Wordless Wednesday Week 21 & 22

Because last week The Schoolhouse Review Crew and I were having way to much fun I didn't post our normal Wordless Wednesday post, I was busy telling you about our homeschool essentials! 

So instead of one week we have two!

Made Mattie's Birthday Cake for my brother and she requested a Butterfly and I was scared to death but hey it was great!

At Mattie's party they gave me a little cake because my birthday was the 20th...

Homeschool Art Day. Started with watching a great Art Alive presentation and I can't brag enough on it! Then a momma taught us how to paint a little! 

Found the perfect place for each of the kids canvases when we got home! They filled the half room with some much needed personality!

Last but not least favorite - We cuddled and read the entire book in one sitting... It was so nice!

 

Bright Washes & Bright Wishes{Purex Giveaway}

Have you ever heard of Make A Wish Foundation? I'm so sure you have and understand the huge impact this organization makes for these incredible kids and families.

Make A Wish grants wishes of children with life threatening illness in an effort to make them feel hope, joy and strength for the battles they are facing. 

However I bet you didn't know that Purex helps donate money to the foundation! I personally love Purex products and have used them for years but this single act of kindness helps my faith in the product that I purchase!

Purex will pay a minimum guarantee of $250,000 to Make A Wish and you can help them make a difference by purchasing Purex liquid detergent or softener during the month of February and hopefully raise that payment to $400,000!!!

So if your like me and already buy Purex than you can thank yourself for helping Purex help Make A Wish! Thanks for taking part in helping a child get their wish!

Here are some neat facts I found:

In 2013 alone they granted 14,000 wishes!

96% of parents said it helped bond and strengthen their family

The average wish costs $8,200

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!

Purex sent me coupons to giveaway to 2 of my readers! There will be 2 winners and each winner will receive 1 coupon for a free bottle of Purex Mountain Breeze Detergent for a maximum value of $6.00.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway runs from January 27th - February 3rd, only US residents can enter, winners will have 48 hours to verify their winnings or I will pick another winner. 

A Valentine's Devotional On Sale

Don't you just love Valentine's Day? Around here we do. It is such a special time of showing love to each other, not that we don't all year long but it's different and can be fun! 

What a perfect time of year to teach about God's love for us!

Heather Bowen from Upside Down Homeschooling has just released her new devotional:

God First Loved Us!

This devotional is a 14 day study for grades 1 - 7. Meaning all 3 of my children are able to enjoy this!

The devotional is 69 pages including many different activities to enforce the topic being taught for that day.

Heather used the HEARTS acronym for her lessons each day, so let me explain.

H - Handwriting

E - Exploring Scripture

A - Act (puzzles, crafts, etc.)

R - Reflect

T - Talk To God

S - Share

One thing that I appreciate since this is for varying ages is the difference in the journaling pages. I have the need for both in our homeschooling. Each lesson has either dotted writing pages for the new learners or normal for the older.

Introductory Pricing is $2.99!!

Promo Code: HEARTS takes $1.00 off making the final price $1.99 now through Sunday 1/26 at 11:59pm EST

Homeschool Essentials ~ Prayer

Welcome to the last day of Homeschooling Essentials Blog Hop from the Schoolhouse Crew. There have been 89 of us participate so if your looking for help or ideas please check out some of our awesome blogs! I have made it easy and listed some at the bottom of this post!

So far this week you have found my personal essentials to homeschooling:

Monday - Routine Matters

Tuesday - Curriculum - Make it Or Break it

Wednesday - Supplies Are You Prepared?

Thursday - Children Advice & Thoughts

And finally today I would like to touch on Prayer & Attitudes! 

Over the years of homeschooling that I have put in, I will be totally honest. I have grown so much in my faith and walk with Jesus than I ever think I would have in another path. Homeschooling brings out the good, bad and ugly in everyone around you daily. Your children see the great things you do as well as the horrible things that follows and since they are always with us they hopefully see us practice mercy and grace. 

Prayer became essential to me when my homeschooling grew and I thought I didn't have it under control anymore. I was actually ready to through in the towel. 

God is able to speak to your heart so graciously and if your seeking your going to hear him. Daily prayer and devotion is so very important to keeping our spirit and soul joyful and focused where we need. Praying and watching my children daily helps me to stay sensitive to my babies needs and I pray for God to lead me through it all.

I like thinking that I am willing to help God in and through my children. Maybe helping him raise more soldiers keeps me going on more than one day!

