Homeschool Planning Part 2

This is what my schoolroom has looked like for several days now.

I should have taken pictures of the floor, but you might have fainted!  Most of the time I am in here working, I have two little helpers named Leah and Sam.  They are cutting, glueing, sticking stickers, coloring maps (my mess-ups while printing), playing with cubes, painting, beading, jumping, and on and on!  I am just working around them!

I have completely finished my planning and organizing the entire school year for Sam, Leah, and Clay.  Three down, two to go!  Hopefully soon I am going to share some of my plans and work for Clay (entering 7th grade).  I am starting with him, because early this morning while Lynn and I were running our long run (first one in over 2 weeks!), she expressed disappointment that I had not blogged yet in great detail Clay's plans!  She has a son the same age and needed inspiration.  Ha!  So, I am beginning with Clay.  Well, first some general information and then on to Clay.

• I made some changes to my school organization.  Some of my methods aren't working so well anymore, and I have seen some cool new ideas on blogs and in person recently.
• I let each child choose a color and I bought them all new Better Binders from Staples in their chosen color.  I also bought spiral notebooks, folders, and colored paper (I actually only bought a couple of new colors) in their chosen color.  I used coupons and sales to buy the binders, and I got them for under $6 each, tax included.  They are $9.49 + tax full price.
• Then I decided that I was not going to put a new binder in each child's work bucket this year.  The work bucket is just an 18 qt. dishpan.  I bought mine six or seven years ago, and some of them are beginning to crack and the handle part is breaking off.  After looking all over creation, I found 5 (not all in the same color!) at Family Dollar.  Anyway, as I have been cleaning out last year's work buckets, I discovered that none of the children were filing their papers in their 3 ring binder like I intended for them to do.  There were final copies of compositions wadded up in the bottom, all dog-eared.  Many tests and compositions were stuck in the inside pocket of the binder--not neatly inserted into the binder behind the proper tab.  So....
• I am using my color coordinated binders for other things, and I am making an area on my desk in the schoolroom for them to turn in finished papers and tests.  This way the papers will stay looking nice and neat!
• The children still have binders, just not one huge binder for every thing.  Sam, Leah, and Clay each have a Sonlight binder in their Sonlight basket that stays in the den.  This basket includes the binder which holds the IG (Instructor's Guide), their timeline stickers, their maps and narration binder, and the current books we are reading.  I keep this basket in our den, because that is where we do our reading together.

These two pictures above are of Clay's Sonlight basket.

Which leads me to the next great new idea...

• Bookmarks!  In each child's color!  These are just pieces of paper laminated and then cut into eleven 1" strips.  I made each child 22 bookmarks.  These are to mark the current place in our Sonlight books, my teacher's guides for their math books (where the answers are!), their place in their various workbooks, and anything else they need to mark. You can see Clay's bookmarks sticking out of his books in the picture above.
• I put the Language Arts pages from the Sonlight cores into a separate binder that I am keeping in the schoolroom.  We do all of our seatwork downstairs in our schoolroom, and last year I made many trips up and down my stairs to get the Sonlight binder....if I was doing Language Arts with the children, the binder was left in the den.  When we got ready to read aloud, the binder was still down in the schoolroom.  So, two separate binders!  In each child's color. 
• Last year I sorted out the history, readers, and read aloud study guides and put them behind each week's tab.  Big mistake.  I did NOT like moving those study guides from week to week.  So this year I just left them all in the back of the Sonlight binder that stays in the den.  But to help me know where to turn to....

•  I am putting these little sticky notes on the edges of the pages.  Now those will be easy to move or replace when we begin a new book!
• One more change I am making for our new school year is the daily work checklist.  For years I have been printing these out a month or two at a time.  They were in table format with the dates, subjects or assignments, and squares to check off when the work was completed.  I have printed pages and pages of these!  I learned this great idea from Erin--a laminated checklist that can be marked on and washed off week after week.  What a super idea!

I need to get back to work now!  I will share more ideas and plans tomorrow, and I will have details of Clay's 7th grade plans ready to go!

Homeschool Planning Part 1

I began my 2011-2012 planning session last Friday.  I started with Sam's plans, and I am working my way up to the oldest child.  I am taking pictures along the way, so when I get a chance, I will share details of my planning sessions.  I have completed Sam's and Leah's plans, and I am halfway through Clay's plans.  The two older girls will take me a little bit longer than the others, because I am somewhat making my own home economics course for them.  I also plan to blog about that when I finish it.

