Your Emergency Fund!

My husband and I have been trying really hard to follow Dave Ramsey's approach to paying off debt.  Let me say it ain't easy!  Murphy always seems to creep up with something!  Car issues, unexpected repair to the house, or a piece of lawn equipment.  Murphy will always find something that will make you think to use your ole card one more time!

So it is very useful to have that wonderful Emergency fund.  A fully funded Emergency Fund is $1000.  Now You need to come up with that ASAP!  Now this is to be used for emergencies.  And the newest gadget or  whatever is not an emergency.  (though sometimes it can feel that way)  Emergencies are when you get a flat tire, have to have your car towed, the water heater breaks in your house.

Well you have that emergency fund as your safety net.  If you use it, you MUST replenish it.  When you have debt, that means you make the minimum payments on your debt until your EF is built back up.  Then you start working on your debt. 

But the main part of this post is to tell you that if you don't have an Emergency Fund started get going!  You will never regret having one.  Now don't think that you have to stop at $1000.  That is another post and another step to being debt free and able to retire and be ready for it.  Read More

Classical Academic Press - God's Great Covenant Old Testament Book 1

From the Classical Academic Press Website.  (Because they word it best!) 

Classical Academic Press is an educational publishing company located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Press is the product of years of brainstorming, conversations, thoughtful critiques and classroom application. Our mission is to produce and supply the finest classical curricula to the market today.

Our motto “Classical Subjects Creatively Taught”, describes the essence of all that we publish. We seek to produce classical curricula and media with a clear design and structure, incremental and systematic instruction, all with a touch of delight, creativity and flair.

One of the reasons my husband and I chose to homeschool was we wanted to make sure our children grew up knowing the Bible and developing a relationship with Christ.  It's not something we force, but we do make an effort to include Bible history, lessons and devotions in our school day.  We believe that God should be first and foremost in our lives.

Because of that, we try to choose curriculum that has Biblically sound values.  On one hand, you may think it is easy to choose a Bible curriculum.  But honestly, the job can be quite daunting.  I want something that my children can relate to so that they can understand it and absorb it rather than it be material to just memorize.

We received God's Great Covenant Old Testament (Book 1) Student Book and Teacher's Edition to use over the past month.  It is geared toward the middle grades (3-6) which was perfect for Jonathan who is in 5th grade

Within God's Great Covenant are 5 units and 32 chapters in the book.  I like how it is completed in almost a 36 week school period!  This is good for those of us (raises hand) who like to plan our weeks ahead of time and work in vacations.  Each chapter has 4 sections. The Memory Page, Story Time, Worksheets & finally the Quiz.

The Memory page is the first page you come to in your chapter.  It has the lesson scope, theme, memory verse, key facts, things to remember, who is God & read to me (where you read a related chapter of the Bible).  I had Jonathan copy this page down on day 1.  I think that writing something down helps you to retain it better and it has proven to be the case with him.  We also repeated the memory verse together several times the first day and also throughout the week.  I did make Jonathan read the assigned chapters in the read to me section on his own and come to me with any questions.

The Story page (well technically 2 pages) is something I actually read aloud to all the kids.  It is easy enough to understand and if they asked any questions, I would stop and answer.  I like to read aloud to the kids whenever I can and this provides a great opportunity.  Something else the story does is it ties in Jesus to the Old Testament.  It's not too often that you can actually see Jesus mentioned in the OT but regardless, He is there.  What a wonderful way to show your child that and I LOVE how CAP ties that aspect in to the lesson.

The Review Sheets & Quiz are pretty self explanatory.  However,I did have Jonathan re-read the memory and story before he did the review sheets.  For the quiz, I made sure he did the same things as with the review sheets and also reviewed those as well.  The quiz is a great way to see how much your student has retained.  Jonathan did fairly well with his review sheets and quizzes.

