his mind, and He CAN grow closer in his relationship to Christ before and during this presidency. Those who spend time believing that our nation is somehow doomed by the placement of any particular President are saying that God is no longer in the business of making miracles!

I pray the start of your New Year brings many blessings to your home!!