• Dec. 14, 2009 - Craft Corner ~ Christmas
Posted By HomeschoolBlogger Company Blog in
CraftCorner
Christmas is looming closer! If you would like to make a few decorations, or you still need to make a couple more gifts for friends or family, then check out the wonderful links below!
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Owl Garland ~ I'm not really sure what this has to do with Christmas, but I decided to add it, since it is so cute!
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Pine Tree Sachets ~ Make these aromatic trees to give or gifts, or even make a couple to place around your own home!
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Minutia ~ Knitters will love this collection of tiny sweaters ornaments.
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Partridge Ornament ~ This makes me think about Quail more than Partridge, but then, I don't think I've ever actually seen a Partridge...
Homemade Gifts
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Peasant Skirt ~ Every girl will want one of these for Christmas! They shouldn't take too long to make, either.
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Adventure Pouch ~ I think this would be perfect for little boys to carry their treasures around in! Of course, grown-ups might like one too.
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Embroidery ~ Stitch an verse, or inspiring quote, to give to one of your loved ones.
Eyebright enjoys crafts of all kinds, especially knitting and crochet. You can find her blogging at Defective Compositions.
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• Dec. 14, 2009 - Classical Education ~ Christmas
Posted By HomeschoolBlogger Company Blog in
classical
| December is a hard month to continue on with school. With all of the preparation and excitement that comes at this time of year, keeping to a regular routine is hard for our family. Usually, when December hits, we delve far from our regular school path and sprinkle our learning time with more of a Christmas flair. I found the Teaching Mom's Advent website about three years ago and we have been using it ever since for the month of December.
This site has Bible readings, art history and appreciation, history, geography, music, book suggestions and just plain fun. All of these offerings are rooted in Christmas and Advent. The first page gives you a calendar of the Advent season (the site has not been updated since 2008 but it is still usable.) When you click on a day, it gives you a plethora of ideas and readings for that day. Most days revolve around a theme which make us theme-oriented moms happy.
This is an awesome site and it is used to full capacity by our family, year after year. Our Advent season would not be complete without ideas from this Advent site.
Julia lives on the Canadian Prairies with her husband, homeschooling her 3 children (10,8,6) and is attempting to give them a Classical Education. You can read more at her blog. |
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• Dec. 14, 2009 - It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
For some of you it's finally snowing, and for the rest of us the wind is merely blowing, but the Christmas season has begun! The one thing we probably have in common, no matter where we live, is a tight budget. Still, making Christmas special is easy if we focus on the meaning of the season and not the material side of things.
How many of you connect oranges with Christmas? I don't just mean because you read about it in a book, but truly associate the fruit with the season? When I was a girl I spent every Christmas at my Grandma's house. There were two, very simple acts that, to this day, I hunger for oranges and look at brown paper sacks with fondness.
My grandparents had a good friend named Bob White. I only remember his name because I would look at him trying to figure out why his parents would name him after a quail. Every year on the day our family celebrated Christmas he would show up with a large box, full of oranges, nuts, and assorted other goodies. All of us grandchildren would run to the kitchen for an orange and the adults would gather around Mr. White to wish him a Merry Christmas and catch up on family news.
On Sunday the family would go to my grandparents church and after the service was over brown paper sacks would be passed out, each one containing an orange, and chocolate covered nuts, and other Christmas candy--the loose kind, not the individually wrapped sort, because back then people could trust each other and we weren't worried about getting germs because someone had handled our chocolates.
So what does any of this have to do with reason for the season and tight budgets? Just that it was the simple things that I remember, not the extravagances. It was Bob White giving what he knew would be useful to our family. It was a church family not in the least bit concerned with making the wrapping as fancy as the gift itself. Not that oranges and bulk chocolates are all together fancy, but the appearance of the gift wasn't as important as the gift.
Give what you can, give what can be used, give it with your whole heart, and no apologies! If a visit is all you can afford, then give it!
