I have lots of fun Circle Time plans in the works, but boy howdy are things looking different for us this year. Our oldest son has a job detailing cars and taking care of the shop at a car dealership. He is gone three days a week, and on the other three days he studies (he takes a day off).  This means he’s only around for our morning Circle Time two days in the week.

Our next-in-line son is going to a friend’s house three days a week for Algebra tutoring (God bless willing friends!), and his at-home mornings are different days than his older brother’s. We have ONE day when we’re all home together. Makes for major schedule tweaking!

On our one day together, we’re reading Britt Merrick’s Big God. Oh, yes He is a big, big God!  Does it go over the littlest one’s heads?  Probably.  Is it simpler than my oldest guys or I can handle reading?  Yup.  But the simple truths of God’s love and grace and mercy and BIGness can never be outgrown or under-heard.

We have guests from San Antonio here this week, then we’re off to Washington D.C. with our oldest three. Yippee! When I return we’re starting school whole-hog then tearing our kitchen out. I want to post more about our fall Circle Time soon, but in the meantime if you’re looking for resources, check out the Circle Time page on our Amazon store.

I’ll also be giving away some Circle Time ebooks soon! If you like free stuff, be sure to become a fan of Preschoolers and Peace on Facebook. I like to sneak little giveaways in there

I recently discovered your website. I’m working on making a “battle plan” for our upcoming school year. I’m homeschooling a rising 3rd grader as well as raising and caring for my twin two-year-olds. What a blessing! I need all the help I can get to figure out how to attend to my preschoolers while homeschooling and maintaining for my home (among other things). Please point me to some of your favorite posts on the topic. I’ve listened to your MP3 downloads and they helped tremendously.

Thanks!

Wendy

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Hi Wendy-

Welcome to craziness!  I wouldn’t trade this life for anything, but it is crazy and exhausting and sometimes downright frustrating.  I don’t think it’s helpful to pretend every day is a walk in the park.  I do think it’s helpful to try and give you some tools to make the days more peaceful.  In that spirit, here are some you may find most helpful:

A homeschooling mom needs help with the housekeeping, because kids who are home all day long make messes at home all day long. They’ll also gain great skills if they’re taught to help out.  Start with a chore plan. 

Read the next chore post.

And then this one.

And then finally this one, which gives you free chore charts to download and use in your home.

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Circle Time is the biggest weapon in my arsenal. You can read all about Circle Time here, and link to copious posts on the subject.  You can learn some little tricks for keeping those busy two-year-olds occupied during Circle Time here.

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If you’re looking for school help, learn my BIG SECRET here.

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But most importantly, bring your children to the Gospel every day.

Hope that’s helpful-

Kendra

Krissy Fulton

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Yes, we have a couple of favorites that will soon be brought out for our littlest guys (they’re 3 and almost-2). We love all the Susan Hunt Bible study books for kids, but My ABC Bible Verses is a perfect place to start with preschoolers. And my older kids still refer to the pictures in The Children’s Illustrated Bible every once in awhile. The story format is perfect for the younger crowd, and the additional resources in the margins capture the eye of older kids.

As for teaching them to be loving brothers, just communicate to them that they are each other’s best friends. Tell them as they grow that friends tend to come and go throughout life but brothers can walk alongside each other forever. Have them comfort each other when one gets hurt or is sad, and teach them to rejoice at each other’s triumphs. Encourage them to pray together before bed, too. They won’t always feel like loving each other, but that’s the perfect opportunity to show them that love is a choice we make whether we are feeling loving or not!

~Kendra

We have a short time in the Word and prayer right after we finish breakfast, and I am very fond of the books we’re using to coincide with our Psalm reading.

The first is My Brother’s Keeper: Letters to a Younger Brother on the Virtues and Vices, Duties and Dangers of Youth.  Lots of discussion with this one, and we are enjoying it because each letter is brief, focused, and interesting.  I’d say it is really suited for my children in the 8-year-old to high school range.  If CBD is out of stock, try Grace and Truth.

The other book we’re using right now is 365 Manners Kids Should Know. The drawback to this book is that it’s written to the adult reader about what we should be teaching our kids, but I am pretty easily able to just pick it up and read it to my kids each day.  We discuss the topic (yesterday was about boys holding doors open for girls and girls holding doors open for anyone in need) and then I often have them role play a scenario of bad and good manners.

We pray, we laugh, we practice our patience with the little ones, and then we get on with the day.

If you already own a copy, I’d be delighted to send it to whomever you want, so don’t let that stop you!

Simply enter by commenting here, and if you link to this post from your own blog or site, you’ll get a double entry.

Contest ends March 13th, 2010, midnight PST.

Thank you so much!

Stephanie

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Stephanie-

Starting Circle Time (or whatever you decide to call it) now is a great idea. It has been a part of our lives for so long now that I doubt even the 16-year-old can remember our days without it, although he seldom joins us anymore. Still, on the days he is with us, he participates by leading some of what we do, reading aloud, or quizzing the littlest ones on their catechism.

You asked for tips on where to start, so let’s begin there. The first thing you want to do is to determine what it is you want to include in your Circle Time. This always fluctuates for us, meaning that there are seasons when Circle Time includes just the essentials like devotions, Scripture memory, and prayer, and other seasons when Circle Time is a long drawn-out session filled with singing, reading, and lots of laughter.

Ideas for Circle Time:

Psalm or Proverb of the day- read one chapter a day. Let the children illustrate something from the passage that stands out to them.

Prayer- my kids are particularly fond of “popcorn” prayer, where we go around the room with each person sharing one thing in prayer at a time. We use the acronym ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) as our guide; the first person calls out one attribute of God in adoration to Him, then the next person, etc. Then the first person begins again by confessing a sin, and we move on around until the prayer is finished.

