Web Finds for Home Schools, February 16, 2018

Valentine's Day has come and gone again ... somehow, it didn't bother me so much this year.  Perhaps because the ref, on his own, chose to treat all of his kids to a nice box of chocolate?    And he gave me some money - as he knows I like to shop more than get gifts.

We finished the third set of 7 weeks, and in spite of getting off to a really bad start with cold germs, stomach bugs, and one of the coldest weeks I've ever experienced in East Texas ... made worse because the trailers are not insulated to withstand temperatures below 20 degrees.  It got down to 7 degrees and was below 30 for almost 6 straight days.   Our central heat ran non-stop and the temps inside the house dropped to below 40.   Fortunately, my aunt lives next door, and we camped the kids over there since her trailer is much better insulated.   So this week, we got the bills for our electricity.   And we're happy to see it was below our worst fears!

Story, Kendra E. Ardnek http://amzn.to/2BAPlGG,   has set up a writing challenge group to rewrite Rapunzel.   If you like writing stories, or have a teen that aspires to be an author, it is a great way to learn about the process from an established author.   https://kendrasgiraffecrafts.blogspot.com/2018/02/introducing-arista-challenge.html

And a friend of hers wrote a great article about the Fantasy genre
http://jenelleschmidt.com/elements-of-fantasy-part-1/





This week, I ran across several home care articles.

Taking care of your laundry ...
https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/laundry/top-laundry-mistakes

Cooking secrets
https://sweetandsavory.co/15-food-hacks/

Some heart healthy foods
https://theheartysoul.com/signs-of-clogged-arteries/




And School things ....

Like games to help with learning History ...   http://www.playinghistory.org/

Information on the Olympics and North Korea specifically 
https://www.dailywire.com/news/27017/walsh-north-korea-matt-walsh

This week we were learning about Dinosaurs, via a class we get through School House Teachers ... and one point it mentioned how many scientists "make up" their facts about how the dinosaurs looked.   It told them to print a dino picture and answer some questions.   Because I have ages 2nd - 7th grade, we went looking for more Dino pics ...
http://www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com/dinosaur-coloring-pages.html

Star was struggling with her maps of Paul's Journeys.  I found some great ones here
http://www.supercoloring.com/coloring-pages/christianity-bible

Short article on the sons and grandsons of Noah, short video about creation.com may play automatically
https://creation.com/the-sixteen-grandsons-of-noah

And all kinds of things to print, like dot to dot and color by number!
https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/




How about raising kids with a good work ethic and confidence that they can do good work?

https://www.backwoodsmama.com/2018/02/stop-telling-kids-be-careful-and-what-to-say-instead.html

Read the comments ... there are numerous comments from older teens on the work ethic conversation .... very interesting.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/27058/department-education-were-done-being-involved-hank-berrien


And helping kids learn Time Management

With technical devices
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/11/screen-time-kids-children-parents-new-media

Homeschooling allows education to be personalized and allows the usage of technology to learn and research
http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-homeschooling-is-the-smartest-way-to-teach-kids-today-2018-1/#personalized-learning-is-a-strong-method-of-instruction-1


What do you do when you are not homeschooling?  How do you use your free time?
https://deliberatehomeschooling.com/not-homeschooling/

Using time management skills to give yourself the schedule that works best for you
http://homeschoolgiveaways.com/2013/01/sabbath-schooling-saved-homeschool-burnout/

This reminds me of how we are doing school for the past 2 years.  Works for  us!
http://eaglenestmom.blogspot.com/2017/08/homeschooling-extra-kids-with-your-own.html



How about financial Responsibility?
https://moneyuntangled.com/februarys-debt-income-report-started-finance-blog-64k-debt/



And learning about Social Relationships by watching Mom and Dad?
https://www.thinkingkidsblog.org/2018/01/31/activities-for-married-couples/
(by the way, I picked up the advertised Sermon Journal - it's really cool!)

And supporting each other
http://livelifewithyourkids.com/2018/02/help-your-spouse-successful/




With so much on my plate, I've been unable to really spend time doing research.   We are also now taking baby steps toward buying a house ... we owned a townhouse from 1994 - mid 2000.   But for most of the time since then, we have lived in a trailer that was given to us after it did not sell.   It was much better than living 4 of us out of 1 1/2 bedrooms and everything we owned in the garage (nearly 3 years).   But the repairs and electric bills are increasing to the point, we could make a monthly payment ... but a long way from the cost of rent.   ....   Now if only the Ref was Mr. Fix It!    Prayers for the right house to fall in our lap and become ours over the next few months.   Please!!!

Also, any clicking on sponsored links and making a purchase helps us a tiny bit (usually we're talking a few pennies to a few dollars - I made $13 on Amazon in November! 

Felling Trees : A Peek At Our Week

A couple of weeks ago,
our yard (at least a TINY piece of it)
looked like this.

These trees are no longer standing.
A drought 2 years ago,
has damaged several trees next to our trailer house.
And they are all tall enough to do some serious damage
if they were to fall on top of us in a wind.
And considering that they are already dropping branches ...
they have to come down.

I'm sure these guys will miss their favorite perch.

 

 

Can you tell how TALL these trees are?
Daddy felled 5 of them today.
But this was one of the tallest.

Daddy was raised in logging country.
He's been felling trees my whole life.
Actually ... probably before I was born ....

This was the saddest.
Perfectly healthy and beautiful tree.

But to get the wobbly and half dead pines out behind it,
without crushing our trailers,
.....
well,
it had to go.

Leaf litter everywhere.

