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As homeschooling moms, we have many roles we perform. We teach the children or facilitate learning. We take care of the housework and oversee the children as they complete their chores, and many of us must find a way to stretch one income, as we do not bring in money ourselves. Personally, I work part-time, but sporadically, not bringing in much money but not having to be apart from my children while I do it, either. My husband is self-employed so every little bit helps. I am always on the lookout for money-saving strategies and great deals at the stores, and I love to share what I discover with others. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has published a new e-book, “Living and Learning on One Income: How Twelve Families Make it Work.” True to its title, the e-book has twelve first-hand stories from homeschooling families all over the United States, and one in South Africa! There are many, many wonderful ideas to be gleaned from this publication. I enjoyed the friendly tone of most of the writers. I appreciated that these families opened themselves up to share with the world. Their vulnerability was quite refreshing. Also, recipes were shared freely in this e-book, which I always love to read. I will try some of them very soon! I do have some complaints though, which may not bother most readers like they did me. First, the book has a lot of repetition because it is 12 individual stories. I believe this could have worked better if the editor compiled the ideas into chapters on topics such as “saving money at the grocery store,” “homemade savings,” and “eliminating debt.” Then, each family’s ideas could have been put into the corresponding chapter, instead of hearing the same topic over and over again. Second, there were grammatical and formatting issues that bothered me as a former editor for a newspaper. Again, it just may bother me, but if I am going to pay for a book, I would not want to have to read improper use of subjective pronoun when it should be objective, run-on sentences, and so on. This e-book wasn’t as much of a “how-to” guide as I would have liked. Some of the families have no debt, including a mortgage, and I am really happy for them. However, that is not the case for my family—or most families that I know personally-- and so the advice offered by those families “after the fact” was not as helpful to me as the practical “this-is-how-you-can-save-money” tips I got from other families. As I reviewed this product, I am not aware of its price. Families on one income need to be mindful of which items will really help them. If this e-book is priced at $10 or less, then I would consider buying it. |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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Homeschool Mothers do a lot in a day…. I’d say they do more than the working mom because they have to care for the kids, the house, the meals, and much more. They are constantly on the go and with the kids! Sometimes you just need a break. You need to sit down and have a break.
This week I’d like to invite you to share what YOUR “Mom” help is. Some drink coffee, soda, or chai-tea. Others check email or read their favorite blogs. Some talk a walk…. what do you do when you need to clear your head and take a breather? Chai Tea lattes-- especially when I had the time (and money!) to go to Panera and relax with one in a big mug. Currently, it's checking emails or playing a computer game on WebKinz (LOL). Or putting on a CD I like (or playing something from I-tunes).
Please share a Scripture that gives you a “mom” help when you’re spirit is feeling overwhelmed.
Psalm 62:5-7 we are currently memorizing together (though they have it down better than I do): "I will find my rest in God alone. He is the One who gives me hope. He alone is my rock. He is the One who saves me. He is like a fort to me. I will always be secure." NIrV (After studying this verse, my 5 yr old daughter drew a picture of God and Jesus as forts-- which looked like tents-- and I think that is pretty cute!)
To check out what other moms do, go here. |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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Homeschoolers are very resourceful people. They use what they have and use them to their best ability. I know in our home many times people ask us how we use this or that for learning, and we are happy to explain it’s value. I think the main thing that a lot of people miss is that life is learning, and you must use everything in your home for learning otherwise you won’t fully be prepared.
This week I want to invite you to share what different games you use for learning in your homeschool. Outside games, board games, or card games, and what purpose or subject you use them for.