Today will be another planning day, and I hope that by tomorrow afternoon or Thursday at the latest, I will be through with the year's planning.  Then I plan to give my school room a deep cleaning.

If I have time before school resumes August 3, I would like to give my house one more good cleaning too.

I better get to work!

Our 4th of July Celebration

Well, I am trying to catch up with July's blogging!  

We visited Jimmy's family on the Saturday before the 4th of July.  This was just one day after we arrived home from our week long Rustic Youth Camp.  We enjoyed an afternoon of grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs, delicious dips and desserts, and fun family fellowship!

Me, Megan, Granmomma, Aunt Julie and Jenny

 Granmomma, Aunt Julie, and Jenny

At 7:00 AM on the morning of the 4th, Jimmy, Olivia, Julie, and Clay all ran the Tupelo Running Club's Annual Green St. Mile.  It is a one mile race run every July 4th on Green Street.  I had planned on Leah, Sam and I all running too, but they were both suffering from swimmer's ear and were running fever.  So we stayed home!

They all won a trophy!

I spent the morning cooking for our late afternoon guests:  The Doles Family (Barbara, Scott, their college-age son, Jonathan, their daughter Carrie Ann and her husband Ray) and our friend Stephen.  We enjoyed a meal of grilled chicken, corn on the cob, green salad, baked beans, homemade bread, banana pudding, and homemade vanilla ice cream.  

After eating we played games.  We had two different board games going on at our kitchen table:  Rummikub and Bible Trivial Pursuit.  Fun!  Much laughter!

After the board games, we moved to our den for some Wii karaoke.  More fun!  Much more laughter!

Here are some photo highlights of the evening.

 Carrie Ann and Leah playing Uno

 Bible Trivial Pursuit on the left and Rummikub on the left

 Ray, trying to come up with the correct answer

 Jonathan and Barbara

 I'm not sure what Sam is doing!

 Karaoke time!

 Singing superstars!

It has become a tradition to spend July the 4th with the Doles family.  It's a fun way to celebrate the day!

Stick With It Saturday

Samantha over at The Kelley Eight, frequently blogs on Saturdays about her exercising report for the week.  I am always encouraged when I read about other busy mothers making time for exercise, and I also love to celebrate with them their accomplishments.  So today, I will share my exercising for the week.

But first, I must share that this week has not been the best--exercise wise for me.  I am short 15 miles this week.  15 miles!  It's ok though.  I will begin again on Monday, and I will get all of my miles in next week.  (In the running world, new weeks begin on Mondays.)

Monday:  Rest day.  I was super sore after Sunday night's CrossFit workout which included 5 quarter mile sprints.

Tuesday:  Ran 3 miles followed by a CrossFit workout.

Wednesday:  Ran 6 miles.

Thursday:  Ran 2 miles followed by a CrossFit workout.  This one included 50 box jumps.  I have mastered the box jump!  But my knee was hurting a little bit yesterday....

Friday:  Planned to run 14 miles at 6:15 AM, but one of my running partners woke up with a high fever and the other one (Lynn) is in New York City!  With her husband Kelly.  So I never ran yesterday.  I just couldn't motivate myself to run 14 miles on the treadmill.  I began working on my school stuff instead.

Saturday:  That's today!  I have considered running my long run on the treadmill.....but I have talked myself out of it!  I do not want to spend 2.5-3 hours on the treadmill today.  Instead, I have planned a marathon school planning session!  So that leaves Sunday.....

Sunday:  Crossfit is planned for tomorrow night with our group.  It may or may not include a little bit of running, and I may or may not run an extra mile or two for a warm up or cool down.  Bottom line:  I was supposed to run 26 miles this week, and so far I have run only 11.

Some weeks are like that.

Next week's running mileage is 28.  I will get those miles in.  Check back next Saturday to see if I actually did!

Happy Birthday Julie!

We celebrated Julie's birthday at Seaside this year.  What a wonderful place to celebrate a birthday!

Here is the birthday girl--on the balcony of our beach house.

Julie, in the den of our beach house--her presents are on the table behind her.  I did not put bows on the gifts (horrors!), because we were packed like sardines in our van!
The girls and I loved the pink walls!

Happy Birthday Julie!
I can't believe that you are 14!

Opening gifts----a cute shirt from Aunt Megan and Uncle Russ

Yarn from Mims and Pops 

Duck tape in fun colors 

A new running shirt in her favorite color

 After opening gifts, we walked to the town square and enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant.

