Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Wordless Wednesday - Meet Jasper
This is our dog Jasper, aka Jasperdog. He loves to pose for pictures. These pictures make me and my daughter laugh so much. His face says it all!
Click the pic below if you have your own Wordless Wednesday post to link up!
Weekly Bible Verse week 16 {{with link-up}}
I'm sorry it's late this week! This is our verse of the week. I really wanted to stick with the JOY theme of this year so this verse just really jumped out to me. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!
SchoolhouseTeachers.com (Yearly Membership) - A Schoolhouse Crew Review
This month I have been lucky enough to review SchoolhouseTeachers.com, a website that I would say is a must have for any homeschooler. It is full of downloadable, printable elements, and also online classes and video components. If you're a homeschooler, it's likely that you've heard of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. They started out as a quarterly print magazine for homeschool families back in 2001 and have grown to a huge annual print magazine that you can find in big name stores such as Target or Barnes and Noble. SchoolhouseTeachers.com is the curriculum site for The Old Schoolhouse magazine.
When I was asked to review the Yearly Membership, I honestly didn't realize it was going to be such a comprehensive site that included classes for all age kids. There are over 160 classes and courses for kids ranging from Pre-K to High School. They also range in time to last from a few weeks to a full year. One of the things that I love about this site is that the classes are not live. You can start and finish when it's convenient for you. Also, you do not have to buy any additional text books for these courses. That is a huge plus for a family on a budget. The best thing about SchoolhouseTeachers.com is that it's available all for one membership. You don't have to pay per child, so you get everything available for one price. I have to say, it's worth every penny for the amount of resources that you get with your membership.
It felt like Christmas morning when I was able to log in the first time. My only issue with it, is I couldn't decide what to start on first with my kids! It was so exciting to see all of the great classes that were broken down by subject or grade level. The site is easy to navigate and a wealth of educational tools to keep your children busy.
When you become a member, the easiest place to start is the New Members Hub. They are actually working on making this site even easier to navigate through and save you time.
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| New Members Hub is in the drop down menu of "Start Here" |
Let's talk about some of the things they offer. One of the most valuable things that you get with your membership is the access to all 6 digital Schoolhouse Planners. They have everything you need to keep you organized in your home and school. I will be using the customizable Schoolhouse Planner. It has over 800 different pages so that you can personalize your planner to be exactly what you need. There are calendars so that you can keep all that you have to do in one place. Some of the homeschool forms to help stay organized include curriculum library, field trips, notebooking, and unit studies. For the home section, you have options including bible, home keeping, and kitchen. I can't wait to get all of mine printed and put in my big 3 ring binder. It will be nice to start the new year out organized!
**What we tried**
Having only a short time to review everything that's available on the site, I had to really pick and choose a few of things to show you. Some of the subjects that are covered are:
Also included are Resources for Members and Just for Parents or the Whole Family
I decided on letting the kids pick a topic each, and I would pick one. It was a hard choice! I haven't been happy with our grammar curriculum lately, so I decided to give the Daily Grammar a try for both kids.
We will be working on the 5th grade and 7th/8th grade levels. I really like them both so far. They are set up a little differently. 5th grade grammar is taught by Julie Coney, Schoolhouse Dailies Editor. She has home educated 4 children and graduated 2 of them. The 5th grade is worksheet based which Gavin doesn't mind. As of right now, there are 131 daily lessons with answer keys included.
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| Screenshot of some of the lessons on 5th grade Daily Grammar |
Each lesson is laid out so that you can go to that day, and print it off quick and easy. I feel that this will be a good Grammar for Gavin, because it won't take long to do the daily lesson. We are going to start our day off with this everyday.
The 7th/8th grade Daily Grammar is a bit different, but still great. It is a 16 week course including worksheets and answer keys. In this level you are given a worksheet with instructions for one sentence to work with all week long.
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| Sample of 7th/8th grade daily grammar |
Gavin chose to do My Family's Cafe in the Ditch the Desk series. Ditch the Desk is a series of unit studies geared for ages K-5th that promotes hands on activities. It is taught by 3 fellow homeschooling moms Jennifer Holden, Heather Hayes, and Charlene Johnson. Since Gavin wants to be a chef, he knew he wanted to do the My Family's Cafe lesson. He has had so much fun with it too. It is a 4 week lesson that teaches kids about menu making in the first 2 weeks, and then menu pricing in the second 2. Gavin is currently working on the first 2 weeks lessons and has already learned so much. He has chosen recipes from cookbooks and designed a menu for his cafe by looking at real menus from different restaurants. He can't wait to finish this lesson and have his very own menu for his future cafe, Gav's Diner.
