Free E-book on Homeschooling Special Needs

Right now the HEDUA eBook Well Planned Homeschool: Focus on Special Needs is FREE through July 31st!

Especially created for families with special needs children, Well Planned Homeschool: Focus on Special Needs comes alongside you with specific tips for homeschooling a special needs child, encouragement for the journey, and the reassurance that you're not alone.

Review--How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

To read or not to read, that is the question.

The answer is yes. Read How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig.

Ken Ludwig is an award winning playwright who happens to love Shakespeare. This fun, informative book provides an easy way to teach passages from many of Shakespeare's plays which he used with his own children.

Ken Ludwig

In the book, Ludwig not only teaches how to memorize the passages but also what they mean! That is right.  It is note just rote memory but meaningful memory! As if that were not enough, he also explains the whole play.

He starts with shorter passages, breaks them down into large font and short phrases, and offers paraphrases and explanation about them which all adds in the memorization. He offers the quotation pages and audio clips on his website Howtoteachyourchildrenshakespeare.com

Ludwig discusses Shakespeare's life and what theater was like during that time. He also offers a list of additional passages to memorize, epigrams, and a detailed bibliography of books, movies and recordings for all ages.

It is easy to read and has great photos of Shakespeare productions on stage and screen. I recommend this book as a resource for teaching your children Shakespeare passages, but also has a good and informative book. 

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.
This post also contains an affiliate link to Amazon in case you want to purchase the book.

Friday Funny--Technology vs. Paper

This is really funny considering my confession yesterday about toilet paper! 

Thoughtful Thursday--From Incomplete to Complete

Isn't it a nice feeling to have your act together? Don’t you just relish those times when you are on schedule and everything is complete? It’s such a great feat to have your house and family in order.  It is an accomplishment to have your surroundings and life being perfect and whole.  A real triumph, isn’t it?

No, seriously. I’m asking. I want to know since I’ve never experienced it!

In the first chapter of James, we are encouraged to be joyful when our faith is tried because this works endurance within us. This endurance then helps grow us to become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I know that James was imparting important truth when he wrote these verses. Sometimes, however, I think we allow the small things to try our faith and to rob us from being perfect and complete and our neglect continues to keep us lacking.

Let me explain what I mean.

I have a terrible habit. When the toilet paper roll runs

out, I get the new roll out and…I set it on top of the empty roll. Yes, you read that correctly.  Instead of just putting the new roll on the toilet paper holder, I just set it on top. Then every time I go into the bathroom, I see that roll of toilet paper just lying there, and it saps some energy and contentment from me. I find myself lacking and incomplete by leaving those little things undone.

I walk by the load of clothes that needs to be washed. I think about those thank you notes that haven’t been written. I remember that I haven’t called my friend in California for over a month. I find the invitation for a birthday party that was last week. I kick the pile of magazines over that needed to be recycled. AND, I have an article due that I haven’t started to write!

Those kinds of things just make you sigh every time you see them or think of them. You look at them and know that things are incomplete. The things you think of which makes you think about what you’re lacking. It’s these little incompletes that rob us of serving our family completely without lacking.

If you noticed, most of the things that are incomplete usually aren’t that big of deal. That’s what is so strange. If the incompletes were a lot of effort or took a lot of time or money, it might be more understandable.  Instead, incompletes are usually small things, but it’s the small things which add up. A little lack here and a little lack there end up becoming a major deficit—not only in the things that need to be done but in our spirit as well.

Why do we let this deficit happen? I think it’s because we get tired. We become weary, and when you’re weary it’s often the small things that get overlooked or neglected. Shortcuts we take which end up piling up as undones. We need to remember not [to] grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Gal. 6:9).

I am ready to work on being more complete and lacking nothing.  Here are some ideas I’ve being putting into practice in regards to becoming more COMPLETE.

C—Complete, lacking nothing is a process. Remember no one has their act totally together this side of heaven. 

O—One thing at a time will do. Things don’t usually get left undone all at once.  Usually it’s one thing here and one thing there.  Completing them can be done one thing here and one thing there, too.

M—Make a list of incomplete things that need to be done as you think of them.  You’re less likely to forget or ignore them if the items are written down.

P—Pray. Ask God to remind you of all the little things and give you the energy and desire to do them.

L—Little things add up both negatively and positively. Do a several little things, and you’ll have made a big step in becoming more complete.

E—Erase some of the items.  I’ve been meaning to write some thank you notes since CHRISTMAS. I think it’s probably too late now and the sincere verbal thanks I gave them back then will have to do. Give yourself permission to take some things off your list.

T—Take inventory of the importance of each item. Some things really are worth more effort than others. If you have to choose between calling a sick friend or doing a page of scrapbooking from last July 4th, people should win every time.