Julie and Jimmy

Everyone drew on the paper table cloth while we waited for our food.

Julie with her birthday table.  I set it up while the children played all over the house.

A beach themed table setting since we were at Seaside!

The cake!
Julie requested pound cake. We transported it in the van with us and our one thousand other things on the 7 hour trip down to Seaside!  

Happy 14th Birthday, Julie!

My Beach Reading

Last week while I was at Seaside, I spent four days in my beach chair (complete with cup holder), with my feet in the water, periodically counting heads (my five children's), and reading this book, Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

I highly recommend this book!  It was thought-provoking, challenging and encouraging.  I read it because it is one of four books that Olivia will read next year as part of her requirements for earning a high school credit in Bible.  I plan to buy her a new copy, for two reasons.

1.  The current copy is salty and splattered with seawater.

2.  I want to keep the copy I just read so I can reread it, chapter by chapter and underline, take some notes, etc.  This book was full of Scripture references, and I want to look up and read each and every one.

I plan to begin rereading Knowing God when I finish my B90 reading on October 8.

The main theme of this book is that to know God, you must love His Word.  And in my opinion, we can't love something we don't know, and we can't know something we don't spend time with.....so that is one reason why reading my Bible has to be high priority in my life.

So Far This Week

Our VBS began yesterday.  Since I was gone to the beach all last week (what a wonderful, relaxing vacation that was!), and I had not gotten all of my planning and preparation done before I left, I spent all afternoon Sunday between worship services and until almost midnight that night getting everything ready.  Then I got up at 5:00 AM yesterday to finish everything up.

The first day of VBS was a huge success!  I have twelve 5-7 year olds, and Olivia and Julie are my helpers.  We studied about Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal and their contest to see whose god would light their altar with fire.  I had them put 450 dot stickers on 3 pieces of poster board to demonstrate how many Baal prophets there were to Elijah, all by himself.

Late yesterday afternoon, my neighbor brought me an 8 pound bag of freshly shelled peas.  So I proceeded to put those up, and I now have 30 cups of peas in my freezer!  I froze them in quart bags in 3 or 4 cup portions.  It made 8 bags in all.

I am moving right along with my B90.  In fact, I got about a day and half ahead while at the beach, so I will be glad for that when school starts.

Still no school planning, but I do have hope!  I do have next week!  We begin August 3.  As soon as I start working on school, I will blog as I go.

Exercise update:  My mileage dropped off the last two weeks.  In fact, last week I only got 20 miles in.  But I did do a brutal CrossFit workout with our group Sunday night, and I also did one this morning.  My running mileage goal for this week is 26.  Beginning August 1, I have to do 30 miles a week in order to prepare for marathon training, which will begin the first week of September.  I am nervous!

The rest of this week includes VBS, laundry, ironing, maybe some school planning/schoolroom cleanout, and hopefully blogging---I still have posts I want to write about July 4th, my new nephew, Julie's birthday, and our vacation.

Guess Where We've Been!

If you need a hint, just read our shirts!

Camp Week

Recently, all five children and I attended Rustic Youth Camp for the second time.  RYC is owned and run by Christians who desire a place for young people to gather together each summer in a very rustic setting and participate in things such as Bible study, singing, arts and crafts, archery, trap shooting, rock wall climbing, kickball, canoeing, soccer, disc golf, and various other P.E. type games--plus lots of time for the children and teens to visit and get to know one another.

I was one of five teachers for the five and six year old class.  We had 21 students!  One of the teachers was the lead teacher, and let me just say that being the lead teacher is a lot of work.  These lead teachers take their jobs very seriously, and they make sure that we provide the campers with a high quality camp experience.  I am more than happy to be an assistant, and to just have to teach for one day.  The other days I helped out as needed.  All day.  From 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

The day campers are campers aged 3 years old to 6th grade.  Once a child is 13, he or she can be an overnight camper.  These campers stay in the bunkhouse with some very brave counselors.  Olivia loves staying overnight in the bunkhouse.  Julie, not so much.  She tried the bunkhouse for two nights, and decided that she preferred to stay with the rest of the children and me.  Olivia says that most of the fun occurs after the day campers leave!  The overnighters enjoy supper and breakfast together, in addition to lots of free time and an evening Bible study.  Time to forge lasting friendships.

