Another crazy week around here ~ Weekly Wrap-Up

It's been a little while since I've done a weekly wrap up. We have just been so busy, that we haven't had one typical week! Our busy schedule is exactly why I love year round homeschooling! It gives us the flexibility to take off when we need to. That is working for us right now considering we will be having company three weekends in a row. We will probably only be having 3 day school weeks right now.

This past week we had my husband's parents come for a visit and we really enjoyed our time with them. They came in Thursday and we ended up going out to dinner. It was nice to have some adult time, and enjoy adult conversation.

Friday we took the kids to their hotel room so they could swim, and they ended up swimming all day. It was super hot, so the day was perfect for hanging at the pool. I got to watch Gav make several friends that he would only see that day, and probably never see again. He amazes me that he can make friends where ever he goes. We ended a great day with dinner at the hotel, and then more swimming. The kids were exhausted that night and slept like babies!

Saturday was our last day with their Mam-Maw and Pap-Paw and they surprised them with a trip to Natural Bridge Caverns. If you've never been, it's a real treat. Be prepared though, it's HOT! 

This trip we didn't do the caverns. They rode the zipline, did the obstacle course, and had a total blast!

On our way home, we saw some beautiful deer on the side of the road. It looked like they were posing for us. 

We ended the fabulous weekend celebrating Father's Day for my hubby. He really loved the card he got from the kids. 

Tomorrow is the start of another busy week. We are so excited to have so many people of our family come to see us. We have no family where we are, so we will gladly take as many visits possible!

Have a wonderful week!

Internship for High School Credit from Apologia Educational Ministries ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

Homeschooling high school can be a very rewarding, but also a very tedious process. You want to incorporate as much as possible into their high school years, and give them experiences that they may not even get in public school. Have you ever thought about an internship to get them some experience in their career of choice? For the last few weeks we have been reviewing the Internship for High School Credit from Apologia Educational Ministries and have found it extremely helpful. 
What did we receive? Internship for High School Credit is a nice spiral bound, consumable workbook that is close to 100 pages of worksheets to help your student with an internship. 

What is an internship? I have been going over this workbook with my high school student, Edyn. She is still trying to figure out what she wants to do for a career, but she does have photography in mind. What a wonderful opportunity it would be to be able to work under a successful photographer. She would be able to gain knowledge and work experience, and not to mention hands on learning. Immersion learning to me is the best way to get experience in your career choice. An internship under an established photographer would provide an opportunity better than any text book could ever give her. This workbook mentions benefits such as:

• Explore a career
• Learn day-to-day job responsibilities
• Discover job likes and dislikes
• Focus more closely on a college major
• Bolster a college application
• Gain experience related to career goals
• Increase scholarship opportunities
• Gain marketable skills
• Increase potential job offers

How does this book work? This workbook will help walk you through the process of gaining a high school internship. Internship is possible with pretty much any career field. It starts off talking about choosing the type of internship that you would want, and also choosing a company that you would want to intern with. You will learn how to help prepare your student for interviews by choosing the appropriate clothing and also how to write a resume. 
You can also potentially earn high school credit for an internship. You will need to figure out how many hours that you need to intern to count towards a half credit or full credit. This workbook is either worked in one or two semesters depending on the credit you are wanting or needing.
Let's talk about some of the things that I found to be extremely helpful. First off, writing a resume. I can't tell you how important it is that a high school student is able to write a good resume. This workbook gives a great example of not only a student resume, but also a letter of introduction. These are both key parts to obtaining an internship, and even later on a job. 

After receiving an offer for an interview, there are pages that discuss what to wear, what to bring, and even how to greet your interviewer. Sit up straight. Don't chew gum. These are all important steps to becoming a good employee, and some teenagers may not even think about them. Lots of great reminders on how to handle yourself as a successful young adult.

After starting the internship there will be worksheets to complete, some with your supervisor, so that the skills you learn will be defined and laid out for you. Weekly worksheets, Work Performance worksheets, and Skills Gained are just to name a few. 