We LOVE LOVE LOVE games in our family. All of us. We use file folder games, board games (favorites are Sorry, Alpha-Bug Soup, Sequence, Monopoly, Herd your Horses, The Amazing Labyrinth, checkers, chess, Zingo!, Jump Horse!, Yahtzee!, Chinese Checkers...), card games (playing cards, Snap-it-up word games, go fish, old maid, etc), computer games... whatever we can do! Want to read others' favorite games? Go here. |
Posted in contests
This is a great new site with free games to print out and share with each other! I just printed out Acorn Addition and Subtraction and can't wait to use them with the kids. Better yet, there are prizes for those of you who go check it out now!!! So what are you waiting for? Click on the graphic! |
Posted in contests
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Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter's first horse! Oh, and she's not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You'll see photos from the 50's through the 80's. But, you'll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane. Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It's all about the fall and winter holidays - mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first - for FREE ($12.45 value)! Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their Fall Special. If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you'll get Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready 6 Bonus gifts 12 months of Teacher's Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE! This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!! CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE NOW!  |
Posted in contests
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I am hoping to be 1 of 15 winners for |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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This week I’d like to invite you to share your favorite field-trip that you’ve been able to go on since you’ve started homeschool. I’d encourage you to include photos, but you don’t have to. Yay for field trips! We have had so many since we travel to Renaissance Faires (my husband is a performer). I think one of my favorites was Dinosaur World in Kentucky, on our way home from Tennessee. Here is the post all about it (with lots of pictures!!). We also enjoy children's museums, science museums and zoos for local field trips. We have been to the Rockford Discovery Museum, Burpee Museum, Betty Brinn Children's Museum, Adler Planetarium, Kohl Children's Musueum, DuPage Children's Museum, Brookfield Zoo, Milwaukee Zoo, Racine Zoological Gardens, Museum of Science and Industry... all within an hour or two's drive-- And many (not all) of them for FREE because of the wonderful museum membership we bought from the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Ohio-- which, ironically enough, we've yet to visit!! Check it out here. I am so grateful another homeschooling mom told me about it so I want to share it with you! For just $100 for the year, a family (two adults and ALL the children in their household age 17and under ) get admission to the Boonshoft Museum, and reciprocal benefits for children's museums, science museums and zoos (see lists on links). With Christmas around the corner, I know this is a GREAT gift for the whole family-- and to aid in homeschooling too!! So if Grandma and Grandpa are asking for something, maybe you'll want to tell them about this. Just a thought. Hope this helps someone! To see others' field trips, go here. |
Posted in photos
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Yesterday afternoon Jesse was up in the kids' bedroom, working on a magic trick (he got a kit from the store and was reading the directions and practicing, so I wanted to give him time to do it). Ana wanted to be with him but I told her to give him some time alone. So she drew pictures. Then she wrote this: DeR Jesse (backwards J, which adds to the cuteness of it all) I WiL Mis you AT LaiN CLAs (Latin class, which Jesse takes at our homeschool co-op-- Ana has storytime) But i WiL see you At JiM (backwards J again) CLAs (they are in a gym class together) Love ANA  |
Posted in photos
I went and saw New Kids on the Block (NKTOB) Wednesday evening. Here's a picture with a couple of the ladies who went too. I'm in the middle, in the blue shirt-- And those are all my shirts; I have 5!)  I went to Milwaukee with 4 friends from church. I have not had this much fun in a very long time. As I said, I relived my early teen years and it was great. The guys are still great performers. Now my kids are getting into the classic songs. My daughter asks to listen to "Step By Step" and my son sings "The right stuff." LOL! |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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The Homeschool Buyer Co-op is a free homeschooling organization for both new and veteran homeschoolers. Co-op membership is free and confidential, and entitles homeschooling families to discounts from over a hundred educational suppliers. They also sponsor "Group Buys" for curriculum packages that save homerschooling families lots of money. On the site you'll find lots of free information, such as databases of free curriculum, field trips, and educational contests and scholarships. I especially enjoy the free newsletter which has "ClickSchooling Reviews" by Diane Flynn Keith Highly recommended. Click here for more information. |
Posted in contests
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"Discount Home School Supplies is giving away two DVD's this week. You can win a copy of The Nature of God in Nature: Hawaii and The Nature of God in Nature: Lake District. Read more about these DVD's on Tami's Blog. " She will leave the contest open until next Monday night (October 13) at 10:00 pm EST. The contest is open to residents of the United States. |
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They actually suspended a 12-yr-old boy for having a mohawk. Give me a break. Glad my kids are free to wear their hair however they want (with my husband's and my approval-- the authority figures who actually matter!). |
Posted in ideas in action
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For our monthly HOUSE meeting, the kids were supposed to do a report of some sort on a president of the US. My son (7) did Presidents and Movies. My daughter (5) did Presidents and Horses. We made them into basic lapbooks and I posted photos here. Lapbook Lessons is a great site to check out if you like to do lapbooks! (Even basic ones like us! LOL!) |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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This week share your favourite spot to study with your kids. There are many places you can sit down to teach, learn, and work, but where do you prefer and why? You’re welcome to include a photo of your study spot! Looking forward to seeing everyone’s! I don't have a favorite spot, though we do enjoy sitting in the "reading corner" of our living room, near some shelves.