To this day oranges are still an important part of my families Christmas. Someone will buy the box, as Mr. White is no longer with us, and the tradition has moved to eating the oranges late at night, after everything has settled down. We sit around the table happily eating our oranges and talking about Christmas memories. That gift of oranges has lasted a lifetime for me! My children have never even met Mr. White, but they enjoy the gift he brought to our family.
I hope you will enjoy the Porch articles on Christmas this week. Some will help you with your holiday preparations and keeping things simple.
Won't you join us? Tell us about your Christmas memories and tips, either in a comment or leave us a link to your blog post.
Merry Christmas!
Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB |
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• Dec. 13, 2009 - Noah is in Abbeville hospital.
Hello everyone, this is Kate's daughter Hannah Grace. Some of you might have seen the Twitter updates saying that Noah had to go to the hospital on Friday. For those of you who didn't see it, well, Noah woke up on Friday with a fever and a cough. It was high enough for him to go to the hospital, so Mum and Dad took Noah to the Abbeville hospital. The doctors found out that he has strep throat. Noah keeps having fevers and bile is coming out of his G-tube.
Because they are in Abbeville Mum does not have internet access, which is why I am updating for her. Please be praying for Noah, he is really not feeling well. He is not sick enough to have to go to Greenville, but he is still rather sick.
I'll update later with more news.
~Hannah Grace |
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• Dec. 11, 2009 - Planning for Kirsten
Posted By jaminacema
Now that I have my posts written about Josefina I can start thinking about Kirsten! We won't start meeting again for American Girl until January. But, I am determined to have everything planned out and prepped before we start this time!
So here is the plan!
Crafts:
1. Patchwork Pillow
2. Bunny Pincushion
3. Quilted Potholder
4. Yarn Doll
5. chromatrope toy and Geography Notebook Pages
6. Midsummers Wreath
Ongoing craft:
Braided Rugs
Snack:
1. Swedish Meatballs
2. Swedish Crackers with Lingonberry Jam
3. Swedish Rice Porridge (Skansk Grot)
4. Rye Bread and homemade butter. (Have girls make the butter in a jar.)
5. Potato Soup
6. Pepparkakor Cookies
Whew, so there is the plan! Now for the shopping and cutting and prepping. Then I am ready to go!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin |
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• Dec. 10, 2009 - Communication Corner ~ When All Your Family's Not Christian at Christmas
This is one of my very last podcasts before I go off the air in 2010, but it's a very special one! Come join me live as I talk about how we can have a special Christmas with family and communicate in love with our non Christian relatives. It can be a challenge for both sides when not everyone has the same beliefs. Non Christians can feel badgered and Christians can feel like they can't express their beliefs. How can we have a blessed time with relatives this time of year? Effective Communication skills! Come join me for some tips and share your experiences today: 8am PST/11am EST http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19736
Tips are based upon my study, Say What You Mean: Defending the Faith. Check it out here.
Can't make it live? We hope to be able to keep uploading our audios after the show, so come live if you can!
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• Dec. 10, 2009 - American Girl Club Josefina Weeks 4, 5 and 6
Posted By jaminacema
The hard part about trying to post about the last 3 weeks of Josefina 6 weeks after we finished the study is I CAN'T REMEMBER what we did! LOL I have been SO busy with unpacking, homeschooling, Thanksgiving and Christmas I just keep putting off posting about the end of Josefina. So I finally went back and flipped through the pictures I took and this is what it looks like we did the last 3 weeks of club! I am not going to try to put it all in order. It's all just too blurry!
There was one activity we did that I know the girls really liked. I think it's in book 4 where they take the blankets they have woven to the market and sell them. I wanted the girls to get an idea what it was like to have to trade on the barter system. So I brought a bunch off odd things to represent other things and had them trade. We broke the girls up into 4 groups. One group had paper cups that represented sheep. One group had paper napkins that represented blankets. One group had a mix of things. Mirrors, jewelry, crafts. (Whatever I had in my craft cupboard!) and the last group had money. The girls had to go around and trade with each other and try to get a good "deal". They had to decide how many blankets a sheep was worth and how many craft items were worth a blanket. Etc. The object was to end up with something from each group. After the finished we talked about their experience. Was it easier for the group that had money? (I had gotten some BIG coins at the dollar store designed to be hung on a schoolroom wall.) How did they decide the value of the different items? It was interesting to see their thoughts and hear their ideas.
