Flowers for a Family

For those of you who heard the rumors, they are true. Somewhat. Yes, we are expecting a boy. No, I am not pregnant. We are adopting a not-so-little (6-year-old) boy from Taiwan. I plan to tell the story at mamacurls.blogspot.com over the next few months because we are only a month into this process and it has already been an amazing journey. This post is not to tell the story, but to ask for your prayers and love. This little boy needs a home and family and we would love to welcome him into ours. To raise funds to cover the many costs associated with his adoption, my daughters and I are making paper flowers like the one below. We can make these 3" beauties into lapel pins or hair clips and the colors are limitless. If you can bless us by praying, ordering flowers, or sending this along to your friends, we would be so grateful!  You can place your order at http://curlsandgrins.weebly.com/cards--announcements.html. Thanks so much!

Gearing Up for Year 1 of Tapestry of Grace

In the midst of summer travel and fun, I am gearing up for our family's first year of Tapestry of Grace.  The upcoming school year will be completely different from previous years, and not just because of Tapestry of Grace (that's another conversation).  In some ways I'm sure I have gone beyond necessity, but I am an organizer who has gone too long without organizing.  This has been my list of things to accomplish this summer:
Set up record keeping system: I found Homeschool Tracker to keep track of grades, attendance, and other school related information.  It's simple to use and free.  That's a great combination!  
Sort books: I went through all of our school books and divided them into three categories: use this year, use in the future and sell/give away.  While doing this, I also listed all of the books for this year in Homeschool Tracker.
Order books: After reviewing our library, I ordered books that we needed for our upcoming year.  In addition to the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, I ordered math and supplemental language arts materials.
Learn Tapestry of Grace (my favorite step!): I spent a couple of days perusing my new materials and becoming familiar with how the system works.  I wrote out lesson plans and made folders for each week and put the necessary materials in each week for each child.
Assemble supplies: My girls and I made a list of everything they wanted/needed in terms of supplies.  We sorted through what we already had and then went shopping for everything else.  Each child assembled her binders and put the supplies away in her drawer.
Order books (part 2): Today I ordered all of the literature we will use for the first few weeks of TOG.  I had three browsers open - my local library, my almost local library and Amazon.  I searched the libraries first, then ordered the book at Amazon if neither library had it.
Wait: Now that I have everything together, I will enjoy a week off before we start.  We are all eager to begin!

Home Educating Families Giveaway

Here is your chance to win a bundle of products valued at over $70 to get your homeschool year started right! Hurry - contest ends June 30th!

 

Package includes:

1. "A Journey Home" from Franklin Springs Media
2. "Beside Still Waters" by Tricia Goyer
3. Well Planned Day Planner, 2011-2012
4. 1 year subscription to Home Educating Family Magazine

Click here to enter: Home Educating Family Publishing

Homeschooling with Netflix

When listing my top 5 resources for homeschooling, I have to include Netflix.  Several times each week, we turn to Netflix for documentaries, educational videos and sometimes simply entertainment.  I use these movies when I want to work with one child and another needs an activity or the kids have worked really hard on something and need a little down time.  One day a week I go to my office and I am blessed to be able to take the kids with me.  On that day, they are allowed to watch a movie in the afternoon when their book work is complete.  We also use Netflix on our family movie nights by rewarding our kids with the opportunity to choose a movie (from our pre-selected list) if they have completed X, Y and Z.  Although we rarely use it, I have been known to pop a movie into our portable DVD player for a long car ride on occasion.  Something that we began using to replace television has become a valuable resource for our homeschool.

Every couple of weeks, I visit the Netflix website and add movies to our queues.  We have two queues, one for instant movies streamed to our computer or wii and the other for DVDs mailed to our home.  We can watch the movies in the instant queue in any order so this one is easy to maintain.  Any movie that offers the choice for instant queue, that is what I choose.  As for the DVD queue, the movies are listed in the order they will be shipped.  I am careful to rotate movies to please everyone in the family, so sometimes I have to adjust the order of these movies.  There are a few types of movies that make their way into our queue.  We watch a lot of documentaries about topics we are discussing, especially in social studies and science (Drive Thru History).    When we have read a book and there is a movie version available, we watch those (most recently The Hiding Place and Chronicles of Narnia).  Our youngest daughter likes to watch the cartoons that have a little lesson in them (her favorite is Sid the Science Kid).  As for entertainment, we use Netflix rather than the theater or most other rental places.  We sometimes wait longer for movies, but we don't mind.  Our recent favorites have been The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry and The Ultimate Gift.  We definitely get our money's worth each month.

