Thrift Schooling

You Know You Live in Virginia When..... 5-  The term "Biscuits and Gravy" does not refer to a Thanksgiving side dish! 4- You  go to a "Yard Sell" to buy a "Playpin"   3- You go buy produce at the local supermarket only to find the employees smoking. In the store. Right next to the food you want to purchase.  2- You order lemonade at a restaurant and are given a lemon and some sugar with your water to make your own. 1- School kids get a SNOW DAY with only a chance of snow in the weather forecast.

A study was recently preformed at a local nearby college about the reactions of mothers dependant upon their short-term or long-term memories in relation to their parenting styles. For example, if their child was having a temper tantrum, instead of remembering what worked last time to calm them down, the mother would react in a negative manner, thinking that there must not be any possible solution to remedy the matter. The ones who could calm themselves down, and remember what worked last time, where able to better handle the situation.  Interesting. How many times do we approach a situation with our children, thinking that there is no possible way to deal with them? If we could just stop, think, and remember what worked last time, we would be a million times better off! I'm guilty of the "forgetting" for sure, I think I just get caught up in the moment. Thinking that there must be no possible way to change the situation and that I must be doomed with disobedient ...

If you are looking for a place to connect with other homeschool families, Our Homeschool Forum is a new place to relax and unwind when you need a break! A division of Rainbow Resource , Our Homeschool Forum features articles from contributors, (such as myself!) who are currently in the trenches of the homeschooling. Encouraging articles are available to inspire and encourage! The forum is available for support and strength for newbie homeschoolers and veterans alike!  If interested, feel free to click the button below and check it out! 

  Franklin Sanders  shares in Volume One of  At Home In Dogwood Mudhole , Nothing That Eats   about his journey toward a more self-sufficient way of life. Sanders shares from his articles written for his Moneychanger newsletter. This is a newsletter written, by him, each month for seventeen years to his faithful readers! He shares the joys and pains of everyday life in a humorous and down to earth fashion.  This particular book begins in June of 1995 and shares his family's journey through September 2002.  An interesting fact about this time frame, is that in the middle, were the fears of what would happen when Y2K hit. Sanders shares his perspective and how they prepared. I know for me, at that point in time, I was oblivious to the concerns and possible catastrophic events that could have followed. Sure I knew about the possibilities of the computers crashing, but I was a college student, doing my own thing. Honestly, I could have cared less. Yet now th...

Apologia Educational Ministries  has a new book available in their Young Explorer Series by Jeannie Fulbright called  Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics . Using the Charlotte Mason approach, Apologia teaches science from a creationist perspective. This book includes 14 lessons that can be divided up in a way that best suits your need. We are currently using this course in our homeschool adapting the suggested daily schedule in a way that works for us. Their suggested schedule breaks the book up into 28 weeks, covering one lesson over a period of two weeks. They suggest using this book twice a week, but we spread it out and are doing it four times a week, sometimes five, depending on how many experiments there are! The textbook, believe it or not, can be used with children in grades K-6. I know that sounds like a wide age range, but it can be done! The material is presented in a way that even my kindergartner can understand the basic principles. Yet the voca...

My kids are still young and at this point I actually do enjoy teaching them Math. That is not a subject I fear, yet. The only problem is, with Math, when you have just a slight age difference in your homeschool, you need to be sure to take time out, each day, for each child to drill math facts. IXL.com has been an extremely helpful online tool to help my children practice, practice, practice, their Math skills, daily. IXL provides both Language Arts and Math  practice. I have been working with the Math with my three children over the past few weeks. Yes, that's right, I said THREE children. Even though I'm not "officially" homeschooling my youngest, who is three, yet, this program seemed like the perfect opportunity to teach her basic computer skills. And she has been doing surprisingly well! IXL has programs for kids ages Pre-K through 12th grade for $9.95 a month or $79 a year. {Each additional child costs $2 a month or $20 a year} Each child receiv...

Nikki, over at Angels of Heart  is starting up a Lego Challenge for kids! The first and third Friday of each month she will be presenting a new challenge for your kids to take on. My oldest son spends more time playing with Legos than any other toy in our house, I'm sure many of you can relate! So I thought it would be fun to present my three children with a challenge, and they loved it.       Both of my boys picked a monster for their creation! Of course. Michael's Monster Age 5 Aaron's Monster Age 6 Tirzah's Towers Age 3 Some creative looking towers, I must add.  I should have done duplos though, she was having quite the time trying to snap these together. Hence the short towers, haha! Tallest: Red Shortest: White Tune in two weeks from now for the next challenge!!!