May 22, 2012

A Few of My Favorite Homeschooling Websites

Throughout the next few weeks, I’ll be joining in with the bloggers from iHomeschoolNetwork to offer some of my Top 10′s. The Top Ten Tuesday link up is hosted by my friend, Angie from Many Little Blessings.

This week, we’re sharing our favorite homeschooling sites. I’m going to warn you right now…mine are different in the fact that few of them are actual homeschool sites. However, these are the sites I find myself going to over and over again throughout the course of a homeschool year and that’s why they are on my list. {By the way, these are listed in order of how often I use them.}

—- #1 —-

SCHOLARIC – I was introduced to Scholaric by Amanda from The Pelsers, but it took me months to finally sign up for a free trial of their lesson plan software because I have always shied away from such things due to how complicated they usually are. I do not like software that requires hours of inputting data to make it work, and nearly everything I had seen on the market took more setup than I was willing to take the time for. I really didn’t expect Scholaric to be any different, but it was!

It is web-based so I use it on my iPad. (this is part of what has endeared it to me - I don’t have to be tied to my laptop/desktop!) I type in assignments, but my big kids can also add in their assignments since I don’t always keep track of where they are. I have never been more impressed by a lesson plan software in all 10 years of my homeschooling! And yes, we use it every single day multiple times a day.

—- #2 —-

GOOGLE IMAGES – I use the images from Google searches primarily for history and science. For example, yesterday I was teaching the older kids about the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. I Googled things like “hanging gardens”, “synagogue” and “hamanatshen”. But, then I clicked on IMAGES instead of trying to search through EVERYTHING.

Again, I am using my iPad so the kids can easily pass it around and look at the pictures while I read (please be aware that not all search images are appropriate, but usually the first several rows are perfect!). Having a visual to go along with what we are learning about is priceless!

—- #3 —-

AMAZON – I already told you about my freebie finds for next school year on Amazon, but then one of my readers told me about all the amazing Henty and Ballantyne books for free and I added even more to my Kindle app! And in the process, I found the McGuffy readers there too! A huge thank you to Reformation Acres for feeding my obsession for free books!

I also search Amazon first when looking for must-have books for the school year; however, you will see in a moment, this is NOT where I start my search…

—- #4 —-

PaperBackSwap – I told you in my post on creating my own history curriculum exactly how I use PaperBackSwap. I just listed a long list of books we no longer need and am greatly anticipating sending those off and adding more to my list of needs for next school year!

The reason this site is near the top of my list is because the books come trickling in all year long, so don’t think just because when you initially post your wants and don’t get everything you want that you won’t see it pop up later in the year. The things I can’t wait on, I buy from Amazon, but if I can wait, I’d rather try to get it via PaperBackSwap.

—- #5 —-

ChristianCinema.com – This is something brand new to our family, but it has already created some big excitement around here!

When we dropped our Netflix membership, we talked about getting an Amazon Prime membership so we could watch videos or subscribing to Hulu, but neither one of those options were distinctly Christian and the selection was a little iffy. After our decision to be more purposeful with our movie watching, we decided to search for something more in line with what we were trying to accomplish. I ran across Christian Cinema via an internet search engine and decided this was more what we were looking for. They even have a “homeschooling” category!

—- #6 —-

HOMESCHOOL SHARE – I’ve told you before how this is the first place I look for supplemental material during our homeschool year. This site has an amazing selection of free stuff! And in case you are interested in getting a ChristianCinema membership and then lapbooking what you learn, here’s the link to their Movie Lapbook!

—- #7 —-

THE HOMESCHOOL CHANNEL – I don’t utilize this site as often as I should, but it really is a great resource for the homeschooling family! But beware, you WILL get lost looking for items of interest there! It is endless!

—- #8 —-

CurrClick – I have had a CurrClick membership for years and used it periodically to get freebies, but this past April at 2:1 in Washington, D.C., I actually met Leah from CurrClick and came to the realization of just how extensive and awesome the site is!

For instance, did you know there are online classes your child can take via CurrClick on everything from Biology to Math to Government to Essay Writing and all for very reasonable prices considering the last time I looked at an online class through a homeschool company, it was $250!

Leah also told me about their FREE Clubs. There are Lego Clubs and Chess Clubs (yes, they actually get to play chess in a safe online environment!) and many, many more! There are even parent’s groups where you can talk about specific homeschooling issues and get the help you need from parents who have been there.

The actual products available through CurrClick are all digital, so if you are looking for less clutter in your homeschool, please check out CurrClick!

—- #9 —-

HOMESCHOOL SANITY – This was an off-shoot of Sherry’s original site Large Family Mothering and it used to be called McGuffey’s World (you’ll see it’s still under that in the URL). I started reading it because I have this strange fascination with McGuffey Readers. Probably the same reason one-room schoolhouses fascinate me. Sherry gives very practical educational application, and because she runs a large family household, I know what she offers will be doable for my homeschool.