Lynn and her four children and four of my children and I all stayed at Mrs. Beulah's house this year.  (Last year we stayed at a local hotel, and we vowed to NEVER stay there again!).  Mrs. Beulah lives about 25 minutes from the campground, and she was such a gracious host! We enjoyed getting to know her, and we really appreciated her hospitality.  It was a lot of fun staying there!

Each afternoon of camp, there is a time called "Sports".  Families are assigned either the red or blue team.  We were blue this year.  Every day during Sports, each class plays a game and the team that wins gets a point.  On Friday night at the skits and awards program for parents and other visitors, the winning team is announced.  Also on Friday afternoon, there is a sort of field day where each class rotates through various games, earning points for either red or blue.   

Each class is also supposed to create and practice some sort of skit for the program on Friday night.  My fantastic lead teacher had our skit all planned and we had most of our props made before we arrived at camp!  

Here are some highlights of our camp week:

 Parker and Clay enjoying lunch

 Julie waiting in line for lunch

 Olivia--in the woodworking area I think

 Julie (on the right in front)

and her Bible class

 Sam and Me

 Clay during Sports on Friday

 Clay (far right) and his class during their skit

 Sam's class doing their skit.  Sam is in a blue George Washington hat on the right.  The narrator read several historical facts about our country's history, and then the children sang and performed sign language to God Bless America.

 Sam--the children stamped the bandanas in class.  The teachers painted the shirts.

Leah and her class doing their skit.  They made their shirts during their arts and crafts time.

 Leah pretending to be an elephant

 Julie and her class doing their skit

Olivia, showing her happiness after receiving the Camp Sweetheart award.

Preparing for camp and actually teaching and working at camp wears me out!  But it is so worth it!  Not only are the children making friendships that will last a lifetime, I am making new friends too.  And I learn so much by being surrounded by such godly men and women.  I am encouraged by the other counselors, and when it is all over, I look forward to being with everyone again next summer.

B90 Begins Today!

Today is the day to begin reading the Bible all the way through in just 90 days!  It is possible.  I know, because I read the Bible in 90 days beginning last January 1. 

It takes me about 45 minutes to 1 hour each day to complete that day's reading.  I read all of the reading or as much as I can first thing in the morning.  If I have any reading left, I carry my iPad around with me all day, taking advantage of any spare moment to read.  I have found that saving the reading, unless it is just a chapter or two, until bedtime does not work for me.  I get too sleepy! Unless I am doing a long run and must leave my house by 5:30 AM, I usually just set my alarm at 5:00 AM, and that gives me plenty of time to read before I need to do other things.  I also like reading first thing in the morning, because that way the Scripture stays on my mind all day.  That is something interesting that I discovered the last time I did this.  I had God's Word on my mind a lot.  What a wonderful thing to have occupying my thoughts.  I think it is because my brain had to process such a lengthy reading each day that the Scripture seemed to stay with me all day.

The last time I did B90, I read the English Standard Version (ESV).  This time I am reading The New American Standard Bible (NASB).  I have both versions of the Bible downloaded onto my iPad, so I do not have to have an active wifi connection in order to read.  I searched and searched the Bible apps until I found one that not only had a downloadable version, but also had a highlighting feature. I like to highlight as I read, and I did not want to have to depend on having wifi in order to read.

I also have the You Version, The Bible App, on both my iPhone and iPad.  This free app contains numerous versions of the Bible, some of which can be downloaded.  It also has a feature where the Bible can be read to you, but this requires an active wifi connection.  

The You Version does not have a highlighting feature, so that is why I chose not to use this app for my daily reading.  However, You Version is the only one that I could find that included ESV and NASB and had the B90 reading plan.  Browse reading plans, and you can choose Bible in 90 Days.  You can keep track of your reading here two different ways.  You can complete your reading using one of the versions that You Version offers, with an active wifi connection, and as you swipe or scroll to the next chapter, the app automatically checks off each chapter you just read.  Or you can manually check off each chapter in that day's reading assignment list.  Since I don't always have access to wifi while I am reading, and also since I like to read using an app that allows highlighting, I usually check the You Version for the day's reading assignment, then go to my other app to actually do the reading, and then go back to You Version to check off the chapters.  It really is not as complicated as it sounds!  I am using Bible + app this time for my NASB reading.  You can also check off your chapters read on the iPhone, or of course you can read the Bible on the iPhone, if you can read on that tiny screen!

Are you in?  Would you like to join this reading challenge with me?

You can visit Mom's Toolbox for more information on the B90 challenge, and you can read about the various forms of support available.

