{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.
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.
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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 :)
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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.
]]>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.
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{pretty} Grammy Adele made Elmo cupcakes she found on Pinterest. I love Pinterest, don't you?
{happy} Mighty Joe blowing out the 4 candle.
{funny} Red frosting makes red faces.
{real} When a child has sustained a brain injury as dramatic as Joe's, nothing is taken for granted. Knowing he's 4 and being able to show us is very, very real.
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Realistic. Yes. Stephanie, you have so very much on your plate right now, and you are one wise woman to desire simplicity. Just the custodial care of everyone in your household is going to drain your time, so added projects like painting clay pots and calculating the earth's circumference with a string can feel completely overwhelming.
There are years we can get to every little fun project I've planned to correlate to history lessons and there are years (this is one of them) when we will be spending our summer doing those things. Honestly, I rather like it that way- gives us something constructive to do during the summer between jumping into the pool and barbecuing dinner.
So what that looks like here is simply this: I read the history lessons for the day (or we listen to Linda Hobar read them via her MP3's) and the girls do the coloring pages that go with the lesson. We talk about the lesson and maybe pull things up on YouTube to watch (lately it's been Archimedes and the Colossus of Rhodes). We tell Dad what we learned during dinner, and we call it good! Some weeks we actually do have time for a project. Some days I actually don't mind the extra clean-up involved.
The Famous Figures series is an easy project we've enjoyed this year.
There are seasons. This fall you need simple. Don't apologize for it and don't worry- there will be a time when you can all go build a scale replica of the Taj Mahal in your backyard. Or not ;)
~Kendra
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Congratulations, Catherine!
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Mystie Winckler has been a Preschoolers and Peace reader for a lot of years, and I've always appreciated her comments and encouragement. But now it's my turn to encourage her!
Mystie has written a great eBook called Simplified Dinners. If you feel like you're drowning in kitchen and meal planning management, get a leg up with Simplified Dinners. Mystie is a second generation homeschooler and mother of four- she knows how crazy this life is!
I can't write a better desription of Simplified Dinners than Mystie has, so here it is:
Simplified Dinners enables you to transition toward home-prepared, real, whole foods cooking—even for those less confident in the kitchen. There are no packets, boxes, or pre-prepared foods on the master pantry list, but from it you can make a wide variety of dinners, breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. It truly is a sufficient list. And it’s basic. You don’t need to shop at fancy grocery boutiques to eat good, natural, normal food. You can make it with the stuff any standard discount grocery store sells. This is real-food cooking for normal people on a budget.
Want to know my honest opinion? Even though Mystie sent me a free copy so I could review it for you, I am using it myself. I love to cook, I have a lot of systems in place, but I am using Simplified Dinners because right now, I need the help!
Mystie's generously giving away TWO copies to Preschoolers and Peace readers. Just enter a comment with your current meal frustration or meal solution to win, and don't forget your contact info! Contest ends on May 19th, 2012, PDT.
Don't want to wait for a contest? Enter coupon code PEACE at checkout and get $3 off!
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