Abstinence Sex Education-Purity, Sex, and Waiting!! https://abetterwaytohomeschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/sex-ed.mp4 The video above shows you how to use this puzzle approach. You can also see the same video on Youtube. A Sweet and Simple way to Talk to Your Kids about Purity, Sex, and Waiting!! The Lord gave me this idea about 15 years ago while teaching a group of 5th graders. My dilemma: How do you teach giggly, squirmy, and hormonal kids that God has a beautiful design and plan for them as it relates to sex? Just the mention of anything intimate sends kids into a panic. God’s Solution: Puzzles! I created this simple puzzle to explain God’s design for sex and marriage to my own children. All five of our sons have been taught about intimacy and marriage this way. Get your copy here It’s also included in the Bible Studies for Kids BUNDLE
Father’s Day Gift Ideas Father’s Day is just around the corner. Here are a few unique Father’s Day Gift Ideas: This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. USB Money Clip from Gifts.com Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer Nothing Brings children confidence more than knowing mom and dad love each other! Father’s Day Coupons **FREE**by Victoria Leon! Samsung Fitness Tracker Father’s Day Crafts from My Delicious Abiguity Penny Frame from Ziggity Zoom
Thinking Out of the Box Teaching our kids to identify problems is great. Teaching them to think out of the box to solve problems is another thing. In our home, we are working on problem solving. 1. Identify a real need: Like improving our country’s energy resources. 2. Study and Brainstorm possible solutions: For instance, finding a way to produce better solar energy producers. 3. Critique plan: Does simply creating solar fields solve the problem? Is there a better way? Now, before you think that I am more intelligent than I am let me explain. I am not an “out of the box thinker”. I have to stretch to find ways to inspire my boys to think in this capacity. One of the ways I find creative conversation starters is finding unique and amazing videos about problems and solutions and then create a teaching environment. Step one. Find an inspirational image, video or product. Step Two. Using a probing question approach, set kids up to develop their own solutions to a true real life situation or need. Look again at these prompts. 1. Identify a real need: How can we improve our country’s energy resources? 2. Study and Brainstorm possible solutions: What about solar energy? Can we look for an out of the box solution to solve our energy needs? 3. Critique plan: Does simply creating solar fields solve the problem? Is there a better way? Step three. After the kids have come up with their best ideas, inspire them further by sharing the video clip you found here. Step four. After seeing the video (or image), can you think of a better solution? We use fun templates to record our ideas. Here are some free notebooking resources. http://notebookingpages.com/free-resource-center Have fun helping your kids become “out of the box” thinkers!
How to Organize Notebooking Templates on Your Computer This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. You have embraced the idea of teaching your children to journal by using notebooking templates. You have downloaded hundreds if not thousands of cute, interesting, and important files for them to use during their study and personal learning time. But now what? Without proper organization, those amazing templates you have purchased and downloaded for your children to use for their schoolwork will be locked and unused on your computer. Even worse, without a plan for organization you will have spent good money only to use up space on your harddrive. You need a plan to organize your notebooking templates! Create a master file folder on your computer In order to locate your notebooking templates easily, it would be wise for you to create a master file to store all of your files. A good master file name would be “Notebooking Templates for School”. I personally keep this folder on my desktop screen. Why? If I neatly tuck this file in my directory list I tend to forget it it there. If it is right on my desktop screen then I am reminded often that there are cute and interesting templates for the kids to use. Create a sub folder for each category as you collect and create new templates. Under your master file folder, you will want to create category folders that make it easy for you to find any template you need. I highly suggest you create lists by subject: Copywork History Science Bible Character Study Famous People Nature Animals ABC Geography etc Depending on how organized your like your files, you can choose to go one step further and add files under each of these categories. For instance under the history folder you can create files for ancient history, medieval history, modern history, the civil war, etc. Create files as you go. If you are new to notebooking, you will quickly discover that there are thousands of templates available for you to introduce to your children. An easy approach to this kind of journaling is to consider what subject you are studying together in history (for example) and to acquire a handful of templates for your student to choose from as they are learning. Organize these files as you go. With a little bit of time and effort you can ensure that you will be able to take advantage of all the free templates and great deals that you stumble upon as you search for school supplies and curriculum. With a good system of organization, you will be able to find those resources when your student is ready to use them!