Keeping my spirit encouraged is the number one problem that I encounter, if I can't keep my mind and spirit joyful how can I get angry with my babies when they are having these issues? I try so hard to make sure I read my devotional daily before we start school and we crank up the praise music in the mornings during our breakfast time which helps my heart and soul! 

One day at a time is the best way for me to approach my days! This is easy to say but very difficult to follow through on! Each day I try to toss out the thought of what didn't get done yesterday or what needs done before tomorrow because Satin will try to steal my joy and happiness in all things even schooling my children. Seeking God daily helps me have strength, if I run ahead to tomorrow I will miss out on a huge blessing today!

So many times after our day I feel as if I am empty having nothing to give to my husband or the kids after school is complete. I ask for God's love to fill my heart and give me energy to continue what I know he wants me to finish.

God knows what you need too, to stay motivated when facing hard times and the challenge of homeschooling. God will give us great opportunities to praise him!

I've noticed just as I go to the Lord for my strength my babies come to me for help and strength through battles with multiplication when she thinks there is no way she will ever learn it, or when my oldest comes to me hating the book he has to finish or when the science experiment back fired bad!! My children need help just like I do and they need assurance just like I do. 

Prayer is essential in my moment to moment! 

What about you?

Below are some of my friends essentials to check out and click here to read on The Schoolhouse Blog!!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking With Heart

Joelle @ Homeschooling For His Glory

Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads 

Children's Advice & Thoughts

This week the Schoolhouse Review Crew is Blog Hopping through Homeschool Essentials be sure and check out our wide variety of essentials per family!

Here is what you will find here at The Arrowood Zoo

Monday - Routine Matters 

Tuesday - Curriculum: Make it or Break it

Wednesday - Supplies: Are you prepared?

And today Thursday - Children's Advice and Thoughts

In this homeschooling journey of ours many times it never occurred to me to ask my small ones what they liked or what they wanted to learn about. 

Until one day it just happened all by itself. My son although the oldest just never really wanted to explore other topics than what I supplied but Lexi my eager learner said "Mom I want to learn about Frogs." And it began.

At first when she asked me about that I was almost speechless, like you are really wanting to learn something more? New? Different? Oh and I don't have a guide for that! LOL, yeah really I said that to myself! Scared to death I was going to do something wrong!

Then I was so overjoyed and dug to find her anything to learn about frogs. That has spiraled now for years. This one question actually opened us up for a lot of children lead learning. This also introduced us to lapbooks which she loves!

Over the years I have seen how my children love me asking what THEY want to learn. I think it is very important to let your children seek out their interests. It helps them be accountable and put more willingness into learning. 

As my kids have grown and years have went by the way we do this has changed a lot. 

Right now the way it works for us is each 8 weeks I ask them what topic or topics they would like to study. This is apart from our normal subjects. I put together studies or print off studies, get books from the library and piece it all together and they complete this during a time limit each day on their own. 

When they finish with their topic we share it almost like a "show and tell" so that they can explain what they have learned to me and their brother & sister. 

Seems to work really well for us. 

I've touched on topics I never thought I would and had a lot of fun with them learning. It really is amazing when you allow your child to take the lead and watch them take off! 

Never in a million years would I have thought I would do this kind of learning with them but I tell you it is somewhat freeing!

Below are some of my friends essentials to check out and click here to read on The Schoolhouse Blog!!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking With Heart

Joelle @ Homeschooling For His Glory

Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Supplies ~ Are you Prepared?

Thanks for joining me once again talking about Essentials in our homeschool. This week the Schoolhouse Review Crew is Blog Hopping about all the essentials in homeschooling. There is a ton of variety so make sure you check some out (I've helped make it easy by listing some at the bottom of the post)!

So far here at The Arrowood Zoo we have talked about Routine Matters, Curriculum: Make it or Break it and finally today we will talk about Supplies: Are you Prepared?

Homeschooling is a huge undertaking. So many people just don't understand why we mothers want to stay at home all day with our children when there are other ways to go but little do they know that homeschooling is a passion. The joy of seeing our children learn and grasp things are blessings that I totally do not want to miss. 

Homeschooling takes a lot of preparation, so with that said are you prepared?

Depending on the age of your children will depend on what you prepare and how long it takes you to get ready for your week or even your year. 

Homeschool mothers all prepare differently, some monthly, some yearly but I prefer to prepare weekly in some aspects of our schooling.

While my children where smaller I prepared puzzles, games, coloring sheets and things to that nature to have ready for them so we could have a fun and smooth day. 