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Posted in photos
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This weekend we are in Indianapolis for a Renaissance Faire. (see side link for my husband's business!) It was beautiful weather and I'll post my own pictures once we're home. But the kids and my hubby were in FOUR photos featured on this site for the Indy Star newspaper! Yay! Check them out! The last one is especially cute, as it shows the kids on stage at the end of the show (I rarely get pictures of that so it's fun to have this one!). |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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There are so many different kinds of snack foods, store-bought and homemade, and I would like to invite you to share what snack foods your family usually snacks on throughout the week. You’re welcome to make season lists too. I know there are different meals we eat during the colder seasons than we do in the warmer ones, and I imagine there are also seasonal snack foods as well.
YUM! I love to snack. What are our favorite snacks during the day? String cheese, yogurt, granola bars, peanut butter and apple, peanut butter and crackers, chex mix (homemade cereal mix or original), pretzels, fruit snacks, fruit roll ups, lemon-poppyseed muffins, grapes, bananas or any other fresh seasonal fruit. Nothing special, just whatever was on a super deal so we have it in the house! LOL To read other's snack favorites, go here. |
Posted in photos
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Friday we went up to Milwaukee for the day because a friend, Katie, emailed me to let me know she'd be at Betty Brinn Children's Museum with the children's theatre group she works with to put on a little show and play some improv games. I've been wanting to check that museum out with the kids, so this was a good excuse. We didn't have anything else planned for the day so we headed up north. The first problem was the GPS in my husband's car didn't know that the exits were a little different! *sigh* Thankfully, it was able to recalculate the route and get us there-- but finding the parking garage was difficult. So, we ended up on the street right across from the museum, and I had to go out and feed the meter every 2 hours. *sigh* The kids LOVED the museum! Lots of new and different exhibits to play and learn....  A giant Harley to play with! The kids loved it!  They also spent most of their time in the TV studio, doing the news! Jesse really got into it, making up stories, first about Michael Phelps and the Olympics, then the weather (he's in the rain, see the TV screen which shows the background-- wonderfully like the real thing with a green screen!).     Ana honed her mechanic skills, replacing a muffler at the car repair shop, changing the tires, looking under the hood.     In the arts section of the museum, the kids tried their hands at conducting an orchestra. A video screen shows an orchestra playing one of three preprogrammed songs, including "Star Wars Medley" by John Williams and "Stars and Stripes Forever." A wand has sensors in it or something so the orchestra follows the child's lead; their speed depends on how fast or slow the wand is moved! I tried it too. It was fun! Jesse got VERY into the "Star Wars Medley" (big surprise, I know! LOL!). Ana wanted a turn as well.  "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to JE productions," Jesse announced as he and Ana put on a play of a leprechaun and a cheetah.  Fun with art! (see them at the foot of the sculpture?)  We only had one really bad experience at the museum, and it wasn't the museum's fault. We put our lunch bags in the coat room, not in a locker because, hey, who's going to steal a lunch bag? We came back for lunch and Ana's Disney Princess lunch bag WITH HER NAME ON IT was gone! Mine and Jesse's were still there. WHAT THE HECK?! We looked around the museum in case some little kid picked it up and just left it somewhere. Couldn't find it. Gave my info to the front desk people and then went outside to do battle with the wasps (I mean, eat lunch). Poor Ana had nothing to eat really, being as picky as she is. I had her yogurt, but she wouldn't eat it without the granola and chocolate chips that were in her lunchbag. So she ate half a bag of