How to Organize a Notebooking Station This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. How to Organize a Notebooking Station Notebooking is the practice of journaling while you learn using pictures and words. It is fancy journalling. This is an easy and engaging way to teach any subject and works extremely well in the homeschool environment. Beautiful templates, coloring tools, and a learning environment provide learners with everything they need to notebook successfully. There are two reasons children thrive in a notebooking learning environment The have ownership of their work. They are designing and scripting their own learning. Quality templates add value into their work. The easy to manage spaces make journaling less intimidating. Organizing a Notebooking Station Find a wide assortment of notebooking templates. You can create them yourself, or download templates from thousands of available online notebooking templates. Organize your templates into files or notebooks. If you are using the traditional hanging file folder system, create folders for your templates to make them easy to locate. Some example categories would be: blank templates, countries, ancient history, floral, insects, character studies, and holidays. There are many many more categories. Simply add new templates into new folders as they are acquired. If you chose to organize your templates into notebooks, you may want to fill a three ring binder with plastic page holders. Print of masters of each template for your child and use file dividers to organize by topic. Organize your art supplies. Create and area, bin, or holder to give your child easy access to scissors, glue, crayons, colored pencils, and markers. Replenish them a few times year to keep the supplies fresh! Create a Journal for each child’s completed notebooking pages. Your children will be very proud of their notebooking pages when they are complete. Validate their hard work by providing them a place to store them safely. A three ring notebook with plastic page protectors works beautifully. At the end of the school year, or when they have collected quite a collection of pages on a particular topic, you can even have the pages bound at your local office supply. Notebooking journals are a beautiful keepsake and even make great gifts or grandparents! Taking the time to organize your child’s notebooking templates, journal, and supplies are essential. If you treat these supplies with respect, so will they. There is something intrinsically freeing about journalling about what you are learning. It is one of the best ways to document what you are learning. Your children will grow to love their journals. Even reluctant writers can grow by first using the pages as copywork, then word and phrase collectors, and finally documenting their learning. Notebooking is a fruitful resource and skill to add to any educational environment and works beautifully with homeschool learning.
Teaching the Pledge of Allegiance with Copywork I can feel Summer just around the corner. Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. This is my favorite homeschooling time of year! We loosen up and simply enjoy learning, how about you? Our oldest son turns 21 Memorial weekend. How the heck can I be old enough to have a 21 year old! In honor of the holiday’s coming up, we are doing a few Patriotic lessons. Today, we focused on the Pledge of Allegiance. There is a great set of Patriotic Templates here. I had the boys choose their favorite page for the day. I wrote the Pledge on our white board and we began copywork hour. I am always pleasantly surprised how much more care the boys take in doing any assignment when they get to choose a template that “tickles their fancy”. Munchkin here decided that today is the day that his copywork will be in cursive for the first time. Beautiful! We call this guy our gentle giant. He is huge for his age, and as a result his fine motor skills are still developing. Look at the concentration! Very Happy with his results! Our oldest musketeer loves to write in cursive… He is well pleased with the results We wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Defined vocabulary: Pledge, allegiance, Republic, indivisible, Liberty and Justice. Researched flag etiquette. Did you know you can only fly an American flag at night if it is illuminated? Did you know you are never suppose to use our flag to advertise and product or service? We are going to be looking at Memorial Day and Independence Day next… Resources:Notebooking Template Pages
Boys, You are Stuck in an Elevator with an Elderly Woman Ask your boys: “You are Stuck in an Elevator with an Elderly Woman. A voice comes over the speaker saying they are fixing the problem, just be patient. After a few minutes, the elderly woman begins to get really tired. It is just you and her locked in the elevator, how can you help her?” Wait for them to answer.See if they can come up with a solution to the obvious problem. This woman needs to sit or she will be hurting. Praise them for coming up with a way to help her, then ask.“Could you do anything to help her that would require a real sacrifice on your part?” After they come up with another solution share this picture: What did this man do to help this grandma while they were stuck? Our world needs real life Knights in Shining armor like this nameless man in the elevator. Let’s make sure we point out true humility and service to our future men. What did your kids say?Two of my boys said they would help her sit on the floor.One said he would hold her up with his arm around her. All 3 thought this real life solution was awesome!Character does not just spontaneously happen, but it can be coached into existence! [leadpages_leadbox leadbox_id=140485d46639c5] [/leadpages_leadbox]
Dancing Popcorn Dancing Popcorn? We are embracing science experiments lately. Thank goodness for YouTube! This experiment is called: Dancing Popcorn Make it a full science experiment by downloading these resources… Read More »
Greek Art with Notebooking Pages Here is a quick glimpse at notebooking. We are studying Greek history at the moment. The boys each have their own segment of ancient Greek history to discover and share with one another. The youngest gets to share about Greek art. First we explored videos, images and books about Greek art. (We discovered that Greeks loved nakedness!) He chose a notebooking template that would allow him to highlight 3 different aspects of Greek Art. We always do internet work together, for safety and accountability. He found three images that represented the different aspects of art he enjoyed most. Print, cut, paste! Lastly, he dictated to me what he liked most about each image and we used those thoughts as copywork on the template lines. Voila! Notebooking. For this exercise, munchkin chose one of the free templates. Grab a few free samples here: http://notebookingpages.com/free-resource-center There are many great Greece templates included in the ancient history collection. Click here: ANCIENT TIMES SAMPLE Do not miss the notebooking anniversary sale!