Something else I received was the Audio files of the stories.  This is a great addition if you choose to not read them aloud.  They are read by Christopher Perrin.  When Jonathan was told to review the story for his sheets and quiz, I would have him listen to these recordings.  I also put them on the iPod used at bedtime so all the boys (who share a room) could listen to them at night.  :)

I really like how God's Great Covenant is put together.  It doesn't overwhelm the child and if you want to, you can add things to make it more challenging or make it a little bit easier for younger children.  My boys are 10, 5 and 3 and I was able to use it with all of them easily.  For the younger two, I asked questions after we read the story which acted like our quiz/review.

Jonathan really seemed to enjoy the story part and he is asking to read more of his Bible now.  I can definitely see the impact it has had on him in this short period of time.  But something else that has been slightly unexpected is what I am learning as well.  I am enjoying going through this with Jonathan and I am already planning on purchasing the 2nd book for next year. 

We did this with our Bible History class so to separate out the time for GGC would be about 20-30 minutes.  It can definitely be lengthened or shortened depending on the student.  We did this as one of the first things in our morning.  It really helps to set the tone for the day when we focus first on God's Word.

If you would like to take a peek at the God's Great Covenant Old Testament (Book 1) feel free to look at the links below.

God's Great Covenant Student Book

Teachers Edition

Lesson Plan

Audio Sample

Curriculum Cost:
God's Great Covenant OT 1 - $22.95
Teachers Edition - $24.95 (this includes the entire student text with answer key and additional points that may prove helpful in teaching)
Audio Files - $9.95 (these are great to burn on CD or put on your MP3 Player)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

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Flowering Baby - Review and Discount!

Six years ago, I started homeschooling our oldest son.  But in reality that wasn't the beginning of our journey.  It began in 1987 when I was 6 years old.  

After attending a private kindergarten, my parents decided to homeschool my sister and I.  Back twenty-five years ago, when my parents were just learning about homeschooling, there were few choices in curriculum.  My mom had a couple of books about homeschooling.  One dealt with the Charlotte Mason style of learning.  But we didn't have the resources to put that together at the time.  So we used cookie-cutter program.  It was good and we learned a lot.  So I figured I would use the same for my children.

With my first child, we used the same curriculum.  But I didn't start his education till he was 5.  Looking back, I wish I had done more research and started doing things with him when he was wee little.  I feel the same about how we started with our 2nd son.  With our 3rd son and now our daughter, I found that I wanted to start doing things that would help them learn without them really knowing it.  

The curriculum by Flowering Baby is a good guide for those looking for a way to incorporate every day things to help their children enjoy learning.  I feel that it is very Charlotte Mason-esque!

I started reading about Charlotte Mason about my 3rd year into homeschooling and I really liked what I was reading.  It was then that I decided to alter my oldest son's curriculum.  But I was lost on how to apply it to my younger children.  It is my one fault.  I love what I read and want to do it, but unless there is a definite plan in front of me, I am completely lost!

Flowering Baby was created by a Martha Saunders & Carolyn Schulte, a mother and daughter team.  The mother was an Early Education Expert whom the daughter called quite often.  At the urging of her daughter, they worked together to create Flowering Baby.  Flowering Baby has 5 different levels.   

Each level has you spend approximately 20 - 40 minutes a day with your little one working on various skills.  Each day has one activity and a book or music.  Your little one will be exposed a variety of every day items, classical music, books of all kinds and you will have fun with your little one!  

To look at each level click the age range below.  You can also view a sample of each level if you click after each level.

Birth to One - Sample
One to Two - Sample
Two to Three - Sample
Three to Four - Sample
Four to Five - Sample

During my review period, I was able to download the PDF files for the levels I wanted to use.  So, I chose to use Birth to One for Cordelia, our now 9 month old daughter (she was 8 months when we started reviewing).  I also used level Three to Four for Josef, who turned 3 in January.

So here are my thoughts of the Birth to One program.  It is very simple and easy to do.  I do recommend going to a library for the books (unless you have them in your house or an unlimited amount of funds to buy books).  At our library, we can reserve them online and they will let us know when they have arrived.  Pretty nice system!  I also love how they said you can exchange books if you needed to.  So if you or your library didn't have Goodnight Moon, you could do some other night time book that you had or found.  