—- #10 —-

MOM’s MUSTARD SEEDS FREEDOM FRIDAY – This is a series I have had bookmarked since it started! I want to go through the entire thing with my older kids. It is 12 weeks of Government classes from Lynn at Founder’s Academy and it is entirely FREE! The classes are presented via video, there is a reading list and worksheets and quizzes – absolutely AMAZING opportunity!

So, what would your top 10 be? You might even want to write a post about it and link it up to Top Ten Tuesday!

May 21, 2012

Slow Summer Mothering {Welcome Home Link Up}

I must admit, Summer is not my favorite season. I don’t know if I became this way due to marrying a man who would rather vacation in Alaska in February than head to the beach any time of year or if pregnancy in the summertime pretty much ruined my taste for the heat. No matter the reason, from the moment the temps head over 90, our family is ready to lay around the house drinking lemonade and panting like dogs while we dream of vacationing in the mountains.

Unlike many American families, summer around here is a time when we slow down. Sure, we have our fair share of Boy Scout Camps and horse riding lessons and such, but we do not run a break-neck pace through the summer. We sort of simmer through summer. Slow-cook, if you will.

Here are a few more facts about my slow summer style…

*I like to get up earlier in the summer – Back when Ty was deployed, I would get up early on those summer mornings and read my Bible and watch the sun come up on my front porch before my two little ones would rise for the day. Those are precious memories for me. Since early morning is the only time of day that is not hot in the summer months (for the most part), I like to drink it in!

*I keep my little ones out of the sun – We typically do not head outside for the day until after 5pm. We do occasionally go out in the morning (especially to do school), but for the most part, we stay out of the direct sunlight. I have fair-haired, fair-skinned babies, so no sun-bathing here.

*Meals become what I like to call Amish Lunch. In my early married years, I read a syndicated newspaper column called The Amish Cook. She would write about what they had for meals and I was struck by how often lunch would consist of assorted garden produce (some pickled, some not), cheese, bread, jams and butter. In the summer months I adopt this Amish Lunch with our own flair! We’ll often be found snacking on cheese and crackers, carrot sticks and pickles. We’ll eat tortillas rolled up with whatever I can find in the refrigerator or crackers and dip. Cold, practical and so-not-fancy!

*We school year round. It just makes sense for our family since our major vacation of the year is not in the summer months (off-season is a beautiful thing for a large family!) and I never know when the next baby might be joining our family or we might need to loan a big kid out to a grandparent.

*Running through the sprinklers beat public swimming pools any day. Public swimming pools and beaches can be a nightmare for a large family with more littles than bigs. (Not to mention the rather scantily-clad young ladies you see there), so we prefer to stick close to home and play in the sprinklers. We also have a hot tub at our new house that has the ability to be a “cool” tub in the summer, so we turn it down and use it as a pool of sorts.

*I like my skirts and sandals in the summer. There is just something lovely about a long-flowing skirt and a cute pair of sandals in the summertime. I feel as if I’ve stepped out of a painting of ladies walking in a flower garden in England.

If you are looking for more skirt ideas, check out the She Wears Skirts series I did with Caroline from The Modest Mom and also see her store for lovely summer skirts like this Ruffled Skirt. You get 10% off your entire order when you use the code

raisingarrows

*I’m slow-paced by nature. I am naturally a Mary, not a Martha. I’m pretty laid back and would rather have a long conversation than clean a kitchen any day. Since I know this about myself, I have learned to clean first so I can be a Mary without detriment to my home all summer long.

So, what kind of Summer Mother are you? Slow-paced or super-busy? I’d love to hear about what makes your summer tick!

May 15, 2012

Free Books I Found While Planning for Next School Year!

This is not my typical kind of post, but if you could have seen me the other night hooping and hollering every time I snagged a freebie from next year’s book list, you would get why I just had to share with all of you!

In my post on affording the large family homeschool, I talked about using free stuff to homeschool. One of the free things I mentioned was public domain works. Now that I have an iPad these are a little more enticing to me. I never wanted to use these before because I didn’t want to lug my 17″ laptop all over the house with me. But having a much smaller and more portable device and the ability to use the Kindle app (works for PC too!) to store the books on Kindle until I am ready for them gave me the idea that I ought to search through my list of books for next year and see what I could find that was public domain.

By the way, we have decided to use Tapestry of Grace Year 2 for next school year, so the book list I was searching was from there and primarily for my junior high and high school aged children. And yes, I promise to write a post about our choice to go back to Tapestry of Grace after all these years.

Please remember these books must be previewed by you, the parent. Also be aware that you do not see HOW I use these materials in our homeschool. I may be skipping sections, giving an overview of the work, or reading the entire book aloud.

So, here’s what I found!

I went with this version of Arabian Nights because one review called it the “sanitized children’s version”.

For those of you unfamiliar with the real “unsanitized” version of Canterbury Tales, this is not a book you read straight through.

Beowulf is not an easy read and I didn’t read it until I was in college, so I plan to skim sections with my children. There is a children’s version available, but not for free.

Not a light read I am sure!

This book, set in the middle ages, is one that I am very excited to be putting in the hands of my oldest son!

Frankly, I’m looking forward to reading this! I’ve heard it is a good read.