Notebooking Pages Anniversary Sale! Amazing Sale!!! This is an amazing deal! I am in the process of planning next year’s curriculum and I could not imaging homeschooling without incredible notebooking pages! This is an incredible deal! Click on over, download a few free samples and then take advantage of this great savings! Only a few days left! What is Notebooking?
Easy and Delicious Chili There are a bazillion ways to make chili. Here’s Mine. Here is my family’s favorite. We call it “Sayler Chili”. This recipe is delicious, freezable, and so easy an 8 year old can make it with a little help. Before you have a heart attack. Confession time. I do use a chili kit. I learned this trick from my mom. She always had her favorite kit of spices, so I learned this speed trick from her. My current favorite kit is this one by Carroll Shelby’s. I like it because they individually package each of the spices inside. That means I can add more or less of each of the spices. I used to be afraid to add all of the cayenne pepper, but I have come to love this one just the way they have it packaged!. Last secret. Beans. Not everyone thinks chili is true chili if it has beans. I understand that. But this is my chili, with my name, so it will have beans. (For those of you with lots of kids like me, beans are a filler. Tomatoes are fillers. chili without beans is expensive if you are feeding 5 boys!!! So I use beans. Lots of beans!) This chili is extrememly forgiving. Simply throw in 2-4 cans of whatever your favorite beans are at the moment. I came up with our current favorite combination because I was out of the beans I usually have on hand. It was such a hit that I had to swear an oath that I wouldn’t change this recipe! I use: Dark kidney beans Bush’s grillin’ beans (bourbon and brown sugar) and those weird looking Ranch Style Beans. Do not panic when you open the Ranch beans! They look kinda gross, but they are delicious! Enjoy! If you have a favorite chili recipe, feel free to link in the comments! You’ll find the actual recipe and grocery list here! Find more of my recipes here! Need a great cookbook? Here is my current favorite. Easy recipes. Measurements to enlarge all recipes. Freezer frendly! Delicious!
Homeschooling and Rafting P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Homeschooling is like taking a white water rapid ride down a class 5 river. You are all in, total committed, and yes destined to get soaking wet. Have a blast homeschooling today!
Homeschooling Is A Beautiful Thing! As a parent educator, you have the freedom to weave your family’s values, your educational goals, and your children’s passions into the living journey of homeschooling. You get to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You do not need to become entangled or even burdened with what the school down the street is up to, because you have the ability to design a program that is perfectly suited for not only each of your children, but your entire family as well. To be a successful homeschooler you need a foundation, a plan, and sheer determination. Foundation This is the most essential piece to the homeschooling puzzle. You need to lay a solid foundation for your children and your family. What does your ideal homeschool environment look like? What do imagine your daily routine to look like? How will the house run in the midst of your homeschool day? Will your children help around the house? What part will both you and your spouse play in their education? Will you incorporate your faith into the school day? If you are a new homeschooler, you should take a few days to consider what your foundation should look like. If you are a brand new homeschooler, understand you may laugh at your ideas a few months from now, but that should not stop you from laying an idea of your foundation. Plan It is true, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The good news is, in homeschooling the plan is fluid and changeable. You do not need to stick with plans that are failing, but you do need a plan. What grade levels are your children? What subjects are required in your state? What topics would you like to teach your children? Will you design your own teaching materials or acquire them from a big curriculum company? How long will your school day/year be? Where will you find coaching, mentoring, and encouragement? Sheer Determination Homeschooling is wonderful, but it is also wonderfully hard. It is a huge undertaking to not only educate your child, but keep your home from falling apart simultaneously. There will absolutely be days when you question everything. There will be more than one day, week, or year that you fear that you are ruining your child’s education. This is normal. Before you go any deeper into this thing called homeschooling, you should: Determine that you will stay the course. Determine to never quit out of frustration. When those days come that cause you to believe you should quit, declare it a free play day, go to the library, visit a veteran homeschooler, or go to the zoo. Just determine to never quit out of frustration. Understand that homeschooling is hard, but that just because it is hard does not mean that you are unqualified. Honestly there is no one more qualified to teach your children than you are. You know their strengths, weaknesses, and passions better than anyone else. Homeschooling can be extremely fun, rewarding and exhausting. It is worth every bit of effort to be able to see your child blossom into a curious learner. If what you are currently doing is not working, go back and look at your foundation and plan. As a veteran homeschooler, I can assure you that it is very common for homeschoolers to go on tangents. It is also common to throw out topics or whole curriculums that are not a good fit for your family. Change is good. Homeschooling is good. It is not for everyone, but it is good! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8403195 (Yep, that’s me!)