Road Trip

Friday afternoon, I took Olivia, Julie, and Jessica (a young lady from our church) on a overnight to visit to just outside Birmingham.  We attended a young ladies' Bible study in the home of an online friend that I had never met in real life!  Sally was our gracious host, and she and I have been email/yahoo group friends for about 7 or 8 years now....but we had never seen each other in person until Friday night!  It was so exciting to finally meet her and her precious family.

Sally also homeschools her six children, and we have seemed to have so much in common as we have gotten to know each other over the years.  While she is only about two weeks older than me, she has served as sort of a mentor to me in many areas.  She was all that I expected her to be and more!  We talked, and talked and talked.  She likes to talk as much as I do!

About 20 girls and two other mothers attended the all-girls evening.  We began with pizza, breadsticks, and dessert.  Next we had a time of beautiful singing followed by a thought-provoking and lively-discussed Bible study.  The topic was dating/courtship/choosing a spouse/marriage--I can't remember the exact title, but the study was excellent.  Sally is an excellent teacher.

Most of the girls and one of the other mothers left around 9:30.  The rest of us changed into our pajamas and the slumber party began!  Some of us played games, some watched a movie, and everyone talked and visited!  For a long time!  I finally went to bed at 2:00 AM.  I told the ladies that that was the latest I had been up since I have had a newborn!  I slept until 7:00, so I did have a decent night's rest.  Julie says that she slept about 2 hours, and Olivia did not go to bed at all!  Her first time to stay up all night!  Jessica tried to sleep, but she was in the room with the girls who stayed up all night!  Poor Jessica!

We started drinking large amounts of coffee at 7:00 AM, and visited some more.  Sadly, we had to get on the road at 10:00.  It was such a fun visit!  I took yet another cup of coffee for the drive home, and we were off.

Sally lives about three hours and twenty minutes from me.  I wish it were closer.  I know that if we lived in the same town we would be close friends.  She is a godly wife and mother, so patient and cheerful, and it is evident that she lives a life of service to the Lord.  Her home was just lovely.  I really enjoyed my time with Sally and her family.

I Think I Have the Answer!

To my recent problem, and I hope that my discovery may help you too!

My personal stress level and my feeling of being overwhelmed by daily life is directly proportional to the lack of time I spend reading and studying God's Word and praying.

Does that make sense?  When I get too busy to make time for Bible study and prayer, then my ability to cope with my daily life complete with all of its challenges becomes too much for me.  So I go longer and longer without quality time with God, and my perceived level of stress and being overwhelmed grows higher and higher.

Yesterday I went for an hour long run, outside and alone.  My three older children were running with me, but they were not running with me.  We were on the same trail so that I could keep my eye on them, but they were ahead of me.  So I had some time to just think.  Running alone outside like that is good for me.  It clears my head.  I love running outside with my dear friends.  We call it therapy, and it is!  But sometimes I need time to run alone and think.  Time to ponder and pray.  So yesterday I had the opportunity to reflect on what exactly was causing me so much stress lately.  I have been hounded by my to-do list, which grows longer and longer each day, yet I work hard all day every day.  I have been feeling like the mouse in the little spinning wheel...running and running, but going nowhere.  Making no real progress.

I thought to myself.  What is different right now?  Is my load any heavier?  Has anything major changed?

• I have 5 children to take care of--nothing new
• I have a short summer break from school, but it is filled with camp, VBS, and vacation--nothing new
• I really have only two weeks to plan for our upcoming school year--nothing new
• My house could use a really good cleaning, top to bottom--nothing new
• I am really, really behind on the ironing--nothing new
• I am exercising five days a week--nothing new

What is different?  Why am I so overwhelmed?  Why do I have this fear that August 3rd is going to come, and I will not be prepared for the start of a new school year!

And then the answer comes to me.  I have neglected to spend time, daily, reading my Bible and praying.  It's that simple.  I have bought into the lie that I don't have time for that.  I hit the floor running each morning, coffee in hand--starting the washer, tending to the children, adding to my ever increasing list.....but I am ashamed to admit that I have not spent time in God's Word for over a month now.  And as I look back at how long I have felt like this (stressed, unrested, overwhelmed), I realize that it has slowly built over the last month.  Over the last few weeks I have still read the Bible to my children, and I have read what I needed to to prepare for RYC lessons and my Sunday and Wednesday Bible classes at our local church, but that is all.  Nothing more.