The cost of the Yearly Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com might surprise you. I was expecting it to be fairly expensive, but I was wrong. It is normally $139/year or $12.95/month. I really honestly think that it's worth every penny. On top of the classes and courses they offer, you also have access to rightnow media which has 10,000+ videos for streaming! Gavin has watched several videos and has really enjoyed it. Right now through January 31, 2016 they are offering the Yearly Membership for half off! Sign up today and get started on finding some great courses that will fit your family's needs.
Friday, January 1, 2016
I've got one word for you 2016...JOY!!
Out with the old and in with the new! Another year has come and gone. Either you're sad to see it go, or can't wait for it to get the heck out of here. I definitely wouldn't say that 2015 was a bad year for us. I met my very first grandbaby in 2015 and that, if nothing else, made the year worth it. It was a year that went by fast. Looking back on it, I feel like it flew by while I was standing around with my eyes closed.
I didn't have any resolutions in 2015 because I honestly never follow through with them. So, what's the point in making them? I decided this year I would set goals for myself. Actual reachable goals that I can take control of and make happen. So, I was recently on my Schoolhouse Crew forum and they were talking about their one word for 2016. I had never heard of this but thought this would be perfect to go along with my goals for this year. If you were asked to focus on one word for 2016, what word would it be? I instantly knew that my word would be JOY!! The Lord has really been dealing with me lately with that word. I didn't realize until spending some one on one time with Him that I had lost every single bit of my joy. Not only has the enemy taken all of MY joy, but also the joy of people that I love dearly. That has been on my mind constantly the last 2 weeks, so when I saw the post about one word for 2016, I knew it was God really wanting me to concentrate on getting back the joy that was lost.
So, by definition the word JOY means: a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
Some synonyms for JOY are : delight, great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, gladness, glee, exhilaration, exuberance, elation, euphoria, bliss, ecstasy, and last but not least...rapture.
Now, let me count how many of those words described me in 2015. Not a one. Sure, I had moments that gave me "feelings of great pleasure", but on a day to day basis, I had not one ounce of joy in my spirit. There's a song that my kids learned in children's church. It goes "I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart!" You've probably heard it. I sure can't sing that because it's not true at all. I let so many things and so many people take my joy. I allow the devil in to steal my joy. MY joy, not his! The enemy is ecstatic when I let things upset me, and depress me. He's in the business to kill, steal, and destroy. I apparently made it even easier for him by giving in to it. I would let the little seed he planted sit and fester until I was absolutely miserable. I'm not saying that I walked around in a black cloud 24/7, but I was not what you would call happy either. It took a lot to make me smile, because even if it was a good moment, something would remind of the festering seed of the week, and then I would be upset or angry again. I have held a lot of grudges this year and I honestly think that's the basis for my lack of joy. It's a poison when you don't forgive someone. God's really working on me with that forgiveness word too, so maybe I need to make a list of words for 2016. We can just add that to my "Please fix me Jesus" list.
I've realized that I was choosing to allow the devil to come in and steal every bit of my happiness.
Choosing. MY choice. Instead of choosing JOY or happiness, I was CHOOSING to live my life moment to moment and letting the devil win the majority of the time. Have you ever seen people that are just happy all the time? I've always thought those kind of people have GOT to be fake. No one is EVER that happy! No, there really are people that are that happy. If you are one of those people, I'm not picking on you, I've just been jealous that I can't have that kind of happiness. The issue is, I wasn't CHOOSING to be a person that was happy all of the time. It's really an easy choice. You can choose to have joy in your life or you can choose to be miserable. Let's just say my choices haven't been wise ones. I have to have faith and trust in God so that I can allow myself the joy and happiness that He wants for me. He doesn't want me to be miserable and unhappy. I mean this verse says it all!
Psalm 28:7New International Version (NIV)
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise him.
I'm going to start today off with the question of "What changes can I make to give me joy in my life?" Like I said, I don't do well with resolutions so I will start the year with reachable goals.
Instead of focusing on losing weight, I'm going to just eat better. The numbers on the scale will follow or they won't. At the end of the day, I know I'm doing something to better myself, and that makes me happy. I want to eat dinner together with my family in the evenings. No phone, no t.v. just us. I want to do more outings with the kids, even if it's just the park. I'm going to be working to try and grow my blog this year. Lucky you! I also want to try and unplug more and really get into the moment of things, and have more family time in general. The most important thing will be really relying on God for my joy. When I trust in Him, He will always be there for me.
So, this year my word, my MOTTO actually, will be to choose JOY!! I even set my alarm that goes off every morning to say TODAY, CHOOSE JOY!! It's a new day everyday. What is your word for the year and how can you focus on it? I hope you all have a blessed and prosperous new year, and I can't wait to see what JOYOUS things it brings!
"Joy is the serious business of heaven." - C.S. Lewis
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Wordless Wednesday...Doppelganger
Someone told me my daughter looks like Adele. I'm wondering if Adele is her real mom!
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| Edyn/Adele |
To link up your own Wordless Wednesday post click the pic below.
Monday, December 21, 2015
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