As your children get older you will see that you have to prepare different items and in different ways. Your supply of products will change too. 

Over the years I can't express enough how you can come to a chilling halt just because you're not prepared with the proper supplies!!!! It will ruin your day and most likely how the teaching was going! Kind of like answering the phone when it rings and you know you shouldn't have! Side Tracked! And as we all know once you mess that day up it's very hard to get that flow back going again.

This is one area I have to really strive to work hard at. When the kids where little it was so much easier because if I didn't prepare enough they could take a break and go play or grab another puzzle until momma was finished but that only lasts for a while. So if your there - ENJOY IT.

Not having the proper items prepared really is a huge problem. We have been in the middle of history before and need something and guess what - I didn't have it. For either the lack of me paying attention or the lack of my effort. This is really horrible to admit but I know I am not the only homeschool parent in the world that has done this and after all I'm just keepin' in real.

So you stop that history lesson and run to the printer only for the printer to need paper... You get it - RUINS IT ALL. 

You have to find a balance in getting your supplies and books prepared for your homeschooling. I have finally found something that works fairly well for me.

I look through every subject the week before and determine if I need copies or if I need supplies for that chemistry experiment and so I have 3 days normally to prepare if needed. I try to look over all our studies by our mini - mesters, see we school 8 weeks on 2 weeks off all year long so I have found that I can plan, print and organize based on our 8 week schooling. I really love doing it that way but for science experiments and supplies sometimes it is hard.

This is when I print a lot of my notebooking pages off or our Mystery of History coloring pages off or even extra math drill pages if I know it looks like something we will have issues with. 

I honestly print too much and prepare too much because it is so much easier to throw it in the recycling than to mess up my day and having to stop teaching to print something off or putting that experiment off until next week because I didn't have vinegar!!??

So you get the point. 

Be prepared make sure you find a groove that works for you to be prepared and ready for your week! It will make learning so much more pleasant and you will be happy that you did!

Below are some of my friends essentials to check out and click here to read on The Schoolhouse Blog!!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking With Heart

Joelle @ Homeschooling For His Glory

Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Homeschool Essentials - Curriculum - Make it Or Break it

This week the Schoolhouse Review Crew is blog hopping through Homeschool Essentials be sure and check out our wide variety of essentials per each family!

Yesterday I explained how Routine Matters! If you missed that please go back and read it here.

Today we are going to talk a little about Curriculum and how it will make you or break you and your children!

Years ago when I started homeschooling I didn't know anything about anything - really! I've learned so much so fast it really amazes me. 

When I started out homeschooling a Kinder at the spur of the moment because we had so many issues for 3 weeks in public school and brought him home, I honestly was just lost. I was scared, how was I going to teach him anything? Luckily my Aunt knew someone who homeschooled and she told me about Alpha Omega. At the time I honestly thought they were the ONLY choice. I was content with the program UNTIL 2 years later exploring and finding HUGE amounts of products to homeschool with! 

Trouble started then. and. there.

The first problem was there was too much too choose from! 

The second problem was did it teach to MY child?

Fast forward 7 years to this very date and let me explain to you a few tips I've learned about picking curriculum and how it will totally and most defiantly affect your homeschool day and the way you teach.

You don't have to use what everyone else is using. Trust me, we all blog about fun things we are doing but that's just because the majority of bloggers keep a blog for their scrapbook. Some of us blog about neat resources because we are blessed to be on the Schoolhouse Review Crew and get to try items out for free however some of those aren't even great fits for our families.

You're going to have to try things to see if you and your child like them. You can't really just take advice on something like this, you have to buckle up and go for it. Only through experience will you determine the best for you and your children.

You might love something that caters to you great in teaching mode but your child really might hate it and sad to say but we are after all teaching our children so it would have to go... I can't tell you how many times I have loved some teaching materials but it just really never clicked with my kiddos. Like I said before I'm not teaching myself (although I learn a ton in teaching he kids) so if it isn't going to help my babies - It goes.

You will waste money on books, curriculum and extras that you will never see again. I know you didn't really want me to say that but hey it's the simple fact of homeschooling. You're going to buy books, unit studies, games, etc that you even might love and use but the next family you try to sale it to might not be so eager and understand.

Something that works for your oldest might not work for your middle child. No two children are alike when it comes to learning, you are going to really have to study your children to understand how best to teach and apply concepts to them. 

However don't get discouraged! I used to think if I was going to use Language from Bob Jones everything I used had to come from Bob Jones, I guess I never really give it a thought that - duh - You don't have to buy everything from ONE place!