Solving Percent Problems Made Easy I have a new Activity packet for You! Are you trying to teach your kids percents? I hated teaching percents until recently… I do not know about you, but I would always get confused: Which way do I set up the problem if I know the percent? OK, but what if I am looking for the percent? Ahhh! That’s right. I would scream, “Ahhh!” (In my head) Last week I had a wonderful teacher friend explain solving percent problems to me in less than 2 minutes. No, I am not that smart. Her way is THAT easy! Her way is a “One size fits all” solution to these math problems. Problems like: what is 20% of 100 20 is what percent of 350 5 is 15% of what number All became easy to solve!!!! I made a quick YouTube video to explain it to you and explain it again to myself so I wouldn’t forget. I just completed a packet that will help you reinforce this cool concept with your kids. (Yes, I am an 80’s kid. I said “cool”) Here is the video I made. Be sure to scroll to the bottom and check out the packet. The first one to comment on this post wins a free copy:). Solving Percents Made Easy Perfect First Laptop
Chromebook Perfect Laptop for Kids Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. There are never enough computers in our home! We have a computer scientist, a professional blogger, a sophomore in high school, and a 6th, 5th and 3rd grader here. We are always in competition for use of our computers! We finally bought a Chrome-book for the kids and I am really excited to share our experience with you! This light weight little ditty is perfect for school! Why? It is connected directly with Google Drive. “Google Drive is a cloud storage service that allows you to store your documents, photos, videos and more online in one place. From Drive, you can also access Google Docs, where you can create, share and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more from anywhere while online.” (gcflearnfree.org) I was personally slow to buy into the idea of writing and storing documents in the “never-never land of the cloud”, but it has been a life-saver more than once this past year. We can access any of our work form any computer (as long as we have Internet connections! Create and Store all your kids documents safely on the cloud. No more storage issues. No more, “I need “that” computer issues. Create reports, spreadsheets, and presentations. Even work together with people in different locations. This past week, our high schooler completed a power-point presentation with drive for the first time. All 4 students were able to work simultaneous on the same presentation from their respective homes! They were all so excited! Learn to type This may be a no-brainer in your home, but with limited computer access the boys were not able to squeeze in typing enough to learn. They are all excited to jump in again! We use typing tutor. Learn basic computer programming (like Scratch!) This one is very important to our family. My husband has inspired us all to learn basic programming. The boys are jumping in by learning scratch, our oldest is learning Python. Best News… It is ONLY $249!!! We are test piloting our first chrome book right now. Honestly, for this price we are likely going to get a couple more so we can have our kids work online simultaneously. Click on the image to check it out for yourself. What kind of computers do you have at your home? Do your kids have their own computers? Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! Perfect for work at home moms.
Notebooking Pages Giveaway!! Want some secret sauce? Add notebooking pages templates to your homeschool toolkit!! Tears. BIG ugly tears. I had four kids at my kitchen table and I was desperately trying to teach four different history curriculums. Don’t ask me why. It was a strange year and I had decided I follow what someone else suggested we do. I think I lasted 3 days, before breaking down crying. I solved that drama by hiding all the history books and activities. “How can I do this smarter?” Please tell me I’m not the only one who stops mid teaching to declare, This isn’t working. Go outside and play while I figure out what to do!” My easy button for teaching came right about the same time I was crying. I’m not sure where I learned about notebooking pages, but I never stopped using them after that! Easy to usePerfect for adjusting lessons for multiple agesChild leadGorgeous keepsakes Once or twice a year the creator of Notebooking Pages templates gives away a LOT of her goodies April 26 Anniversary Giveaway Details!! Over $800 in Prizes include: 20 Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Memberships2 ProClick Binding Kits (tool + spines + covers)4 Amazon.com Gift Cards ($50 each) I hope you win!! Yes, there are free pages to try!!
