• Oct. 28, 2009 - These are a few of our favorite games!
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With the holidays right around the corner, we thought this might be a good time to discuss favorite family games. My family enjoys playing games with our family and friends at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I've found that games make GREAT gifts.
My favorite is probably Scrabble, but here are some of my kids' favorite games:
And these are our favorites to play at get-togethers:
Hope this helps spark some ideas for fun or gift-giving at your house. I've got to admit that I don't play games nearly as much as the boys want me to. I drag my heels and tend to find other things to do, but I'm trying to do better about joining in the fun and hope you all will too!
Enjoy every minute!
~Nancy
PS – I noticed on Amazon that you can get the Monopoly Deal cards FREE when you purchase some of the other games before October 31st. Click here for the details!
*This is reprinted from the October 28, 2009 Favorite Games THM. If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute e-Newsletter, you can subscribe HERE.
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• Oct. 14, 2009 - Some of My Favorite Crafts
Wow, can you believe that we're halfway through October already? Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here soon. If you plan on making handmade goodies to give for the holidays, NOW is the time to start.
I used to make Thanksgiving cards for the grandparents when the boys were little that said, "This little turkey is thankful for YOU!" with a painted handprint turkey on there. I think it's great to take time to have your children let others know just how thankful they are for them.
The boys have also used tissue paper and old baby food jars to make stained glass votive candle holders for Sunday school teachers and other family members.
One year, we made fleece scarves for many in our family--including little cousins. They loved wearing a gift that their cousins made!
Speaking of little cousins or friends, it's a lot of fun to make a personalized memory game or fizzy stones.
Is there a new baby in the family? My little niece loved the chenille flannel blanket I made for her.
Or your kids could make trash bag wreaths. They are a lot cuter than they sound!
And if you have some cute tins, homemade caramel popcorn is always a hit!
Enjoy every minute!
THM Editor
PS. I think people always love photo gifts. I made Tony a photo book for Father's Day and he really treasures it. Keep an eye out for coupon codes from Shutterfly, Kodak, Snapfish, etc. as Christmas approaches.
*This is reprinted from the October 24, 2009 Crafting for the Upcoming Holidays THM. If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute e-Newsletter, you can subscribe HERE.
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• Oct. 11, 2009 - How Bowling Balls Are Made
Visiting a factory to see how bowling balls are made may sound like about as much fun as watching paint dry,but you'd be surprised! There is an incredible amount of physics and chemistry involved in creating bowling balls and our homeschool group got to learn all about it while visiting the Ebonite factory.
Ebonite creates over 70% of the bowling balls sold all over the world. Last year they put out over 800,000 bowling balls, but some years they have put out well over a million balls. It was very interesting to learn about the science which makes different styles of bowling balls better for different bowlers.
I thought that bowling balls were supposed to roll straight and the ones for "social bowlers" are. BUT once bowlers start getting competitive, they want their bowling balls to give them an advantage - they want to "hit the pocket" with "maximum force" and such things like that.
That's what makes the core so important. Bowling a perfect strike starts with the core.
I found some really great videos online that explain more about the science and process behind how they make bowling balls at Ebonite. Here's Part 1 and Part 2.
Now, while I thought picking the right bowling ball was all about having one that matched your outfit, I learned that the paint on the ball serves as much more that "just" decoration.
In fact, the colors on it, are SO much more than just paint. It's a special plastic coating designed to give the ball just the right amount of traction on the lane and giving the bowler more control. See those little blue cups in this pic?
That coating is going through a really nifty chemical reaction. It is so viscous that it starts gelling practically as you pour it. The people at Ebonite really know their stuff. They each do their jobs quickly and precisely to keep production flowing at the perfect pace. Bowling actually has the most participants of any sport, so they have to keep things moving!
And once the ball is checked and double checked, they finish it up with engraving and polishing. It's kind of like a spa treatment for the ball.
Aren't you glad to know that the balls are so well cared for?
These kids are!
It was a fabulous day at the Ebonite plant and we really appreciated them taking the time to show us around their plant and to answer all of our questions.
From the youngest to the oldest, we all had a great time.
And learned a lot about science too!
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• Sep. 29, 2009 - Watch Out Mr. Goodbody!
Did I tell you all that we joined a co-op this year? Well, we did and it's kind of a big deal for us because it's a 45 minute drive there AND it starts at 9 in the morning! Yikes!
Nonetheless, it's been a really good experience and we have learned that we CAN get up and make it on-time when we plan ahead.
Each of the boys has 4 classes. Jon is taking Human Body, Discovering Great Artists, Patriotic Activities, and P.E. Jake and Joe are taking Quiz Bowl, Chemistry Lab, American Art Appreciation, and Spanish. They are all enjoying their classes and learning so much.
