Homeschooling for His Glory

Every so often I try to post about the different links and sites that I recently found. Here is my most recent rundown:  First some interesting blog posts: Julie at The Homeschool Classroom on Combating Homeschool Burnout Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler with some Blogging Tips Mr Mclinky with some more Blogging Tips Homeschooling sites: Oklahoma Homeschoo l is a great site with lots of info on homeschooling, ranging from curriculums to how tos, to printables. A definite checkout. Make sure to browse around, there is a lot more than meets the eye at first. Homeschool Resources has lots of free and not so free worksheets on lots of subjects. Homeschool Math is a great site on everything Math, especially for the homeschool. Nature Detectives is a great sites to help with your nature studies. It has info on lots of plants and animals. Let's Play Math is a cool site with lots of ideas on the subject of teaching Math Audible Kids is

Are you one of those people who feel overwhelmed with all the homeschool information overload around us? Well, today I got to read a great article on the subject. I got it from Homechool Freebie of the Day . It is a great article on how to tame the homeschool information overload to which we are subject. I am one of those people who love to read blogs, check new sites, check new curriculum and ideas, and this article was a great reminder of what to be aware of, and steps to prevent the overload. Some of what she said reflected some of the things I already had been aware of, as well as some of the things I have already been doing, but it was a very enlighting report as well as challenging as to other things and steps that I still need to put into practice. It is free and only available today so I would encourage you to check it out here . Have a great day, Joelle

I rarely post about sales and the like, but I thought I might make an exception for this one. A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had found an interesting site for homeschool resources called NotebookingPages.com . Well next week they are having a great sale on. Here is the e-mail I got: "We are gearing up for a HUGE back-to-school sale at NotebookingPages.com.  During the first week of August (3rd-7th), we will give customers a 50% discount coupon to the store.  For the remainder of the month, all sets will be set to 35% off.   During this five day portion of the sale, customers can buy EVERYTHING in our store for just $50.00 !  During these five days, we will ALSO give all full set purchasers a special e-gift package from several of our publishing friends as well as some of our own free gifts.  We also will have a Pro-Click Binding System prize giveaway for all participating customers.  It's going to be a great back-to-school event for many families!" They really h

Have a great day, Joelle

Photo by Sancho Papa I have a new recently found gadget: it is called OneNote. It is a microsoft office software that was already on my computer and I did not even know it. I first heard about it on Kris' Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers blog. It is pretty handy and easy to use. Are you one of those people who have paper with notes on them hanging all over the house? Are you one of those people always looking all over the house for that one piece of information that you wrote somewhere, and can't seem to locate? Well OneNote can be your answer. I am one of these people, and I have found OneNote very handy in helping me keep track of my notes. Now, every time I find something that I want to remember I write it on my OneNote page. I keep it open on my computer, that way I can easily move from my browser to it. I copy and paste links, information, anything you name it, piece of information. You can even organize it the way you want. I have made notebooks for personal, homeschoo

Today's blog hop is about favorite photo of kids. Again this is a tough one. I am sure many of us have so many picture of our kids we do not know where to put them, and many of them are just so adorable. How to choose. Anyway here are 3 that I picked: Have  a great day!

Today was another one of these lazy days (I know I have a lot of these; isn't that what summer is for? ok, may be not). My kids are very self-directed learners so often time I feel like an outsider, and I just have to sit back and watch them. I did clean behind and under the fridge today, which is an accomplishment for me. I do not know about you, but I do not do that often. The boys have rediscovered Mister Maker , if you do not know that show you should check out the website, it has pretty cool crafts. So, today was a craft, and truck (of course), day. Here is one of the accomplished (sort of) project. Have a great day, Joe lle

Today is my hubby's of 7 years birthday. We do not really make big fusses about birthdays here, but one thing we do is make sure we have a very nice dinner. So, tonight we are having: Tenderloin with Roasties Steamed broccoli Chocolate mousse We also planned to watch a movie at home, hoping that the kids will fall asleep quickly, for a change. Praise God for his gift to me and for keeping him safe throughout this past year. God is always faithful! Have a great day, Joelle