The crafts we did for the last 3 weeks of Josefina were:
coiled pots, whisk brooms and memory books We also made geography notebooks and weavings.
Coiled Pot
 These are made with air dry clay. Super simple. Just make coils and roll them into a pot! These were lots of fun. I also provided glass beads for the girls to decorate their pots with.
Whisk Broom
 For this craft I cut up the larger brooms I got at the dollar store to make the smaller ones! LOL Our finished brooms were the type of brooms (right side) that Josefina would have used not only to sweep the floor but to comb her hair too! The girls had fun combing each others hair when they finished these.
Memory Book
 In one of the books when Josefina's aunt comes to visit she tells them about the memory book she keeps to help her remember their mama who died a year earlier. To make our book we used brown craft paper for the cover. The girls colored a picture on it and then we crumpled them up to make them look old. We folded over white paper for the inside and held it all together with yarn.
Here are the girls coloring their memory books.
The Geography Notebooks are something we did the same night we made the brooms.
 Since the brooms took about 2 minutes to make we had extra time. So I printed out a map to mark where Josefina lived and then some worksheets about New Mexico. We will add pages for each of the girls as we study them.
Weaving was an ongoing project we worked on a little every night. Not only did the girls work on their cardboard weavings, but I also had a small lap loom for them to try out.
My daughter giving the lap loom a try.
The lap loom was a hit!
The girls had a lot of fun with the cardboard weavings too.
My daughters finished project now hangs proudly in our new schoolroom!
So that is what I remember about Josefina! LOL I have learned my lesson for sure, I have to blog as I go! If only there was more time in the day!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
To read all my American Girl posts click HERE.
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• Dec. 9, 2009 - Homeschooling Through High School ~ The Beginning of Wisdom (Part 1 of 2)
This morning I received an e-newsletter from CollegePlus!, in which an article by Lauren Bleser titled, "A Teacher Learns the Truth About Education," was shared. Ms. Bleser's opening paragraph reads,
In 2002, I graduated with my Master’s degree as a reading specialist after having finished a teaching degree from the State University of New York at Oneonta. I was fast on my way to a full and busy career in the public school system when I was caught off guard by a homeschooling parent who asked if I could explain God’s mind on education. I had never really considered that before, always taking it for granted that we simply go through the system, memorize the information required, and graduate. This challenging question led me on a quest that changed the course of my life.
Bless that homeschooling parent, whomever he or she was...what a question! It is one that every homeschooling parent should ponder. Can you explain God's mind on education? God's mind can be an intimidating thing to probe. And yet, He desires us to do just that...by diving into the Scriptures.
My feeling is that by the time we are homeschooling high school, we have probably begun to study Bible in school! So I'll not be offering advice on Bible curricula. What the Lord has laid upon my heart to share, rather, is the "mindset" of studying Bible in our homeschool high school.
We are preparing our young adults, at this point in their lives, for independence. In case you haven't taken a good, long, focused look at the world out there lately, you really ought to. I'll warn you...it isn't pretty. I know--I spend one hour a day, 4 days a week sitting in my local community college cafe or study lounge while waiting for my 16 year old son's German class to finish. I do not have the "gift" of being able to simply "tune out" people's conversations. I'm verbal. I listen, whether I want to or not. Words do not escape me. The standard fare of conversation around me is typically what I would call "disgusting." Often times the spiritual darkness that lives and thrives in this place feels stifling, oppressive, suffocating. This time of week, I push myself to write this blog in the midst of the chatter. Other days, I sit in front of my computer, or walk the halls, simply praying. But I digress...