I got a quick video of Jon practicing reciting 21 bones for his Human Body class and thought I'd share it with you all. Tony actually helped come up with ways for Jon to remember the "hard" ones and practiced quite a bit with him. But I'm really proud of him considering he only knew a couple of these a week ago!
I really appreciate all of the moms who organize and teach the co-op classes. I love being able to watch the boys make progress with their classes even when I feel like things get off-track at home. And that, my friends, is SUCH a blessing!
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• Sep. 15, 2009 - One More Chance
I know a lot of you (over 3000!) took advantage of the Labor Day $7.95 special, but in case you missed it, here's one more chance.
I have a coupon code to make The Old Schoolhouse Magazine $7.95 for a one-year U.S. print subscription. It's FB795 and it's good through this Friday, Sep. 18.
This link - http://tinyurl.com/kuwp3y - will take you to the new one-year print subscription, but you can click from there if you need to renew or are buying a gift subscription. This really would be a great time to order a gift subscription for a friend for under $10 and since the subscription would start with the Winter issue, they'd get their first magazine in January so it would be sure to get 2010 off to a GREAT start for them!
Just be sure to use that coupon code - FB795 to get the special price. Offer expires this Friday, Sep. 18th.
I hope the magazine will be a blessing to you. I took a break from writing for a few issues, but I should be back in there in Winter. Just pray the Lord will give me the words he wants me to write. I've been battling major writer's block!
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• Sep. 15, 2009 - Photo Scavenger Hunt
This month I volunteered to plan an activity for our homeschool teens during our support group meeting. Since we all know each other pretty well, I asked the parents if they would be ok with me organizing a photo scavenger hunt around our town for them.
The parents said, "Sure!" and I lined up a few parents to do the driving and began thinking of clues for interesting places around town.
We only had about 1 hour for the actual hunt so I gave each team 7 clues. The teams were told that the drivers couldn't tell the kids the answers, but that if they needed to stop and ask for help or "phone a friend" they could do that. Also, the drivers acted as photographers. I wanted the kids in each of the pictures.
For each group, I tried to include clues about:
- a local landmark
- a statue
- doing something at a local park
- an area business
- a charitable group
- a government building
- specific words on a sign
I gave bonus points for bringing back brochures and extra-creative pictures to keep things interesting.
This clue said, "This notable boulder inspired a local restaurant."
This team had to be climbing.
This team had to find the 22,000 pound replica of King Arthur's Table!
(It's kind of tucked away in our town - a hidden treasure!)
This team had to figure out where the Two Chiefs statue was.
And this team had to strike a "dramatic pose" outside of our downtown theater.
It was SO much fun and I think both the kids AND the adults learned some new things about our community. I did learn one thing though. You can't take pictures outside of our courthouse.
One team's clue said for them to take a picture at the building where you go to get your driver's license. I knew that the kids probably couldn't go inside because of security concerns, but I didn't think there would be a problem with them taking a picture OUTSIDE. Mercy sakes, the guard came over and insisted on seeing that there wasn't a picture on the digital camera and everything. I felt kind of bad about that. That team came back to the church saying, "Well we might have won if the cops hadn't stopped us."
Not exactly the impression I wanted to make.
Oh well. I had called many of the businesses to explain that the kids would be stopping by, but had not anticipated that issue at the courthouse. Now we know though and we shan't do that again.
See, EVERY day is a learning day.
Have a great week!
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• Sep. 8, 2009 - The $7.95 Subscriptions Are Going Fast!
Remember when I told you about the $5 subscriptions at Amazon a few weeks ago? Well now the folks at TOS have a HUGE Labor Day special going on for their subscriptions.
They already sold over 1700 of the $7.95 one-year U.S. print subscriptions (in ONE day!) and they're only offering 3000 of these. You can use this to get a new subscription, give a gift to a friend, or even extend your own subscription!
Even if you live in an international location, you can subscribe to the digital version or renew your digital subscription for only $7.95! It's the same great content as the print magazine, except it is instant and interactive!
I really love having both!
Have a great week, Y'all. Today was our first day at a new co-op in our area. The boys all have great classes and are enjoying making new friends. The year is off to a great start!
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• Sep. 2, 2009 - School has started so we all have colds now...
We officially kicked off our school year on Monday this week. I was so proud of myself on Sunday night because I had all of our things laid out and ready to go for "the big day." I planned to wake up before the boys, have my quiet time, and really get things off to a good start. I even thought about how nice it would be to take the boys' First Day of School pictures and post them like so many of my facebook friends did.
Little did I realize that I was going to wake up with a killer cold that would make me seriously consider drilling holes in my sinus cavities to relieve the pressure.