Ami @ Walking by the way had 5 tickets to the upcoming HOTM Conference, and hosted a contest this week. I am so grateful to her because she graciously picked me as a winner. I am really looking forward to attending the conference. It promises to be very uplifting and educating. Thanks again Ami. Have a great day, Joelle

When I began my homeschooling journey, one thing that kept coming up in my readings was the need to inform oneself, read and read and read on homeschooling, learning, and teaching. As I researched about homeschooling in books like The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell,  and Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting started in Homeschooling ,  one topic that kept coming up was the one about learning styles. As I went on trying to homeschool my son who is now almost 6, the need for me to understand this whole thing about learning styles became important. Zach has never done things the usual way. He never liked coloring, he does not like to play games, he like to do things on his own, he learns by hearing and seeing. He does not respond well to direct teaching, yet, if he hears it through a different channel, mainly video, it sticks to his mind. He taught himself to read at 4, and I did not even know. I just happened to see him spell the word stop one day. So, I realize

Have a great day, Joelle

This week blog hop is about your favorite recipe. This is a real hard one for me, since, as I mentioned in the last hop, I love food and I love eating. We try a lot of different recipes at our houses , from very simple inexpensive ones, to elaborated ones, and love a good lot of them. I actually have a blog (which i find hard to keep up, because of time, but that I try to update when i can) devoted to recipes. You can check it here @ The Recipe Box . So,  I had to consult with my hubby on this one , and we both agree that one of our definite favorite is Beef Bourguignon , courtesy of Ina Garten from the Food network. It take some time and effort but is well worth it. Beef Bourguignon 1 tablespoon good olive oil 8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced 2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks 2 yellow onions, sliced 2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves) 1/2 cup Cognac

Last week was our DVBS and everyone had lots of fun. Well, I am not sure about Joho as he wanted to stay with me the whole time. I was on the music team, so I did not get a picture of the singing time. At the end of the week, on the Saturday, we usually have a Barbeque and invite the kids and their parents in an effort to evangelize the non-believer parents. We had a few kids coming back for our Sunday School on Sunday, so that was good. Have a great day, Joelle

I Just learned about the Heart of the Matter Online Parenting and Home Education conference , and am really hoping to attend. The date: August 3-7 2009 This looks like it is going to be great. There going to be live sessions with well-known speakers in the homeschooling community, where you can even ask questions; free access to recorded sessions; $200 worth of freebie and more. And all of that for the humble price of $12.95. I have been enjoying their quartely newsletter, so I am sure this is going to be very beneficial So head on over at Heart of the Matter and check it out. Have a great day, Joelle

I am not much of a planning person (my husband is though), but for this coming year I have decided to do my best and have a yearly plan so that, as my husband would tell me, even if I don't end up following the schedule to the letter, my mind at the very least will be organized. I previously wrote a post about our curriculum. You can check it here . So, so far I have come up with a week by week school plan for the year and a weekly schedule. This is what the week by week schedule looks like. I printed first and wrote on it in pencil. Once finalized, I'll write on the the computer and print it out. Week by week Schedule I am hoping that our weekly schedule will look like this: Bible : Everyday morning and evening Math: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday English (FLL): Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Spelling: Tuesday and Thursday Handwritting: Wednesday History and Geography : Tuesday or Thursday (Readings) Science: Monday (science experiments) Arts and

How elated was I yesterday, when, coming home from a playdate, I find my package from Christianbook.com waiting for me on the sofa.! I love it when new books arrive, as I am sure, many of you do. It was not much, but I was still rather excited. Here is what i got:  Zach's new math book: Primary Math 1A from Singapore Math, which we are going to try out this year. And Prima Latina , from Memoria Press, which I am planning to use in January. Of course I started to look through each one and liked what i saw. I was particularly excited about the Prima Latina layout and am  thinking of using the same layout to come up with a french curriculum for the boys. Have a great day, Joelle