E—Early is the best way to deal with many incompletes. Some items became more work or harder the longer you put it off. The earlier you deal with something that is undone the sooner you’ll be in the positive.

If you go into my bathroom right now, the toilet paper is on the roll, and the pile of magazines in the living room is no longer there. Each time I do an undone, it is one less thing I lack. I can relish becoming more complete in my roles as wife, mother, and daughter of the King. I now trust that I will reap what I sow if I don’t weary.  

Next will be the pile of laundry!

Foul Language in Movies

Very powerful video. Who would have thought that one little "damn" would lead to this...

Friday Funny--Word Crimes

We love Weird Al Yankovic! This week he's been releasing a new video everyday. I wanted to share this one. Hubby has determined that it will be the theme for our grammar lessons this year!

Review--Callie's Contest of Courage

According to mija, if you want your tweenish girl to read something that "keeps her on the edge if her seat," then she suggest Callie's Contest of Courage by Jan May.

Unlike many books on the market for this age group, this book had a spiritual depth and a moral high. Jan May shared, "Our company, New Millennium Girl Books, was birthed from a desire to write fun and engaging books for girls that would encourage vibrant faith and build Christian character," and I think they succeed. 

I was very happy to mija read this book because it shows a girl struggling and maturing through real-life issues. I appreciated seeing an eleven year old girl is still a girl and yet shows hits of growing into a godly young woman instead if just turning into a teenager. This book also offers a strong patriotic theme which is refreshing.

Here is a little about the author, Jan May, from the site.
Jan May is homeschool publisher, author and. freelance writer and contributor to The Old Schoolhouse , Thriving Family and Clubhouse Jr. Magazines. She is also veteran homeschool mother of two. With over 20 years of teaching experience, her love for creative writing and her passion for well-educated children with godly character have formed the content of these books. 

Callie is the second book in the series. New Millennium Girls Books also offers a writing curriculum based on the first book. It is a twelve week writing curriculum that has a main instruction book and an accompanying paper doll and craft book, where the student creates the character they are writing about and designs her clothing.

Back to Callie's Contest of Courage, one last thing I really like about the book is the use of Scripture throughout. It was not just obligatory Bible verses because it is supposed to be a Christian but the characters actually apply the scriptures in real-life circumstances. The one thing I would add to the book is a list in the back of the book listing of all the Bible verses used in addition to all the other additional resources already provided.

Visit the New Millennium Girls Books website for more information. 

BIG SALE TODAY on Nest Learning Alpha Omega

Nest Learning is having a big 20% off sale on Alpha Omega TODAY ONLY!

A Young Living Testimony about Lavender and a 2nd degree burn

Last week I posted about using peppermint essential oil.

Today, I just read this article from Connie of Smockity Frocks about using Young Living lavender essential oil for a second degree burns!

The Day My Baby Was Burned by Ramen Noodles

If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, you know that my 4 year old, Peyton, was severely burned 2 weeks ago by a bowl of Ramen noodles.

I had set the bowl on the counter in front of her, just like I had done a hundred times before. But this time, for whatever reason, she decided to get down from her stool at the counter before she had even started to eat.

I saw it all happening in slow motion. As she grabbed the counter to let her little feet reach the floor, her fingertips tipped the edge of the bowl.

Since she was below the bowl, already off the stool and on the floor, the entire contents poured onto her shoulder.

And since Ramen noodles are so sticky, they draped over her back and chest. And clung there in a steaming mass.

She shrieked a tormented scream.

Read the rest HERE.

If you'd like to find out more about lavender oil, check out this page.

SavingStar Weekend Freebie---toilet paper!

Save 100% when you buy any ONE (1) single roll of unscented Scott® 1000 Bath Tissue. Check back every Friday for a new Freebie!

Friday Funny---Unbalanced Diet

I laughed out loud several times!

SavingStar---20% off Tomatoes

Another Money Making Site--Updated

I've shared before about how I pick up some cash or gift cards.

I use...







I've found a new one I'm starting on called SendEarnings. 
* Read emails 
* Take surveys 
* Play games 
* Shop online 
* Redeem coupons & more!
This one is like InboxDollars because you earn cash. Oh, and there's a $5 signup bonus when you join!!


There are affiliate links in this post. If you join any of the sites, I earn a little cash. It's a win-win situation! ;-)

Blast from the Past: Quotes from Founding Fathers and Mothers

"Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

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

-- Abigail Adams

(1744-1818) wife of John Adam

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

 

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

Currclick--Pay What You Want Sale

Currclick is have a "Pay What You Want" Sale for Independence Day. That means lots of things INCLUDING my items are available for you to purchase at whatever price you decide to pay!

I'd love to get my things into your hands, so please take a minute to look.

 I'd also love to get some reviews back if you do purchase!