Educational thoughts from John and Abigail Adams

I thought a couple of quotes from the Adams would be encouraging. After all, their son, John Quincy, was educated enough to serve as a diplomatic secretary to the Russian court of Catherine the Great by the time he was 14!

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.--Abigail Adams

It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.--John Adams

Friday Funny--Kids can sleep anywhere!

Prettifying our new Whiteboard

We were given a new whiteboard which we definitely needed.

It is about 2 ft. by 3 ft., but there was one problem. If you accidentally marked over the edge or erased over the edge, you left it on the wall. 

Not good.

Duct tape to the rescue. I put it front and back around the edges. After all, I didn't want the tape to stick to the wall!
Here's the final product.

We think it looks pretty!

The New Back-to-School Outfit

 To be honest, my daughter rarely gets new clothes. Oh, she gets new-to-her clothes but not clothes purchased at a retail establishment. 

This year we decided to splurge and let her pick out ONE new outfit for back to school. She actually wore it to church the first day of the week instead of the first day of school. We decided the landscaping in front of the church was a nice backdrop.

She's most excited about the shoes!

Remedial Home Economics for Busy Homeschool Moms

Home economics is not a subject on which I am well-versed.

Sure, I took the obligatory home economics classes when I was in school. I sewed a dashiki. I needle pointed a small picture. I made a sugar egg with a scene inside. You know, really practical stuff.

At home I picked up a little, but really was not expected to do much. You see, I was raised by perfectionistic grandparents. The fact they were my grandparents meant I was spoiled well-taken care of. The fact they were perfectionists meant I heard, “Just let me do it!” a lot. After all, why should they have me do it when they would just have to do it over again correctly?

So now, I am in a position to teach my daughter home economics. As a homeschooler, I know that this can count not only as a needed life skill but also for homeschool credit. Either way, I want her to have better skills than I do.

- Find out what I recommend at: http://hedua.com/blog/home-economics-homeschool-moms/#sthash.Bn1HYR9l.dpuf

Friday Funny--Back to School

Hope it goes better for me than this when we start on Monday!

Really cool freebie!

Supercharged Science is giving away a free sample of their newest hands-on Ultimate Science Curriculum today!

Get this... It’s an easy-to-do experiment where your kids can actually measure the speed of light using a chocolate bar and a ruler!  Guaranteed to get kids interested in this kind of science, and you don’t need to know a thing about science yourself because it’s self-guiding.

So, for the time being you can get it totally for free at this link:

www.sciencelearningspace.com/members/go.php?r= 12445&i=l47

I thought this latest free sample was pretty cool and you would really enjoy sharing it with your kids.

Here's the link - be sure to get it now, because it may not be available for long:

www.sciencelearningspace.com/members/go.php?r= 12445&i=l47

Like Mother Like Daughter

I like to tease my friends when their children do something strange/funny with the phrase, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

What's interesting is when there are similarities between mother and adopted daughter.

I love these pictures I did in her baby scrapbook.

I was a little older than she was in the picture but I love the similarities!

Or this one:

This one is really funny because when mija and hubby were looking through the book, they thought both pictures were her!

I'm the one on the top.
(There are more, but I do not want to provide photos that could be used in blackmailing me!)

"Like Mother Like Daughter" has continued.

I secretly giggle when she lets us know what "the point is" because the point is I use that phrase more than I would like to admit!

Herbal tea. We both really enjoy a nice cup of warm, herbal tea. It was really funny when she asked for herbal tea for her birthday and Christmas when she was four!

But not all the ways of similarities are cute or positive. 


She often sighs from frustration. Yea, I do that. 

Stomping when angry or interrupted. We both do that. 
(sigh) 
Oops, there is that sigh of frustration again!

Then I am confronted with verses like Proverbs 1:8-9 which reads "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."

Am I making sure that what she learns from me will beneficial for her later?
Convicting, huh?

As my daughter continues to grow, will people see her character and say, "Like mother like daughter?"
Will they see her spiritual walk and comment that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree?"