 . Last week I discovered a blog hop which I thought was a nice idea. So I have decided to participate. It's hosted by MckLinky creator Brent Riggs (I discovered it on Kristen's blog though). If you don't know what a blog hop is (I didn't!) click here . This week,  the theme is THREE THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME So here we are: I am a pastor's daughter, a pastor's wife and my brother-in-law is a pastor as well. My home of origin is a small island called Martinique. How many of you know where that is? (Please let me know; I would be interested; I have met lots of people who had not idea where it was). A little hint: it is french. I love food, i love to eat (is it ok to say that?) and I love to bake. (So does my husband except that in his case he likes to cook) I guess some of you might have known that already since I have another blog called The Recipe Box (sorry, it is not as well updated as this one just because I do not have time to type u

Today I am feeling rather lazy and tired. it may have to do with going to sleep past 11:00 o'clock on a regular basis maybe. My mind has been running over time, cogitating on several things at the same time. I am working on the plan for the next school year, which I am planning on starting in August. I have been working on preparing a yearly lesson plan. I have divided the year (August to June in weeks  in which I am writing down what I am planning or hoping to cover for each subject (basically the chapter in whichever book we are using). I am also working on a resource book list to use for Science and Arts and Crafts. I am researching them and checking them out of the library to see what will use from it. I will be posting pictures of these once they are completed and ready to go. We are also planning and hoping to take a trip down to Williamsburg, VA, so I have started to look into things to entertain the kids for that 12 hour drive. More to come on this in the next few weeks. Th

Yesterday we went for our annual strawberry picking family trip. How much fun we had!  Enjoy the pics. Have a great day, Joelle

I have mentioned before how Zach gets very focused on a certain subject for weeks and that exclusively. For a while it was trains ( I think we have read all the books at the library about trains). Although he is still very interested in trains, for the past few weeks he has been heavily into trucks, constructions and building. That is the only thing he is interested in doing these days. My living room is a permanent building site with trucks and blocks, and anything that can be scooped up and dumped. Here are some of the books they are enjoying in connection with their building frenzy: The Science of Structures Machines in Actions: levers Wheels at Work: At a Construction Site The House that Max Built Heavy Equipments up Close A Year at A Construction Site The Busy Building Book Trucks Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! Wake up Engines The Mighty Sweeper Have a great day, Joelle

On our last trip we picked up a  book called My First Encyclopedia. It is packed with information on topics such as science, earth and space, human body, animals, ancient times, and people and places. Zach and I have been enjoying it. It has  activities to do and fun facts.  Now, I have to warn you, it does have stuff on evolution (which I definitely do not agree with). I'll probably stapple these pages for now. I got this book because a year ago, I purchased for him Smart-Opedia and he has enjoyed it tremendously. He would go to sleep with it and and take it into the car. Since he is an independent learners these are great to encourage learning and provide information to which he might be reluctant to receive in a lecture format.   Have a great day, Joelle

"Mom, what school does a scientist go to?" This is a question my 5.5 year old asked me yesterday. Don't you love it when that happens? Who does not want his child to end up to be a lover of science and knowledge. As a matter of fact, as difficult as Zach can be, in that he only likes to learn about what he want to learn at the moment, these days he has been into science, wanting to do a science experiment all the time. It has been pretty cool. I guess I better enjoy it while it last . . . Have a great day, Joelle

I just came across this website  neok12, and thought I would share. It has educational videos on a whole lot of school subjects ranging from science topics to math, language art and social studies. It is definitely worth checking out. Have a great day, Joelle

Here is what I stumble upon in the house, made by my 3.5 year old. He just arranges it and leaves it there. Replicat of this from the box My 3 year old never ceases to amaze me! ! Have a great day, Joelle

As I mentionned in some previous blogs, I have been in the organizing, planning mode these past few weeks. Here are some of the things I have done. Organizing the craft and junk section: Organizing my recipe binder which is was in an unbelievable mess with all these recipes that I print off Recipezaar Sorting them by categories My plastic container drawer Some book and homeschool stuff Have a great day, Joelle