What did we think? I honestly think that Internship for High School Credit from Apologia Educational Ministries is a great addition for your high school student. Adding an internship to a high school transcript looks great and can help in their search for a college.  Please feel free to also check out another product that's being reviewed at this time called How to HOMESCHOOL with Stunning Confidence, Contagious Joy, and Amazing Focus (DVD & Coursebook). 
I have reviewed several products from Apologia and have always been satisfied by them all! They never disappoint!
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Homesteading...my dream of getting back to basics and backyard farming

Have you ever felt that God has led you to do something, and at first it seems totally crazy, but then it all makes sense? Rewind to almost a year ago, and that's exactly what happened to me.

I had decided I was going to go on a journey to save money. I was trying to decide where to start because we were a paycheck to paycheck family. We always have been, and I've always hated it. I knew that one of the most obvious places to start would be with our food. Around the same time, I was also trying to start getting as much processed food out of our diet as I could, and then it hit me. I needed to figure out a way to grow our own food. As they say, that was all she wrote. My garden research turned into cooking from scratch, which I pretty much already did. I then started watching YouTube videos, and it all started snowballing from there. I want to raise chickens. I want a milk cow. I want goats. I want to raise our own meat birds etc. I decided what we needed to do was get back to the basics of living. I wanted to homestead.

Growing up, I had grandparents who homesteaded before homesteading was cool. Growing your own food, cooking from scratch, sewing, that was all a way of life for them. I never realized as a child running through their garden that one day, all of that would be the life that I wanted. I took it for granted that they grew this food, and they did it very well. I didn't learn their secrets to gardening, how to sew, or can food, and I really regret it. I've always felt that I live in the wrong time period. I would love to step back in time, and live a much simpler life.

So, we are on a mission. Right now, I am homesteading where I'm at. This is hard considering I live in the suburbs of San Antonio, but you can homestead anywhere. Homesteading is what you make it. It's definitely what I call baby homesteading, or newbie homesteading, but it is what it is.

I am learning to garden, even though it's in 5 gallon buckets. It won't produce enough to put any food up, but it's a start. Next year, I'm planning bigger and better. This year's garden has definitely been a hands on learning experience. I can't wait until next year. I have big plans already.

 I will also be learning how to can. We have several farmer's markets and also wholesale produce places that sell organic produce at a discounted price because it's in bulk. We will be purchasing our first canning set very soon!

I cook from scratch 90% of the time. I don't use hardly any boxed foods as we are trying to eat real food. I have learned to bake my own bread, and even gluten free for Gav. Just the savings from baking my own gluten free bread is amazing considering I was paying $7 a loaf! I love baking bread so much. I honestly should have made a career out of it lol. I can bake bread that has no chemicals or preservatives and it tastes so much better than store bought.

I am doing as much learning and research as I can on chickens. I plan on knowing all I can before I get them, even though I will learn much more when I finally do. I am already planning my coup, and learning how to feed them organically so that we can get the best eggs possible.

I know that when we start, we will start small and hopefully add on. I never want to take on more than we can manage. I will be happy to start out with a garden and chickens. I would love to eventually be 100% self sustained, but that would be extremely hard. I've learned to never say never though. Who knows what kind of land we may end up with. I know God has a plan, and I'm super excited to see where it leads us.

I've learned so much in just a few short months. I literally try to research different things every single day to gain knowledge. So, we are on our way to getting out of debt, so that we can find the perfect house homestead for us. I will post more about how we are using Dave Ramsey later. I'm ready to put down some roots, and get started on this journey.

Blessings,

Tasha

Weekend Fun ~ Wordless Wednesday

Nature's Beautiful Order by Memoria Press ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

I think Gavin's favorite subject to study is Science. He has always taken an interest in all branches of Science, but I think anything to do with animals is probably his favorite. For the last few weeks we have been reviewing Nature's Beautiful Order by Memoria Press, and it's been a great introduction to Biology for him.

If you're familiar with the homeschooling world then you have probably heard of Memoria Press. They are a classical Christian educational company that was founded in 1994 by Cheryl Lowe. 

Memoria Press prides themselves on a classical education, and their products are characterized by simplicity, quality, and affordability. They specialize in making sure that their products are easy to use by parents who are not familiar with the subject being taught.

What did we receive?

Memoria Press is always very generous with their products that we review. We were given the Nature's Beautiful Order text, the Student Guide, and Teacher's Key. 