Cordelia LOVED having books read to her.  The look on her face as we would get books down and look through them and read them was just so sweet.  She would touch the books, then look up at me.  And if it was just us (which occasionally it was), she would snuggle in as we read together.

I also loved how they incorporated classical music!  I grew up in a very musical home and had been really lacking on sharing my love with my children.  This gives suggestions for each day and uses a variety of classical artists!  This was not just education for my daughter, but the entire family.  :)

My favorite part and I think that of Cordelia was when we did hand games together.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider is one of our favorites!  She makes the cutest faces when we do them.  To make things more fun, my Mother-in-Law had taught me a hand game in Slovak.  So not only did I do the ones suggested in the curriculum, but I also incorporated something from my husband's heritage.  She also enjoyed playing with different things.  She loves to bang spoons off of pots and pans and enjoyed experimenting with her food as I let her feed herself.  They also encourage tummy time (important for motor development skills) and other various skills.

Now you may be asking, how did you do 2 different levels with 2 different kids?  It wasn't that hard to do, but you do need to be able to plan it into your day.

The Three to Four curriculum is divided into 2 parts.  A Monthly curriculum and a Themed curriculum.  I did a little bit of both. 

The monthly curriculum is fairly similar to the younger levels in that you do an activity, read a book, listen to some classical music, but it is done at a higher level as your child is older.  Josef, enjoyed the activities quite a bit!  While he is a very active child and it did take quite a bit of coaxing for him to actually sit and do things, when he did sit down, it was quite enjoyable for both of us.

I would say that it covers learning letters (you sing the alphabet song almost daily), math (counting), and reading books aloud to help build vocabulary and understand sentence structure (all without them knowing it).  It also has them listening to music. 

Josef even enjoyed the one day where he got to "read" to me.  It was so cute to have him tell me his version of the story as he sat on my lap. 

Something else is that you can find all sorts of resources to go with some of these books that you read.  One of the other Review Crew found a lapbook to use in Day 7 (monthly curriculum for January) for Blueberries for Sal.  Now, while Josef was too young to complete it all, we did do a couple of the activities.  I also made sure to have blueberries on hand as we read the book and studied the color blue.  

The themed curriculum is also fun to do!  We chose the "Winter" theme.  The themes are short but have such great activities to do.  Since it is winter we had a blast.  We built snowmen and played in the snow since we happened to get some during the theme time.  We also found every book on snow in our house.  It was so much fun!

Josef also loved anything where he got to color!  The child has to be an upcoming artist or something.  We have artwork all over our walls!  ;)  We try to confine him to paper but sometimes that just doesn't happen.  I think that having this curriculum has been good for him.  It has helped him not only learn new things, but also think creatively.  He shows me his art work and is proud of it.  And yes, even though there is a mess on my walls, one day they won't be there and he will be out of my house and I will miss my little boy.

I believe that anyone wanting to do something hands on with their children will definitely benefit from the Flowering Baby Curriculum.  It encourages individual growth but also time with each other and learning.  What was great was even my older 2 sons, Jonathan & Jordan (10 & 5), came to sit with us when we read our books or sang silly songs with motions.  They enjoyed sitting together as a family.  I think it encourages quiet time as well.  They have to sit and listen to the story.  Most importantly, you are investing in a way that encourages them to want to learn.  

Josef now brings over our ABC book which we use to go through the alphabet, he loves to play with shapes and sort them.  He also likes to put things in order and sing songs. 

Cordelia loves when we sing songs and do hand games together.  I love being able to share that with her.  She is also learning textures, sounds, cause & effect with some of the exercises in the curriculum.  

If you want to make a good investment into early learning with your child but you don't know how, Flowering Baby is a wonderful place to start.  It doesn't require you to do something every day.  But you do have something for most of the days.  I think that is nice as you don't want your little one to get too overwhelmed.  

I really liked how Flowering Baby was put together.  I also liked how it uses things that you probably have in your home or that you can get easily.  The library was our best friend during this.  Utilize that resource!  It will be your best friend too.  Don't panic if you don't get everything done for a day.  Homeschooling is supposed to be flexible and let life happen. 