I challenged you, blog readers to read Colossians 3:1-17 daily for the month of June.  I have not done that.

I needed to finish up my in depth study of James by June 30.  I have not done that.

I had planned to begin reading the Bible in 90 days again beginning July 1.  I have not done that.  I was so relieved when I saw that lots of people out in blog land were starting this round on B90 on July 11.  That gave me a few extra days until I had to get serious about my Bible reading again.  

I began last night making the necessary corrections.  I read the passage in Colossians twice before bed.  From now until July 11, I plan to daily read Colossians 3:1-17, taking notes and trying really hard to apply the verses to my life.  I also plan to reread all of James each day, and finish up my study of that book as best I can.  Then on Monday, I will begin B90!  Today, I will start writing again my Five Things I Am Thankful For each day (I started this over 15 years ago), I will update my prayer requests in my Bible study binder.  I will make the time for Bible study and prayer.

And I know that my stress level will lower.  My responsibilities will still be there.  But my attitude will be different.  My perception will be different.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1-3

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:17

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Hello Out There!

I have so much that I want to blog about.....Rustic Youth Camp, our fun Fourth of July celebration, school and VBS prep....

But I have been sick!  Nothing serious, but a pretty bad sore throat and now a full-blown cold.  Just enough to make me feel tired and keep me from functioning at full speed.  Julie, Leah, and Sam have all had swimmer's ear, and Leah has had a sore throat as well.

I finally finished the camp laundry--the grand total (using my large front loading washer) was 13 loads!  I skipped laundry yesterday (just fell too yukky), so today my washer and dryer will be working hard again!  I also need to have an ironing marathon.

I took 10 days off from exercising.  10 days!  I can't remember the last time I rested for that many days.  I only took off 7 days after my marathon.  Anyway, between camp preparations, actually attending camp, camp recovery, and then getting sick, I skipped a total of 10 days!  The good thing is, my knees have stopped hurting!  So resting from the jumping in the Insanity workouts has proved to be beneficial.  I jumped right back into running on Tuesday of this week.  Tuesday morning, Jimmy and I ran 6 miles on a trail.  I am not a big trail running fan, but this trail on the Natchez Trace was actually nice, and I did enjoy the run.  I think it was the company rather than the actual trail!  Yesterday, Jimmy and I met my friend  Amber for a 10 mile run--on the road.  I was pretty sore yesterday, but not injured.  And my knees still feel great!  I am planning on doing an Insanity workout later today, but not do any of the jumps.

I am working hard on preparing for our upcoming VBS.  Our VBS lasts for 4 days, and I am teaching the K-2 grade class.  I am anticipating 12-15 students.  My lessons are:

1. Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal
2. Ezekiel and the dry bones
3. Gideon and the 300 men
4. Balaam and the donkey

Well, that's about all that is going on around here....I did my monthly Walmart shopping yesterday, and I bought some school supplies!  They are already putting everything out and selling it at a super low price.  I bought a few things at Staples too.  I mostly stocked up on glue, glue sticks, pencils, spiral notebooks, composition books, construction paper, and notebook paper.  That is really all that we need.  I need to restock our paint supply, and I plan on getting some new binders for the children, but that is about all for this year.

Most of the pictures from camp and all of the ones from July the 4th are all on Jimmy's computer.  I hope to get on there today and choose some for my blog.  We had a really, really fun Fourth of July with some of our dear friends.

Have a good summer day!

Free Homeschooling Ebook

This free Ebook is available beginning today.  Please click here to visit The Homeschool Classroom for information about how you can download your free Ebook today!

My contribution is entitled, Four Reasons to Pre-read Your Child's Independent Reading Books.  These reasons are very important to me, and I hope you will benefit from reading my  thoughts as well.

Post-Camp Laundry

We arrived home around 10:15 last night from our week long experience at Rustic Youth Camp.  I started on this mountain of laundry this morning.  I am guessing that it will be at least 10 loads!

I also have to make a grocery list and go to Kroger since our cupboard is bare!  Camp was lots of fun (exhausting, but lots of fun!), and I plan to blog all about it as soon as I get caught up with laundry and groceries.

Make Something Fun for July the 4th

Sam, modeling the Patriotic crafts

I have a post over at The Homeschool Classroom that includes instructions for making the headband and wand that Sam is displaying.  I recently helped my 21 five and six year old campers construct these!  They really are fun to make and even more fun to wear!

Please visit The Homeschool Classroom for complete instructions.