The text book starts with an Introduction so that you can get a better understanding of the purpose of the book. It then covers 18 chapters that starts with "What is an Animal?" and works all the way to "Man the Steward."

Like most of Memoria Press' products, we had a consumable student workbook that had comprehension questions to go over with each chapter. The Teacher's Key was basically the workbook with all of the answers. This always makes grading or going over it together so much easier. 

What is Nature's Order all about?

Like I said before this is an introduction to Biology. It's mainly focused on grades 6th - 8th, but can be used to supplement older Biology students. 

After the brief introduction of  "What is an Animal" you are then taken right into the cat. It talks all about the cat and it's structure and characteristics. I have to say that at first Gavin was not interested. I'm not sure whether it wasn't holding his attention, or some of it was over his head. We pressed on and did find that some of the other chapters were much easier to understand for him. 

Each chapter from here on out, moves to a different animal and where it falls into nature's order. We worked through about a chapter a week, and I think his favorite chapter was about The Bee since we hope to one day have our own bee hives. He loved learning about the workers, drones, and of course the queen. Another of thing that he learned was that bees are a lot like humans and live in families. 

We haven't completed the book, but it does end with Man the Steward. Being that this is a Christian curriculum, which we love, it talks about the Earth and that it's our job to take care of it and all things in it. 

What did we think?

I think this is a great and useful set to have for Biology. I really loved it and it completely interested me, but only parts held Gavin's attention. This has nothing to do with the quality of the curriculum, but more to do with Gavin and what interests him. The curriculum is fantastic, very solid, and interesting to read. 

If you love Memoria Press, they also have other products that they offer including an assortment of Latin programs and a really fun set that is called The Book of Trees.

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Tomatoes from my garden

Heroes of History - Milton Hershey by YWAM Publishing ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

This year we added in a Biography read aloud time during our school day. We couldn't have asked for a better book to start with other than Heroes of History - Milton Hershey in the Heroes of History series by YWAM Publishing.

I was introduced to these books last year, and I was super impressed by the one we read. Heroes of History is a biography series about influential people that bring history to life. The story form of the book tells all about the people who have helped shape our history over the years, but also makes you feel like you are right there with them.

What did we receive?

YWAM Publishing sent us the physical book, which is a little under 200 pages. They also sent us the downloadable digital study guide that goes along with the book. This way you can take this book and turn it into a unit study if you want to.

The digital study guide is very easy to access after you download it. The great thing about it is that it's not just for homeschool settings. There are also guides for small groups and classrooms. The first part of the Unit Study is the main part with all of the questions, ideas for activities etc. The second part includes the fact sheets, timeline, and mapping exercises. This Curriculum Study Guide is full of information and wonderful ideas. 

How did we use it?

Like I said, we used this as part of our read aloud time. We tried to at least read a chapter a day and then go to our study guide. The study guides are really amazing and so well put together. Like I said before, it is so easy to turn this book into a unit study. After we read our chapter for the day then we would use the Chapter questions to review. These review questions always sparked some great conversations. One of my favorite parts is when they give you a word that was in the book, and ask you to use it in a sentence. My kids had a lot of fun with this vocabulary exercise. These books go into great detail not only about the subject of the book, but also about times and things in that time period of the book. This always sparked conversations about that time period. 

This book in particular tells all about the life of Milton Hershey, and what a life it was! My kids learned that he had to go through many disappointments before being successful. They loved hearing about the chocolate of course, but I think what interested them more was the hard work that was put into making something as simple as candy. To them, candy just magically appears on the shelf at the store. Milton Hershey had to make all of it by hand and then sell it for pennies on the street long before he was ever a household name. He faced so many hardships in his life, but one thing is for sure, he never gave up.


What did we think?

Saying that these books are good is an understatement. I knew last year that I wanted more of these books, and I'm hoping to be able to get the entire set. They are so engaging, and even have great chapter cliff hangers! They go into so much detail about the person, but also about the tools they used, and the events that happened in history around them. If you are looking for great biographies you really should check out the Heroes of History set, or the Christian Heroes: Then & Now, they are both so good and you won't regret it. 

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