So, instead, I woke up late. Spent the first hour of my day doing a sinus cleanse, whining, and taking all kinds of supplements and OTC meds, begging for relief. The boys were up and ready though so I drug myself to the table and we jumped into things. No pictures of the momentous event. My face hurt to much to play photographer. But at least we made it through Day 1.
However, I apparently shared more than just knowledge with the boys because they ALL woke up feeling like crud for Day 2 of our school year. Pictures are so overrated. What kid doesn't want to kick off the new school year with sinus pressure, a sore throat, and a pocket full of Kleenex?
Day 2:
We can't take a sick day on Day 2, can we?
I spent the better part of the morning at war with myself over that one.
"We homeschool, we have the freedom to school on a schedule that works for us. If everyone is feeling rotten, let's just make up this day later."
"No, we need to get in a routine. We JUST got started and I really don't want to rethink our schedule already."
Cough, cough. Hack, hack. Sneeze. Blow my nose. Whine about how bad my head hurts. Repeat.
So Day 2 of school didn't start until the afternoon, but it actually went remarkably well. By afternoon, everyone was rested up, could swallow once more, and was breathing a little easier (It's the little things in life that matter!) The weather was perfect so we did school outside on the patio. I figured the fresh air might be good for us.
And our "school" time really went very well. I'm going through some old Abeka readers with my youngest and it's pretty nice to see him catching on so well. I got to work one-on-one with my middle one on his math and explain some things that he needed help with. And I spent some time helping my oldest set up an account on MyCollegeOptions.com and play their ACT prep game. We did our history read-aloud, everybody worked on handwriting and grammar, my youngest got to put together a little wooden desk organizer kit from Lowe's, and then we spent a crazy amount of time playing Rhyming Words Memory, which was actually rather challenging. 48 cards are A LOT to try to remember!
So, while our school year hasn't started at all like I planned for it to, I'm amazed at how well it's going. God's grace is always there and He somehow makes something useful out of our imperfect, off-schedule, under-the-weather attempts. He amazes me.
I think I need to put chicken noodle soup on the school menu.
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• Aug. 25, 2009 - Paralyzed by Perfectionism
This post was originally published in The Homeschool Minute on December 20, 2006.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
-Phillipians 4:13
I have some friends who are amazingly organized. They have these awesome systems, checklists, and routines. On paper they have everything worked out and I admire that. And I wish that just a tad bit of that came to me naturally!
Unfortunately, I'm really lacking in that area. I struggle to figure out what I want to put on the checklist, what system would work best, and what would be a reasonable routine for my family. And just thinking about all of it makes me want to just go stick my head in the sand.
I'm learning though that it's my perfectionism that holds me back. The perfectionist in me would just rather not even get started than to not be able to complete a task perfectly. And oh how Satan loves to tell me that I can't handle all that I've been given!
Fortunately, I'm learning to recognize that big fat lie and the discouragement that comes with it. I'm refusing to be held captive by those thoughts and choosing instead to remind myself that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I've learned that if I can just start by doing one little thing, often the other things follow pretty well - whether that's working on the laundry, decluttering a room, or tackling a special project. And that just doing something is better than doing nothing at all.
*Update: I blogged some follow up thoughts on this topic in this entry as well. Coming back to this topic and rereading what I had written has been really good for me. I think I had become a bit paralyzed by perfection about blogging. This might just help me to jump back in the bloggy waters again. Thanks for being patient with me!
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• Jun. 23, 2009 - CHEK Conference 2009
I wanted to write a big ol' long entry about how inspired and encouraged I was by the CHEK Conference in Louisville, but alas, I've been kind of busy ever since I got home and I am plum tuckered out.
I can share a few pictures with you though. I really enjoyed getting to meet a lot of nice homeschoolers and vendors. I managed to get a picture with Cindy West from Our Journey Westward and Malia Russell from Homemaking 911.
However I forgot to even take a picture of the TOS booth. Can you believe that? Ugh! And it looked really nice too. You can catch a little bit of it in this picture I took when Bro. Joe Adams (one of the CHEK directors) stopped by our booth to say Hello.
I hope you all are having a wonderful week and staying cool in spite of this crazy heat. I've been sending out emails to let people in the Hopkinsville area know about Norm Wakefield coming to speak to our group. If any of you are within driving distance, we'd love to have you come join us.
He's going to speak on giving your child a firm foundation (Christ!) for their lives and building a legacy of God's love.
It's going to be wonderful.
The Crossing Church in the Bradford Square Mall has graciously offered to let us use their building and we'll be there on Saturday, June 27th from 4-6. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity if you're in the area! It's free!!
The encouragement just keeps coming...
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