After I had that huge amazing freeing thought it totally changed my homeschool. Actually my husband would say it created a monster!

It honestly was one of the most freeing feelings in the world to me knowing that I could educate my children using different publishers. It meant that I could cater to different learning speeds, different approaches, different loves of subjects and all and still not be the horrible out of touch mother that I thought I would be with jumping the ship and going so crazy to buy from so many different companies!!!!

With that said - Be free in your homeschooling.

What you teach with will totally affect your day.

Just for fun since I went on about how many different publishers we use here is my list of normal for us:

Math U See

Growing with Grammar

All About Spelling

Memoria Press

Mystery of History

Christian Kids Explore

Handwriting Without Tears

After much trial and error these are our awesome and loved publishers!

Check out my friends today and see what they have for you! 

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking With Heart

Joelle @ Homeschooling For His Glory

Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads


Swing by the Schoolhouse Review Blog too!

Join me tomorrow for Supplies - Are you prepared?

Homeschool Essentials - Routine Matters

This week the Schoolhouse Review Crew is Blog Hopping about  Homeschooling Essentials. Each of us of course have our own take on this, so that's why it is very important for you to scroll and read several blogs this week, I have some posted at the bottom for you to enjoy!! You will get variety that way! 

Here is what you will find at The Arrowood Zoo this week:

My Essentials 

Monday ~ Routine Matters

Tuesday ~ Curriculum - Make it Or Break it

Wednesday ~ Supplies - Are you prepared?

Thursday ~ Children's Advice & Thoughts

Friday ~ Prayer & Attitudes

So let's talk about why a Routine is important. 

Schedules are something that I have a love hate relationship with honestly! I try really hard to follow them but I don't like to have to follow it to the exact time frame. That's just not for me. 

Routine - Now that is something that I do well. My husband jokes about it all the time. He says it don't matter if I get up to do the exact same thing down to eating the exact same meal every day until I die and I would be content with it. Well he loves me and knows me because that's true.

 Over the 9 years of schooling my routines and schedules have changed tons but that's actually a really good thing now that I think about it. It shows that I can adapt to the ways my children and I need to school. This is huge in homeschooling. Our children change as they grow older and need more instruction or if your homeschooling journey is changing routines need to be altered.

As my children have grown our needs have changed and being able to see that your routine needs tweaked is essential in having a smooth day.

When I first started out with Kyle being 5, Lexi 2 and a newborn baby on my side I may have spent 15 minutes tops at a time schooling Kyle. However we did many 15 minute lessons through the day but that was all I could do. At the time I felt why oh why am I doing this, it's not going to work I mean only 15 minutes 8 times a day or so is nothing! Man was I wrong, I'm glad that I realized it didn't matter the amount of time it mattered that it was what I could offer, he was learning while playing and I tried my best.

Later on when I had older children I blocked their learning time but quickly learned that I could school together in areas too! This was a great time saver for me. 

I believe it to be essential to evaluate your schooling routine often. Honestly, I try to look at our routine every few months. Even if I only change something minor it's different and might work best at that time in our life. As the homeschool mother we need to make certain that we are having the best day possible. Our heads cleared for our children to learn and explore to the best of our ability.

If that means you change your routine and schedule 7 times this year so be it - You will eventually find the groove that works for you!

I've been at this homeschooling thing for 9 years and because my children are still growing I need to tweak and alter my routine still. So my friends don't get discouraged when your day just seems ruined and impossible, start trying to rearrange your days until it gets better!

Join me tomorrow for Curriculum: Make it Or Break

Below are some of my friends essentials to check out and click here to read on The Schoolhouse Blog!!

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking With Heart

Joelle @ Homeschooling For His Glory

Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

1. Marcy @ Ben and Me
2. Lisa @ Golden Grasses
3. Tess @ Circling Through This Life
4. Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
5. Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
6. Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
7. Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
8. Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool
9. Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
10. Rebecca @ Raventhreads
- See more at: http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/5-days-of-homeschooling-essentials-blog-hop/#sthash.8xgfKDbj.dpuf

1. Marcy @ Ben and Me
2. Lisa @ Golden Grasses
3. Tess @ Circling Through This Life
4. Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
5. Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
6. Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
7. Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
8. Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool
9. Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
10. Rebecca @ Raventhreads
- See more at: http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/5-days-of-homeschooling-essentials-blog-hop/#sthash.8xgfKDbj.dpuf

3. Tess @ Circling Through This Life
4. Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart
5. Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo
6. Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
7. Deanna @ His Treasure Seekers
8. Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool
9. Beth @ Ozark Ramblings
10. Rebecca @ Raventhreads
- See more at: http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/5-days-of-homeschooling-essentials-blog-hop/#sthash.8xgfKDbj.dpuf

 

Weekly Wrap Up 20

Thankful for routine this week! We finally where able to make a routine this second week back at it. Getting up with the alarm clock is a fight simply because I haven't had to do that in 13 years!! Seriously I've been blessed I know but it has come to the point that the clock has to get us up and going to be finished with school before I go to work in the evenings!