 

Story is having a Blog Birthday Bash today.
Things are getting pretty weird over there.
http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com/2013/02/rescue-me.html

I would advise staying out of the food fight room,
but be sure to drop by the gift table,
and drop her off a nice gift.
(via the comments)

I keep wondering if all that ceder could be put to good use ...
somewhere?
Maybe I should stuff it under my house?
Would that help deter the cats and the bugs?
Just kidding.

 

 

 

We did save the cedar trunks for later.

 

And some of the other hardwood tree stumps as well.
The kids are going to use these as chairs in the yard.

Keeping Busy - A Peek at January

Sunshine discovered that she LOVES doing puzzles.
I just wish I knew where (and if I can get them back) my tons of board puzzles went...
because she is bored with the 3 we have,
but not quite ready for the loose puzzles.

I may have sent them to Good Will though ...
because she is my first child to actually LIKE puzzles!

She does up to 30 pieces.

These two spent the better part of 2 weeks playing Candyland.
They have now returned the game to our friends ...
But Sunshine recently discovered that there is a Dora Candyland electronic game.
We saw it watching Dora videos on youtube.
She thought that was a hoot.

It was frightfully cold for several weeks
Our school room would only warm up to 66 during the day,
in spite of the thermostat set at 70.
We were so cold,
that we lit a few candles to warm our fingers,
and drank a lot of hot tea.

I really dread the electric bill,
as I'm sure it will be close to house payment size,
outside walls on a trailer house are just so thin.

This puzzle comes with a delightful cheery
voice singing the sombrero song.



One night we did Christmas with our Aunt upstairs.

She treated us all to peppermints and hot chocolate.

 

And she gave the kids SNACKS!
They were so excited!

 

He has already eaten his peanut butter ...
and he cashed in his ticket for loaf of home made bread.

I don't think she liked that giraffe mug,
do you?

 

She loved the hand me down sewing rocking chair.
It was hand made by one of our older relative's friends.

 

The kids tired quickly after the last present was unwrapped ...
so we put them to bed.

Don't let the closed eyes fool you ...
she is wide awake.

My girls watching videos.

 

The big girls love finding Youtube videos from the History Channel
about subjects that they are studying in school.
Story spent a week following a series on the Vikings.
Song was watching a series about exploration (I think).

An Umbrella Tinker Toy.




And so ... that was our incredibly cold January.
Temps hovered in the low to mid 40's most days,
and dropped into the 20's at night.

I know for you northerners,
that isn't cold.

But as many northerners complain,
who come down here for college,
"That temperature is deceiving,
it FEELS like it is 15 to 20 degrees colder!"

I agreed after living in Colorado for 10 years.

Peek at Our Week - Second Half of December

We went shopping one day ...
Sunshine's favorite part was standing on the big balls.

Scholar wrapped and labeled most of his own gifts.
He made them himself as well.

We didn't have room for a tree -
nor did we feel like pulling out decorations -
so we just piled all of the gifts into the corner.

Sunshine made her own gifts as well.

On the 21'st,
Story went around with a towel all day ...
guess what the "joke" of the day was.

Hint:  It's from a book (series) that was made into a movie ... twice!

Story hard at work making her gifts for each family.

Sunshine got Scholar to help her put together this puzzle a couple of times,
then she put it together herself over 50 times.

She is the first one to show such a puzzle talent at this age!

Song wrote a short play for our church Christmas program on Dec. 23,
and even played her violin for one of the songs.
It was quite a growing experience for her.

On Dec. 24,
every year,
the ref's family gets together for Christmas.
Ten years ago,
it was just Song and Story,
but look how we have grown!
And 2 of them are missing ....
one only wanted her Daddy,
the other lives in the North East Corner of the USA.

And the night of Dec. 25,
it snowed!!!!
This has NEVER happened in my life.
(Other than the year we were in Longmont, CO)
We had 2 and 3 inches in some spots!

The kids spent the next extra cold day running in and out,
playing for a few minutes and running back inside.
We really are not equipped for a lot of snow -
even bundled up, we get quite cold.

It was a wet, windy cold as well,
and ate right into our bones.

It hasn't gone away either,
although it has warmed into the 40's instead of the 20's.

Still, there were lots of spots in the yard
that looked like this.
Lots of patchy sandy spots.

I told Scholar to put his PJ long john's on before he went outside to play.
He did.
But he failed to put on his pants over the top.

At least he had good water proof boots!!!

Story and Sunshine had a blast throwing "snowballs"
this stuff wasn't sticking together much,
so it looked more like throwing hand fulls of snow.

Scholar was mesmerized by the ice hanging from the roof.
We had them 2 years ago,
but he didn't remember them.

On the 29th,
we went to the big city
for Christmas at Aunt and Uncle's house.
We aren't sure what happened to her little tutu,
because we changed her into her PJ's before coming home,
and it didn't come home with her.

When we got there, I mentioned that I had planned for Sunshine to wear her
black and pink tutu she was given for her 3rd birthday,
but it didn't match, and I forgot to say anything to Song
(who was packing and dressing Sunshine for the trip)
and my aunt took her into her store workshop and found this for her to wear all day.
She sure spoils her nieces and nephews.

And she LOVES her hat that they gave her!

The 12 kids were sprawled in various spots playing with DS's  and ipad's.
And snitching candy from the candy jars,
and chocolate strawberries and crackers from the snack table.

Story and Song are again the two oldest, with the other 10
at age 10 down to age 2.
You can see the 10 year old in stripes
standing beside Scholar.