The point of that paragraph was just to say that our young men and women, our high school students, need to have the FULL ARMOR OF GOD (Eph. 6:10-18) to protect them out there. To bring us back to today's blog topic, I'll ask you a few questions, and you can decide whether or not you'd like to ponder them with me! Here you go:
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Is your study of "Bible" in your homeschool viewed or treated by your student as a subject he must study and check off the "to do" list, just as history and math are?
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Are you studying the Bible with a curriculum workbook that has them reading articles which explain the Bible to them, or tell them what the passages mean? Are questions given in such a way that much of the answer is already given, with just a few "fill-in-the-blanks" required?
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Is the time your student spends studying "Bible" going hand-in-hand with their history course?
None of these things are bad in and of themselves...it is vitally important that our students understand the Bible's role as a source of true history. BUT...do they develop a hunger for and love of God's Word in our young people? Do they bring about the things that our young adults are going to need in order to survive their first steps into independence--spiritual maturity, wisdom, and a consistent and close walk in obedience to Jesus Christ?
So, what is God's mind regarding education? Here are a few passages to consider:
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)
"And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:28)
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever." (Psalm 111:10)
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7)
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
We'll end here for today, and continue next week. May God bless you and your homeschool this week!
Lori
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• Dec. 9, 2009 - Taming the Chaos ~ Bible Time in Busy Seasons
Posted By HomeschoolBlogger Company Blog in
tamingchaos
Some of us all are or nothing types, but there are areas where we learn that sometimes doing things part way is better than not doing anything at all.
Food is one such area. Our bodies need nourishment. Ideally, I love serving wholesome, home cooked meals with time to fellowship together and linger, enjoying our dinner and family time. In certain seasons, however, we might need to compromise the ideal, and we learn that a drive-through or instant is better than going without food entirely.
Just as we must fuel our physical bodies--we need spiritual fuel. Perhaps you've gotten out of the habit of having time in scripture yourself, or in providing Bible time for the children. Here, I'd suggest that something is better than nothing. Perhaps this week you aren't making time for an hour of Bible study and digging deeply into a passage. If you are reading this article, you could take time to read a single verse or chapter and reflect on it through the day. Consider it like you would a drive-in or microwave meal. It might not be the best to deeply nourish for the long-haul, but far better than going without food entirely!
We are "snacking" a bit here in my home this season. We knew it would be hard to fit in our usual advent devotions, so we've scaled back and will be spreading out a 12 days of Christmas devotional; using it through the whole advent season. It isn't what I'd choose for every year, and is more of a snack than a four-course meal we crave, but it would have been worse to lose that time entirely just because we can't be as thorough as we have other years.
There are seasons where I can delve deeply in my scripture time, and times when just grabbing a few verses "on the go" is all my tired mind can grasp.
Through this busy season, incorporate scripture into your home. Perhaps a Bible on MP3 or compact disks would be a great family gift if you are van-schoolers or planning to be on the go. Perhaps simply reading a few verses in the morning and leaving your Bible open on your bed to "snack" through the day will help you dwell on Christ.
With our hearts centered and focused above, we can better make order out of the chaos around us.
Domestic Chaos Tamer and Homeschool Mom of Five, Dell writes about home, heart and hearth.
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• Dec. 10, 2009 - Games for Happy Birthday Jesus Party
Posted By jaminacema
Here are the games we will be playing at our Happy Birthday Jesus party on Friday!
Bingo...
 I made custom cards here: http://print-bingo.com
Top Game
 This one I printed out here: http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/freeChristmasLesson.html
To play you pass the top around the circle, each person taking a turn spinning it. When it is your turn to spin you get to pick up the word that the top stops on. The object to to get all 4 words...CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL. I printed out the Bible verse to remind them that Immanuel means "God with us." The first person to get all 4 words yells out GOD WITH US!
We have 40 kids signed up for the party. So we will have them in 4 groups of 10. They will travel through 4 stations. At two stations they will make ornaments and at two they will play a game.
We are looking forward to it! This is a fun way to remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season!"
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin |
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