Starting mornings at 8 every morning has allowed for a routine to start and my children as much as I hate to admit it are just like their mother when it comes to this - Routine is a good thing for us all and we actually need it and come to expect it!

Monday was a great day. Lots of learning. We had to change up some of our studies this week simply because we couldn't get through everything! So the changes are as follows:

Monday & Wednesday are Mystery of History days

Tuesday & Thursday is for Christian Kids Explore - Chemistry 

Fridays - History Read Alouds and Notebooking

Made a really great difference this week and actually couldn't tell that it wasn't suppose to be that way all along! I love it when a plan comes together! Don't you?

Monday we also made a tabernacle because of our MOH lesson and used it all week long for prayers before bedtime and meals. We really enjoyed having the "symbolism" in our home. Kyle had a little more research to complete on the topic and used a virtual field trip of the tabernacle which was cool!

Tuesday daddy was home so not a lot of school gets done. Don't judge me! LOL I know every homeschool mother knows this to be true!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday more schooling and some projects got done and we had a blast with our Covered Chuck Wagon!

Thursday was our first experiment in chemistry however we have lots of hands on lessons in Christian Kids Explore which is one huge reason on why we love it!

We actually just today finished the lesson because we had to wait on the water mixture to evaporate to see if the kids guesses on what happened would be right, no one was right! LOL that's the fun of science. 

We mixed sand and salt together with water and used a filter to remove the sand and salt. However it didn't remove the salt and did leave out the sand in the filter. No sand dissolved. Kids really enjoyed this project!

Friday was a fun day at which we just completed our read alouds done some notebooking about the people in history which one just happened to be Joan of Arc. I learned a lot that I never knew! Then learned the different parts of a leaf. Enjoyed lunch at Pizza Hut and went to the library for computer time and books!

Kyle used our WriteShop prompt cards that we love! While using Road Trip USA and talking about Alaska we made an Eskimo! Look at Lexi's newest scarf. It's so pretty and warm!

A few other moments I caught was Lexi's reading time, Zac counting money with Crunch and me pricking Kyle's finger for his phe blood level.

Friday night was a great night money wise at work then I come home to an email from Purex saying I was in on a huge program with them qualifying for a free year's worth of detergent!!!!!! WOOHOO!! So happy about that I just can't even express the thankfulness and blessed feeling I felt on this!!

Hope you had a blessed week I sure did!

Covered Chuck Wagon Project

As the kids and I are making our way to the end of our Road Trip USA from Confessions of a Homeschooler we had a really great project to go with Texas in our South West region.

Making a Covered Chuck Wagon! No not the one you can eat as my kids quickly pointed out! 

My children love hands on projects like most I'm sure! However, I am normally not prepared for them but guess what - I was this time!!! 

Your going to need:

Popsicle sticks

Skill Sticks

Hot Glue Gun (or any glue)

Brown Paper Bag

Cardboard

I actually could not find my normal Popsicle sticks so we ended up using all skill sticks instead and it still worked fine. The original directions said to use wood glue or hot glue gun and because I love a hot glue gun that's what I used. No waiting on any drying and it is fast!

Your going to first stack 3 layers high of skill sticks to make your  bed of the wagon.

Then using 4 sticks (regular but I didn't have any) make a frame, then your going to fill it in with more Popsicle sticks to have a solid bed. 

Now your going to add the bed to the frame with glue so that everything is secure.

Your now going to take 4 sticks and glue it as a post to hold up the paper bag on each end.

Cut out your cardboard for your wheels and poke a stick through the middle to form your wheel. Your going to need to use 2 sticks and glue them in the middle to run the length of your wagon.

Now your almost finished. 

Glue the wagon axles to the bottom of the wagon!! 

YOUR DONE!

I must say that my kids loved learning that the driver of these Chuck Wagons where called a "Cookie."

Kyle actually placed a cookie in his wagon!!

Here is another really great website showing the process of making the Covered Chuck Wagon.

Have fun!