Devotional- Books we’ve enjoyed over the years: My ABC Bible Verses, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Discovering Jesus in Exodus, With the Children on Sundays, and the How God Used… series.

Songs- We have worked on one hymn at a time, or our favorite hymns with everyone choosing one, or worship choruses we all like, etc. Sometimes I play the piano, sometimes one of the boys plays his guitar, sometimes we just get a little silly and sing at the top of our lungs.

Catechism Review- No, we’re not Catholic. Historically, Protestants have used confessions to teach the truths of Scripture in a systematic way to their children and themselves, and we use the Westminster Confession in our home.

The children’s catechism goes like this:

Q. Who made you?

A. God

Q. What else did God make?

A. God made all things.

Q. Why did God make you and all things?

A. For His own glory.

Q. Why ought you to glorify God?

A. Because He made me and takes care of me.

If you’re not familiar with the different Protestant confessions, take a look at this site.

Special Topic- From time to time we see areas in our lives that need attention. I’ll add some time to focus on those areas and hope to see a little progress. Currently we’re working on manners.

Memory Work- Which verses or passages do you want your children to have committed to memory by the time they leave your home? Sit down and make a list sometime and then begin to memorize together. Competitions and rewards always motivate us when we get lazy.

I recently purchased an audio Bible on MP3 and now we listen to passages over and over again to commit them to memory.

Cards- We like the variety that flash cards give us. You can search the web for photos of famous landmarks to print out, make cards for the Greek alphabet, Roman numerals, sign language, U.S. Presidents, books of the Bible, and practically anything else you can think of that would be worth memorizing.

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I hope this gives you some good ideas to start with. Coming on Wednesday– a contest to win a copy of my eBook all about Circle Time, Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day!

But what I wanted to tell you about right now is Amanda’s neato kits for moms like me who love, love, love kits.  Her Hearts and Trees Winter/Spring 2010 kit is here!

That owl is too cute!  A lapbook about salt, an art study on silhouettes, Vincent Van Gogh, plastic canvas coasters, and notebooking pages, and all at a very reasonable price.  Because Amanda puts the kits together, I don’t have to run around town in search of the supplies.

Another bonus?  We’ve entered our projects in the county fair, and our eight-year-old won Best of Show last year!

Recently I was looking for copies of famous art so that when we discuss artists and their work during Circle Time or history or art, I can access the pieces quickly.  Masterpiece Cards are a fantastic addition to our home library, and already in the two months I’ve had them, we’ve used them regularly, talking about each piece, looking for details, and reading about the artist and the work in the quick but informative info on the back of the cards.

There are 250 cards in the boxed set, and you can see an example of a card here.

Incidentally, the publisher didn’t ask me to review the cards; I found them simply by googling and I just wanted to share with you my little find!

God has blessed our little venture and we’re excited to give the money earned by your purchases to something He desires.  For now, all of the revenue from Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day! and the MP3 workshop recordings is earmarked in an account for giving.

So, want to help us grow the account and be able to bless a ministry or a needy family?  For the month of December, when you purchase an e-Book, you’ll get an extra copy to send along to a friend.  Purchase one MP3 recording and receive the second for free!

Here’s how:

~Order one book and then I’ll email you to ask where you want the second one sent.

~Order one MP3 and then I’ll email you to ask which one you’d like free.

In both cases, I’ll send you a link for your free item(s).

Enjoy!

I wanted to email and thank you for your blogging, and all the encouragement and the practical advice you share.  I’ve been meaning to email for quite some time, but part of July, all of August and even some of September was the nasty morning sickness.  I felt better in September and did some serious catching up.

I read through your postings about Circle Time and it sounds like a great way way to add in some things we’ve not been doing (like singing hymns, reading the Bible together, and praying. . . yikes! the very basics!) and be a little more formal about a few things we’ve been enjoying (Five In A Row, Story of the World).

One very nice and unexpected thing that happened as I was sorting through materials and planning the school year was that I realized how much I truly love teaching my children!  As I was ordering books that I’d read with my older children, to read with my younger child, and the materials I will be using with my older children, I found myself in tears remembering all the happy memories and anticipating making new ones!

I intended to email last week with our Circle Time order. . . I figure I need to keep it to about an hour.  Our children are 7, nearly 5, and 2,  so most of this will  go well (I hope!)

• Calendar

• Weather

• Pledges (American flag pledge, Alaska flag song, Christian flag pledge)– one per day

• Silly Song of the Day– one child picks each day

• Hymn of the Week (going sequentially through our church’s hymnal)– watch on youtube

• Prayer

• Bible reading from The Early Reader’s Bible– one story per day

• Letter of the Week, following the Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers For Me order, using games such as Hide and Seek with letter puppets, Letter Fishing, Memory, and Alphabet Go Fish; Steck-Vaughn Phonics Readers Alphabet Set, Alphabet Art, and I Know the Alphabet book

• Five In A Row Story of the Week

• Story of the World Story of the Week

And now for the hard part of this email.  The reason I did not email as planned last week (or start school on 10/5 as I had also planned) was that I miscarried early Sunday morning (10/4.) I was about 16 weeks and had NO idea before it happened.  Our midwife came over to be with us at the time and that was so helpful.  Our baby was a boy, and we named him Shelomith (meaning peaceful.)  I am recovering physically fairly well. Emotionally, it’s been (and will be) hard.   I think it would be helpful to get back into our routine, so I am hoping to start Circle Time tomorrow, and gradually bring on the other topics I’d planned.

I wanted to ask you to pray for me and my family as we make this horrible transition.

Thank you again.
annie

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Please pray for Annie and her family as they recover from their loss.

~Kendra