Sunchips and then I bought her a bag of Cheese-Its at the gift shop and she at those. We played more, as you can see by the pictures, but I felt so violated. Why would a parent allow her child to take someone else's bag? This is a VERY SMALL museum. Her name was on the bag. There was no mistaking it for your own. Hello?! We were there for Katie's play, which was not what she hoped due to two of her students not making it there in time to perform. Then she played some games with whichever kids would go on the stage. Jesse and Ana did, of course, but there was really only one other boy who did, and not as enthusiastically as my kids (but then again, look at their dad!). As we were getting ready to go out and enjoy dinner of Noodles and Company with Katie, the museum person found me-- they had found the lunchbag! It was in the bathroom (EW!) and FOOD WAS MISSING FROM IT! Since it was her princess bag, I brought it home and wiped it down with Clorox wipes. How bizzare! The granola for her yogurt, a bag of Sunchips, a lemonade flavor packet for water and three granola bars were missing! They left her waterbottle and the chocolate chips. I can't make ANY sense of this, can you? As for homeschool that day, I wrote down a list of subjects they studied: journalism, math (in the bank and grocery store), mechanics/problem solving, physics, drama, music, art, science (nutrition in the body works section), social studies... What fun! |
Posted in Homeschool Memoirs
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We started our summer at the Dubuque Renaissance Faire. I love this photo of Jesse with his arm around his sister. Then my hubby and I attended the Illinois Christian Home Educators Convention. Here I am with Steve Demme (Math-U-See). I went to three of his sessions—and learned a lot of math! Hopefully I will be able to teach it to my kids when the time comes.
My son turned 7 and celebrated with a Lego-themed party (my sister made the cake!). At the end of June we hosted a Backyard Bible Adventure, a vacation Bible school in my backyard! We attended a very patriotic Fourth of July parade. Ana stood and watched, waving her flag as shown here, for most of the parade. Here she is practicing to be a defensive linebacker, as coached by Grandpa in a backyard scrimmage. (She is so like her mommy!)   Jesse went to sports camp (no pictures), and Ana had a one-day dance camp. This is apparently a “High School Musical” jump. Here Ana met a real Iditarod racer and one of her sled dogs!   The spray park— One place we kept cool this summer! Jesse dressed as “Magic Boy” for his Christian Youth Theatre (CYT) camp’s Create-your-own-Super-Hero day.   Ana loved her CYT camp teacher. Jesse, Ana and I exhibited a lot of stuff at the county fair.   A fun time making money at a lemonade stand! Here we are enjoying a beautiful day at Milwaukee Zoo, one of 3 zoos we visited this summer.   Enjoying our family pool pass to the local pool.   USA! USA! We cheered Michael Phelps and the other Olympians on to gold this summer. The kids and I spent an afternoon with our good friends at Hurricane Harbor, the waterpark at Great America.   Wrapping up the summer, my mom’s family had its first reunion in over 18 years—and the first I ever attended. This is just my mom’s father’s family. There were 13 other siblings’ families represented! Then Jesse finished up August at an all-boys homeschool DaVinci Camp, where he learned to "think like a scientist!"   |
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My 5-yr-old and I clash-- often. Too often. One thing she does that I never did when I was a child-- she yells at her mom when she doesn't get what she wants, when she's mad, when she wants something. (Yes, she is strong-willed and stubborn. I know that, and so am I.) Never in a million years would I have yelled at my parents. I have talked with her about how we respect our parents and that yelling at them is disrespectful. I was wondering if anyone on here yelled at their parents as a child and lived to tell the tale. I'd love some insight. One friend said our culture is so different, since we were kids. But I don't buy that excuse, and I don't accept it either. And this affects our homeschooling for obvious reasons. Advice is welcome. BTW, I have a 7-yr-old who is nothing like this. |