You can purchase Flowering Baby online and receive either a CD with the files (for the level you choose) or download the PDF's which will then be available for instant download.  I had the PDF files and then printed them to take to my local office supply store for binding.  It made them easier to use and durable to carry around.  It was well worth the cost and something I recommend for you to do.

The costs for the Flowering Baby curriculum is as follows:
Birth to One - $30
One to Two - $30
Two to Three - $30
Three to Four - $38
Four to Five - $38
You can order the CD's directly from their site, here or for instant download here.  Also, Flowering Baby, LLC has offered a discount for the blog readers!  WOOHOO!!  So, if you would like to save 10%, use the code "Blog10" when ordering!  NOTE: This is good ONLY for orders directly from their website!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. Read More

CHAOS!!

Ever have the grand idea to move the children to the smaller room so you can use the 3rd bedroom for the "school room".  Well it was really more of where we would keep all things school.  It was a good idea!  Well for at least 2 months...Then we found out we were expecting baby #4! 

HAHAHA!!  I know.  I hear you laughing right along with me.  So I said that as soon as the baby was born we would put the boys back in the bigger bedroom and the baby would get her own room.

Fast-forward 9 months after birth of said baby.  We are JUST NOW getting to this!  How did we accumulate so much stuff?!?  I guess between toys, clothing, books, toys, clothing and books, then add in all the baby girl stuff, yeah, we have a lot!

What I thought would be a 1 day project turned into mass chaos!  I was SOOO naive to think that it would be done in 1 day.  Then I figured 2 days.  Well, 2 days later and now we have to organize the things from 1 bedroom in the 2nd bedroom.  Fortunately it works as the baby still sleeps in our room!  But not for much longer.  Though I will admit to missing her when she goes to her own room.

So, now I get to decide what colors I want the baby's room.  :)  I have her bed set.  It's pinks and browns and so hopefully something along those lines for her room. 

The boys are in their room.  Jonathan got a new loft bed with a desk underneath.  It actually looks pretty good there.  Now to just finish moving the things out of there room that don't belong.  Which fortunately isn't much. 

But our 3 day weekend turned into mass chaos due to a project that I honestly thought was going to be much shorter.  Should have listened to the hubby.  ;)  He was definitely the wiser of both of us about this one.  Read More

The Groundhog..

Well, apparently Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow!  This is supposed to mean an early spring!  :)  If you live in the northern states this may be good news to you.  It also might not be. 

I have mixed feelings.  Last year the bugs were HORRIBLE cause the weather didn't say cold long enough to kill bugs and such.  This made our summer miserable with all types of bugs.  Our least favorite being the infamous stink bug!  Every time one would get spotted in the house, our then two-year old would scream "STINK BUG" at the top of his lungs!  This was quite often and would wake up his newborn sister.  ;-/ 

Every stink bug got a burial at sea (aka the toilet).  Everyone that was in the house was present.  Quite a somber time in the house.  ;) 

So that is one reason I don't mind it being cold and snowy at this point.  That said, I HATE to drive in the snow, ice or any winter precipitation!  In December of 2009, we were driving to church and it was raining.  Well, that's what we thought.  As we approached one hill, we notice everyone was stopping.  The rain was turning to ICE as soon as it hit the road!  There was probably 1/8th of an inch but it was enough.  We stopped, waited, thought it was safe to move again and wound up doing a 180-degree rotation.  We were now facing the wrong direction!  to make matters worse, not every vehicle was stopping!  Even semi-trucks!  So we had to somehow get to the median.  Which we did.  I was stressing, my husband was stressing.  I was also 8months pregnant at the time.  We couldn't switch seats due to it being so slick outside.  It took almost an hour for it to warm up enough so the roads would thaw and we could drive home.  Another incident happened Christmas 2010 and we were going to my grandmother's house and didn't make it due to sliding on a slick patch of slush and hitting an embankment.  We never made it to Christmas dinner at her house.  :(  Do you see why I hate to drive in the winter? 

One hand wants spring to come early and the other wants it to stay cold and wintery till the appropriate time so all the buggies are killed really good and we don't have a major infestation like last year. 