Tips before adding movies to your queue:

• Check the source of the movie before showing it to your kids.  You don't want to be caught off guard when a science video states something as fact that is simply theory or a history video promotes a point of view that disagrees with your beliefs.  I'm not saying don't show the video because sometimes these are great discussion starters, just be prepared. 
• Know that it's OK to only show parts of a movie.  You pay a flat fee for Netflix, regardless of how many movies you watch.  Take advantage of this and share clips with your kids.  There have been several occasions when we have used bits and pieces of movies to emphasize a specific something and known that we never would watch the entire movie.
• As with anything, take caution in what you introduce. There have been occasions when we have told our kids before watching a show that we are watching a specific portion for a specific purpose and this will not be a regular part of our queue.  This has helped us avoid heartache with some particular series that have a good portion here and there but are not generally on our approved list.
• This may be a no-brainer, but talk to your kids about what they have watched and train them to be discerning.  We have an on-going dialogue about what is and isn't appropriate for our family.  Our kids (even the young ones) are great critics and have decided without prompting to turn some things off.  This is success to me because I want to raise people who can make responsible decisions for themselves, not just do what I tell them to do.

Disclaimer: In no way do I want to promote an idea that movies replace one-on-one instruction.  We use a variety of teaching methods and tools, primarily hands-on learning supplemented with books and other resources.  This is just one of those other resources.  Also, we are grateful that our children have a deep love for reading.  If this was not the case, I would probably be more reluctant to use movies as much as we do (which isn't much).  I encourage you to use the resources in the best way to meet your family's needs.

Choose Your Own Adventure

What do you do when one child finishes her work before the others?  Not just on a daily basis but also for the school year?  We have one child who gets up before everyone else and starts immediately on her work and we have another who drags her feet out of bed and works slowly through the day.  It's no surprise that the early riser is also finished with her work for the year and the other is still trudging through.  Our family has scheduled a time in our homeschool day called "Choose Your Own Adventure." During that time, the kids get to choose from a list of activities that changes according to our needs.  For example, two of the girls are in a play and so rehearsal time has been added into CYOA for now.  The list is always posted on the white board.  It is a typed list inside a page protector.  Seasonal activities are added using a dry erase marker so they can be removed when necessary. The kids who need to finish school work do it during the morning CYOA time.  In the afternoon, everyone gets CYOA time.  There are a few guidelines for CYOA.  Because I strictly limit screen time, each child only gets 30 minutes total each day between the wii and computer.  Also, I ask that if they chose a sedentary activity in the morning, the they choose something more active for the afternoon and vice versa.  So far, the kids have been responsible in their choices and greatly enjoyed choosing their own adventures.

Here are some items that have been on our list: card-making, sewing, baking, reading, correspondence, art projects, music, board games, outdoor play, playing on the wii fit, playing educational games on the computer, pottery, scrapbooking, rearranging bedrooms, science experiments, water play, play-dough, dress up, dog training, coloring pages, crafts, foreign language, drama practice, sudoko, word searches, crossword puzzles, and Bible study.

Doorposts Giveaway

Earlier I blogged about one of my new favorite publishers, Doorposts.  Today I came across Happily Domestic, a blog that is giving away a $50 gift certificate for Doorposts!  Click here to check it out because the contest ends Thursday, May 12.

Hidden Gems in Polished Cornerstones

I didn't realize that I wanted my daughters to be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace until I came across Doorposts.  They are some awesome people who have a multitude of publications dealing with character to help the rest of us raise our children to honor God inwardly and outwardly.

Polished Cornerstones is the first of their publications that we have implemented in our homeschool curriculum.  We discovered it at a conference and began using it the following Monday.  The book takes the girls (and their mother) through a variety of activities as they study qualities found in a Godly woman.  For each quality, there is a list of Bible verses and suggested activities for younger and older girls.  Families may choose as many activities as they like before moving on to the next section.

Although I have two beginners and one intermediate, I have chosen to do intermediate activities with all of them so far.  We do the discussions and activities together and greatly enjoy doing so.  For example, the girls and I read Proverbs 31 together and then categorized the woman's traits according to a worksheet in the book.  The next week, we read the book of Ruth.  I planned to only read one chapter a day for a week, but the girls were so upset when I closed my Bible on the first day that we finished the story in one day.  A couple of days later we used another worksheet to compare Ruth to the Proverbs 31 woman.  Between activities, we discuss what we read and process through it a little more.  Each evening, the girls are eager to tell their dad about what they learned that day and he asks questions to further their understanding.

Anything that gets my girls excited about becoming a more Godly woman is great with me (and my husband). Polished Cornerstones is a crowd pleaser in our house and I look forward to using more of Doorposts' resources in the future.

By the way, to learn about plants and polished cornerstones, read Psalm 144:12-15.