Thrift Schooling

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I checked the weather in Mexico today. It was hotter here in Virginia than it was in Mexico. Just saying. I tell myself that I am preparing myself for the heat in Mexico with this crazy ninety degree heat here at home but who am I kidding. Here, I live within an hour's drive of three lakes, piles of rivers with killer swimming holes AND a water park. And yes, I utilize them all! With five energetic children I appreciate having options. And since we will be here in the states a few more months, why not get the most out of it? Whether the saying is kick up or kick back your heels, I honestly cannot remember because it's not really a luxury I generally have time for. Believe it or not, I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy a lazy river recently at Wet' n Wild Emerald Pointe in Greensboro, NC. That's right, my husband offered to watch the little ones while I ventured with a friend to take the older three and one of their friends. It was a blast. And, yes, it was rela...

Well, it's in! The long anticipated customized mom ring. Personalized gifts are always a winner in my book so when the opportunity arose for me to receive a ring with a stone representing each one of my precious jewels I did not hesitate. Just this week we re-read the story of Cornela's Jewels. A mom has a visitor come over who is wearing the finest peals, diamonds and jewels. The mom who owns the home is a simple plain Jane. The visitor proudly shows off her expensive jewelry. When she is done, the hostesses presents her jewels; her children. With this ring, you can be reminded of the true jewels in your life, all while enjoying a little bit of bling as well.  If you visit the Mama's Jewelry site you can choose from dozens of styles and varieties. Since I have a fairly large family, I chose a ring that could fit up to ten stones. The middle six stones represent my children. Then, the other four stones are clear stones, two on each side simply for decoration. At fi...

Our family has had the opportunity to utilize the  Home School Navigator  website which is a reading and language arts curriculum created with homeschoolers in mind. In the  Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum , t here are different levels you can choose from designed for lower and upper elementary grades in mind.  My three eldest children participated in this program. Each were at a different level. The way that the program works, is you first purchase access to the site for each child and choose which level you want them to start out at. After reading the descriptions of each level, and thinking about the skill and abilities of each of my children, I made my choices. Once we got going though, I realized that the level I picked for my fourth and sixth graders were way too easy for them so I bumped them up a level. This put my sixth grader at the last level, Indigo. My second grader did well in the Yellow level and my fourth grad...

I recently received a one-year subscription to Kids Email Safe Email for Kids  which is a safe, spam-free email service provided by  Kids Email . My intention for trying out this service was to see if there really could be an email service out there that kids could use safely.  When the Internet first appeared on the scene in the 90's, parents were scared. And rightly so. Even though we had a computer in our home, it was for one, in a communal location and two, did not have the Internet. The Internet was new and up and coming and many parents, including mine were concerned about allowing it in their home. I was a teen at the time and it wasn't until I was in college that we did have Internet access in our home. When I look back to when the Internet was introduced and different neighbors in my neighborhood and relatives in my family started getting it, I can remember the exact location where each family kept their computer. Because, yes, there was only one c...

My ten year old has been enjoying his time reading the book,  Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate by Janet and Geoff Benge  released by  YWAM Publishing . We also received the  study guide  to go along with the book.  Awhile back, my other son did one of the unit studies on Jim Elliot  also put out by YWAM Publishing. At that point, I had access to the digital versions of both the book and the study guide. I personally like to have hard copies of products and since I enjoyed this particular study so much I went ahead and purchased both the book and study guide a few years later. I actually had my son go through the book and study guide for a book report. My son loved it and enjoyed the study guide activities and the variety of activities presented. When we had first reviewed it, my kids were younger and not yet old enough to read the book on their own. At that point, I read it aloud and guided them through the study guide. Once my...

Photo Credit: Aaron R. Vogler