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Can I get a little help please?!?

Mom's probably have the hardest job out there in the world.  First we are privileged to be able to grow a human being for 9 months.  Those may or may not be easy.  Then comes 18 years of love, training them to grow into Godly men and women, correcting them, praying endlessly, kissing booboo's, hugs, tears and that's just the kids.  Take into running a household.  Cooking, cleaning, laundry, finances and if you homeschool, well where does the time go?!?

It isn't easy to do it all.  I am a firm believer that your children should be helping you as soon as they are able to do so.  It teaches them responsibility, accountability and to earn their keep.  It also teaches a hard work ethic which is important today and something that is often forgotten.  Today it seems more and more that children think they are entitled to things, to an easy life, to have things handed to them.

As a member of the Gabby Mom's, I am fortunate to be able to be inspired by a woman who truly cares for other women.  Lorrie recently wrote an eBook called Helping Hands at Home.  You can get it for your Kindle at Amazon.com.  As a busy mom I don't have a lot of time to devote to reading, but this was just short enough that I could squeeze it in 2-3 nights.

I loved how she gave advice on how to get your children to help clean the kitchen and bathrooms.  And believe me, with 3 boys in this house, I pretty much want them clean up their mess in the bathroom and the kitchen when they help cook.  She offers advice on how to keep you motivated.  A little each time goes a long way!  5-10 minutes every day in one room can add up over a week.  She also give you a little guideline on how to train your children.  5 steps.  So very simple. 

But don't get me wrong.  It does take time and effort on your part, but if you are consistent you can and will succeed and give your children a strong foundation.  A strong foundation is vital in all aspects of life.  It doesn't matter if it's in cleaning the bathroom, that will stick with them through life.

Something else that I loved about this book is the household cleaning recipes she includes that save my family $$!  Laundry detergent & window cleaner are a couple of the recipes!  I love saving money for my family by making this things at home.  I used to spend $20 a month just on laundry detergent!  Now I spend about $5 every 3 months.  Works out so well for us.  I have used both the liquid and powder detergent.  Both have worked well.  :)  This part alone is worth the price of the book!  By the way, did I tell you the book was $.99cents for the Kindle?  What a STEAL!

So if you are looking for a place to start your kids in helping you keep the main area's of your house clean or even just a place for you to begin and you also want to save money while taking care of your house, then Helping Hands at Home is a GREAT place to begin!

If you want to see more products of Lorrie's head over to Eternal Encouragement.  She has an online magazine and so many books, ebooks and mp3's. 


 ** I was given this product in exchange for my honest review of the product and was not compensated in any other way. Read More

New Things

Anyone stalk the mail person or UPS/Fedex guy?  Well I don't really stalk, but I definitely watch the mail when I am expecting things!  It's like Christmas to me!  :)  So this year we are embarking on a new journey.  Reviewing homeschool curriculum!  I have already received several products and I can't wait to share our journey through them.  Some I have heard of before and some are new. 

My kids look at me like a crazy person when the new curriculum arrives!  I will admit to doing a happy dance!  ;)  So far we are enjoying the new things we get to try for our schooling.  It is so good to have an opportunity to be able to try out curriculum and be able to share our thoughts with homeschooling families. 

Twenty years ago when my parents were homeschooling my sister and I these options just weren't there.  I think there were maybe 3-5 curriculums.  Now you have so many that it seems you can get lost in the choices.

Hopefully buy utilizing the curriculum and sharing our thoughts on it we can help someone out.  At the bottom of each review will be a link where you can see the other reviews.  Not everyone will have the same opinion or thoughts and that's ok.  Each child is different!  THAT'S OK!!  Your child may not like textbooks.  But another child might.  Each child has their own learning style.  It took me almost 4 years of homeschooling to figure out what my oldest sons style was.  Now I am learning our 2nd sons learning style. 

You have to be flexible.  Again, that has taken me a while to learn and I still have to practice being flexible with my children.  They will learn at their own pace and also their own style. 

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to participate in a program that allows me to try new curriculums and share with others!  :) Read More