Tolerate uncertainty Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! This post contains my referral link which helps support the work of this site. Here’s my full disclosure policy. “We need to tolerate Uncertainty”. I was reading a book review done by Laura Lee at switching classrooms. This was my first time at her blog and she was sharing about the book Raise a Gifted Child by Carol Fertig. Honestly, I have never seen this book before. Have you read it? What struck me were two words in Laura Lee’s review. Tolerate Uncertainty. I love that. We need to tolerate uncertainty in our children’s learning. That dead space between their saying, “I have no idea…” And the lightbulb moment of “Oh! I know!“ We need to tolerate our kids uncertainty. We need to give them time to process, think, test, reevaluate, test again and form their own conclusions. We need to resist the temptation to fill in the blanks, spoon feed them the correct answers, and give them unearned rewards. Uncertainty is not a bad thing. Actually it is necessary, critically necessary for our children to grow to become free thinking intelligent individuals. We need to be quick to ask, “What do you think?” We need to be painfully aware that the uncomfortable silence is the space and time necessary for their minds to process the question. This was a profound two word phrase to me. Tolerate uncertainty. Today, tolerate uncertainty in your life. In your kids. In general. It is a good thing. Frustrated homeschoolers click Here
A Woodpecker has Tongue 1.5 TImes its Body Length! Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!! Did you know that a woodpeckers tongue is 1 to 1.5 times the length of its body? Did you Know that the impact of its pecking is so intense that if it turned its head just slightly it would snap its own neck? Or did you know that every time the woodpecker hit the wood with its beak it closes its eyes, but then immediately needs to reopen them to aim? Listen to the woodpeckers in your neighborhood as they open, close, open, close, open close their eyes! My husband blessed us with a set of lecture materials from the Creation Education Center this week. The boys and I are hooked after the first DVD! I love science! I especially love how looking at creation through a very scientific lens clearly shows that this universe did not happen by accident! Here is a picture of the DVD’s and book my husband got for us. Today at lunch we broke into the “Creation vs. Evolution: The Case for Science” disc. Set up as a professional lecture, I was surprised that even our 8 year old was fully engaged. The information is laid out simply and in a beautifully visual presentation. We are hungry for more! My plan is to go through one DVD at a time. We will watch it through, get excited, and discuss our first impressions. Then we will go back and dissect it bit by bit. Taking notes, drawing pictures, and doing further research where we are inspired. The speaker Jay Seegrert is engaging and has a quirky sense of humor. The boys loved the way he taught. As a devoted Christian he shares about why his ministry is focused on creation rather than just Jesus here. I feel like we are finally on track with where our family needs to be scientifically. Looking at the actual scientific evidence and then determining if it lines up with our belief that the Bible is true. I am thrilled! How about you? How do you handle the evolution vs. creation study? What do you use to support your belief? Before you leave: Sign up here to receive freebies, deals, and resources!!
Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! March 2, 1904 Hi everyone! Today is Dr. Suess’ Birthday and I love Dr. Seuss! I Worked really hard to pull together a visually stunning post to help you embrace all things Seuss with your kids today… But my computer will not cooperate! You can find more activities than you can handle on my Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Board on Pinterest! Have a Wonderful Day with Your Kids Today!
Swords for Boys Start them off right! Teach them about the armor of God! Ephesians 6:10-18 Free printable I believe every boy needs an armory! We love the Cold Steel practice swords. Please understand. Not everyone can handle the responsibility of a practice sword. These are meant as real trainers. Use discretion! If my husband wasn’t such a Godly man who instills self-control and safety in our boys I would never have been OK advancing past the nerf weapons! Our boys love these training swords: Hand & a Half Training dagger Gladius Chinese Martial Arts Blade Not quite ready for trainer swords? Nerf swords are a fun place to begin! More Goodies for moms with BOYS How to throw an army man with a parachute You will need some great army men to do this fun activity!