Kendra Fletcher is the homeschooling mom of eight, all of whom have either been, currently are, or soon will be preschoolers.
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 12:00AM 
{pretty} at the crocker art museum, sacramento
caroline at lunch after the museum. she'll be 11 in just a few days!
{funny} christian made a tent to avoid napping. it didn't work. he fell asleep.
{happy} mighty joe happily waters everything on the back porch these days
{real} that's right. certified hunk. uh-huh.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 12:00AM 
Over the 14 years that we've been homeschooling, we've seen some pretty terrific websites created by some pretty terrific people. Many of you will be familiar with our list of Top Ten Favorites because you've been hanging out here for so long. Thank you! But for those of you who may be unfamiliar with at least some of these sites, I hope they inspire and encourage you as they have us.
10. The Well-Trained Mind Forums I've been using The Well-Trained Mind forums since their inception (we had dial-up, and the forum was long lists of posts back then) and I am indebted to the thousands of homeschoolers who have posted there on every possible subject related to educating children at home. When I have a question about a curriculum or grade level or website, The Well-Trained Mind Forum is the first place I go. I also buy and sell curriculum successfully on the sale and swap boards.
9. Schoolhouse Teachers Now, I know that when you click over to Schoolhouse Teachers and see ahem- me- as the spokesperson, you're going to think, "Well, of course she listed this site as a top ten favorite!" But actually, no. I'm super excited about all Schoolhouse Teachers has to offer and so I actually volunteered for that position. No kidding! Watch the promo video (egads) and then look around- it's an amazing resource for classes and lessons and activities to keep our kids really engaged in learning, and it's turning my own homeschool planning for next year completely upside-down. I'll be using Schoolhouse Teachers daily.
8. Homeschool Creations There has always been a preschooler in this house, and so there is always a need for preschool activities. Jolanthe's FREE preschool printables are charming and useful. Plus, I recently had the delight of meeting Jolanthe and our funny conversation about orange t-shirts and bare shoulders make me happy to return to her site just to smile.
7. Homeschool Share Unit studies, Five-in-a-Row resources, lapbooks... and all for FREE! I love Homeschool Share. We've done lapbooks on sea creatures and kitchen safety and reptiles. I'm not an artistic or crafty mom, so I really appreciate when someone (or in this case, someones) do the legwork for me.
6. Heart of the Matter Over the years, Heart of the Matter has provided me with a whole lot of encouragement. I appreciate the authors' authenticity- their willingness to be real and share the struggles of this homeschooling life as well as the triumphs. There's a lot to be gleaned when we stay in community with one another and learn from each others' mistakes. You can add Heart of the Matter to your reader via RSS.
5. Timberdoodle Back in the very beginning of our homeschool journey, back when it was just the oldest three, Timberdoodle was there. We have seriously loved everything we've bought from Timberdoodle, from Kumon books to science curriculum to thinking skills.
4. Hold That Thought One of the easiest ways to record our history studies has been through notebooking pages and map work. At the beginning of each year I make photocopies of everything (yes, everything!) that we will need for the year, file it in each student's binder according to the week's lesson, and we're good to go. Hold That Thought provided beautifully-rendered notebooking pages that we love to use, year after year.
3. CurrClick In addition to the thousands of downloadable resources at CurrClick, there are so many great live classes available there, too. I know that one of my readers in Australia has her kids do the live classes, even though it means they have to take them at odd times. They're defintely worth it! My kids have taken live art classes, live seasonal classes on pioneer living and Christmas, and I already have one signed up for a class in July.
2. Homeschool in the Woods Along the lines of notebooking pages and hands-on projects, I love Homeschool in the Woods! Amy Pak's beautiful artwork makes us look like we're really artistic ourselves, and the projects stick around in my kids' brains, enhancing their studies and making history memorable. I've yet to see a better timeline or more lovely timeline figures.
1. Khan Academy Sal Khan began Khan Academy with the intent of helping his cousins understand math and science. He uploaded videos of himself teaching weighty subjects, and they were so good that they caught on like wildfire. My niece was taking a college chemistry course from a professor who didn't speak English (!) and she was dying. I told her about Khan Academy and she said, "Aunt Kendra, this has saved my life!" It's not only stepped in when an algebra curriculum was not a good fit for one of our sons, it's provided excellent instruction and tracking, too: students must complete a set of problems before they're allowed to move on. Bonus for us this year- the art history series is fantastic!
♥
This blog hop is inspired by our dear friend and sister Angie of Many Little Blessings. We would love to have you join us during our ten week adventure. Please link up at Angie’s blog by clicking the image below.
Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 8:40AM Oh you lucky winners! They are:
Elizabeth Groulx, who wrote: "As a still relatively new widowed mom with two young children on two different school schedules and a toddler at home just getting dinner on the table at all is a challenge."
and
Dana Ernst, who wrote: "There are weeks I could use someone thinking for me when it comes to meal planning. This would be fun to win."
Next contest coming up! Don't forget to enter :)
Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 12:01AM 
THREE copies of Give Them Grace to give away! Thanks to Elyse Fitzpatrick, Jessica Thompson, and Crossway Books for providing them for us.
Leave a comment telling us how you've seen God's grace in your home this week, and we'll pick two winners. Contest ends May 26th, midnight PDT.
Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 12:00AM God is so gracious to pour out over us exactly what we need when we need it, isn't He? I've been looking forward for some months now to the opportunity to hear one of my favorite authors speak on a topic I love -- the gospel-- YES! The gospel!
Elyse Fitzpatrick is a woman who understands the gospel so well, my friends, and if you haven't ever read any of her books, go hop over to Amazon or CBD and take a look. You will be blessed, because Elyse starts with the gospel and camps on the gospel and ends with the gospel. Saturated.
"Put to death everything you are doing to prove to yourself that you’re ok apart from Jesus Christ."
"As long as my heart is looking at my own progress, then I’m not looking at Jesus."
Those are gospel gems. Thanks, Elyse.
Me and Jessica Thompson
And then there's her daughter Jessica, with whom she wrote Give Them Grace. If you've read Preschoolers and Peace for awhile, you know how much God has used this book to change our parenting. We are so thankful.
Jessica and I have been emailing awhile, mostly because I'm geeky like that and one of you great readers told her I had been gushing about Give Them Grace. So we met yesterday and hugged and I snuck out of one of Elyse's sessions (sorry, Elyse) and we chatted and laughed and had quite a few "Aha!" moments when we realized we'd walked the same spiritual paths over the past few years. It was a gift, you know? A gift of grace.
I'm grateful tonight. God's gifts are abundant and good and joyful and pleasant and they all point us to the one who loves us so very, very much. He loves you so very, very much. As Elyse so adeptly put it -- that love? That's the wind in your sails.