Praying that it will be so!

Free Back-to-School ebook

HEDUA is offering a free, back-to-school ebook that can be quite encouraging. It includes articles from Jay Wile, Diana Waring, Carol Barnier and more. All you have to do is go HERE and enter your email.

Pilgrim's Progress

I am getting ready to introduce mija to Pilgrim's Progress and found some FREE or cheap inexpensive editions on Kindle. Remember, you don't have to have a Kindle to access Kindle editions. You can use your phone, pad or PC to access the free program.


 This one is FREE.

FREE!


 This one only $0.99.

If you just cannot wait, you can watch a 30 minute cartoon video.

School Room for 2013

If you have been around, you know we do not have an official school room. 

• We do not have a place for one.
• Mija is enough of a kinesthetic learner that sitting still in a desk would be detrimental at the most and not helpful at the best.
• I home educate. I do not think an area that looks like a school is necessary for learning.

So, without further ado, here are pictures of our school room.

We do a lot of work around the kitchen table:

Dog optional!

Mija is very proud of how she organized her new room. Sometimes she like to sit on her bed to read or do an assignment.

I don't know if there is enough pink.

School can happen on this dirty sofa, too. This is especially true if I am reading something to her.

Here are our books. I do have another shelf for notebooks and some supplies. Yes, I definitely have more books and supplies, but I only keep out what we need regularly.

Usually, if we take pictures or videos, it is at the kitchen table.

The Psalm 23 booklet printable HERE.

We've moved up school, so we start next Monday, August 19th!

Friday Funny---Beware the Homeschooler

Another Currclick.com Sale and Freebies

Currclick.com is having a Back to Homeschool sale through August 28. 

And don't forget to look at the freebies! 

We're from the gov't and we're here to help ... raise your child

The head of Concerned Women for America says most moms don't consider it a burden to care for their children, despite what Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi says. - See more at: 
We're from the gov't and we're here to help ... raise your child

So, is taking care of your children a burden?

From Classical to Eclectic Classical--What we are doing this school year

 When started our home education journey, we were classical all the way. We had planned what curriculum and resources we were going to use. 

Woody Allen got one thing right when he said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."

After dealing with my husband's two years of unemployment and our continued financial challenges, we still see classical as our philosophy, but have learned to use whatever God provides to accomplish it.

Hence, we have become "eclectic classical".

Here is what we are using this year to accomplish this.


Math: Because of my blog, I was able to get a free year of this math program to review. Here's the link to the review. 

Language, Literature & Spelling: We are going to be using K12 curriculum we received for free. You can't beat free and on the whole I like what I see. Language will continue with grammar and writing book reports. Spelling breaks the lists up into those words which follow a spelling rule, words from a base word, and words with a specific prefix or suffix. Literature will be covering introducing classics like Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels. All it all, the basics I want covered will be covered, and I can still adjust as I deem necessary. 

History: The Story of the World: Volume 4 will be our 
world history. I had purchased the whole kit and caboodle of the four volumes and activity books, so we will finish using them. We have so enjoyed how history has been shown as an ongoing story through the series. I'll be looking for a more specific Christian worldview in the next history we use.

Science, Art, Music: I found a great free curriculum which I was going to use for almost everything but now only these subjects (and probably Bible). Easy Peasy---All in one Homeschool is just that. It's easy. It covers everything (although a little weak in spelling). It's online and IT'S TOTALLY FREE. There is even a Facebook support group. We are going to be following Year 4. 

Told you. We're eclectic! What are you going to be using this year?

 

Friday Funny--Chemistry Cat #7

The final Chemistry Cat of the Summer.

Crayola Marker Coupon---Get it before it's gone!

Sam's Club Open House timed with Tax Free Weekend

 Sam's Club is pretty smart. They are offering Open Houses on the weekends when various states are having their tax-free weekends.

So, on certain weekends you can shop at Sam's Club free without a membership and not pay sales tax on eligible items.

States that having both tax-free weekends and Sam's Club open houses this weekend include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Check HERE for all the details.