If you buy this in the complete version it is $.99, but if you get the two volumes separate, it is free. Go figure.

My oldest son will be earning a Government credit next year. This is part of that credit.

We own a hardcover version of this book as well (picked up from a used book sale!), but I wanted the opportunity for two children to read the book at the same time without needing to share the book.

In order to get Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I had to get this selection rather than just the sermon itself which costs $.99.

The reviews on this particular book won me over as this being the sort of thing I was looking for.

Again, we own this in hard copy, but I wanted to give both my older children the chance to read this at the same time and not have to share a book.

As for the other books on my list, I am saving up Amazon gift cards from being an affiliate and as Swagbucks prizes. I’m starting to list what I need on PaperBackSwap as well with the hopes I can find some there for cheap too. I also plan to utilize my library as much as possible!

April 18, 2012

Affording the Large Family Homeschool

Welcome back to 10 Days of Large Family Homeschooling!
Start at the beginning of the series.

For any family seeking a private Christian education in the home, money quickly becomes an issue. While programs like K12 and other public-school umbrellas exist, they do not offer the freedom of choice so many homeschoolers are looking for. Nor do they offer a Christian education.

Most homeschooling families opt to buy their own curriculum so they can truly be in charge of their child’s education. When a homeschooling family has many children, curriculum buying becomes an exercise in creative frugality.

Here are a few ways you can save and stretch money in your homeschool:

1. Buy supplies in bulk.

My absolute favorite place to get school supplies is Discount School Supply. Every year, I order all the paper, pencils, crayons, paint, craft supplies, etc. we need for the year (and often, they will last longer than that). I buy crayons in bulk, pencils in bulk, glue in bulk and whatever else I know we use a lot of. Discount School Supply’s prices are amazing and the shipping is FREE if you have an order over $79.

Another place we buy from is Miller Pads and Paper. I have never purchased from them online, but they go to a lot of conventions and I buy things from them like dry erase lapboards and specialty papers. They are also a terrific source for higher level art supplies (I need to keep this in mind when getting extras for See the Light Art!)

2. Utilize free sites.

There are entire websites devoted to offering free curriculum like Ambleside Online and Old Fashioned Education – there is a great list of free curriculum sites on Successful Homeschooling. Free curriculum websites are amazing resources that often use public domain materials. If you go this route, I would highly recommend investing in some type of eReader like a Kindle or Nook so your children are not confined to staring at a computer all day. I also like Sherry’s (Large Family Mothering) idea of investing the money to print off free books and then bind them yourself.

There is also a new website, FreeHomeschoolDeals.com, that offers several freebies every day, including free Kindle ebooks. And on Fridays at Gricefully Homeschooling and Kathy’s Cluttered Mind there is a FreeBee Friday with a link up where other homeschoolers can link up their freebies.

I also use places like Homeschool Share for free unit studies (like when we needed a Farmer Boy supplement for our Little House on the Prairie study). And of course, never forget your local library!

You could easily pull together a full curriculum for all of your children with all the free stuff on the internet. It would take a little diligence, perseverance and time, but it is definitely doable.

3. Dream big and one at a time.

Most homeschool moms go into their school year with a budget in mind. They say things like, “I have $500 to spend for the entire school year. How can I get the biggest bang for my buck?” I would like to encourage you to come at your budget in a little different way.

Rather than seeing your children as a collective, look at each child individually and their individual interests and needs. Include the things most people consider “extras” and dream big. You can always pare down from there.

For instance, we’ve decided our youngest children only need Phonics and Math. The rest of their schooling can come from books we already own, library books, or just plain life. We focus the bulk of our budget on our older children and increasing our own library of resources. (by the way, the numbers in the photo are random )

I start high with my homeschooling dreams and work my way down when deciding on a reasonable amount to spend each year. I write down each child’s name and all the items I think they could use in a year and the price of each item. From there, I start paring down and searching for online resources to replace some of the items until I land on a more reasonable number.

Dreaming big for each individual child teaches you to see each of your child’s strengths and weaknesses and interests in the context of education and discipleship. You may find yourself very surprised and very excited by the prospects of budgeting this way because it gives such insight for each child. In the Subscriber Pack, I’ve included a Budget by Child sheet where you can try this method of planning.

Subscribe to Raising Arrows here:

4. See your purchases as an investment.

This is the number one thing I tell homeschooling parents of many. Your purchase today will be passed down from one child to the next. If there is a curriculum you really think would benefit your homeschool, but the price feels too hefty, don’t always walk away from it. Consider how many of your children will be able to use it and other places you can scrimp in order to purchase it. The money you spend now will be well worth it in the long run.

And I want to urge you to realize your child’s education is not just about academic scores. This is the very reason I wrote Homeschooling with Purpose. Homeschool parents have to move beyond test scores and textbooks as their measure of success. Get your free copy of Homeschooling with Purpose until the end of this month by liking the Raising Arrows facebook page and clicking on the Only Likers button!

And don’t miss the other blogs participating in the 10 Days Series! Click the button below to find a listing of all the blogs and topics!

April 12, 2012

The Frugal Advantage of One Store Shopping

groceries

{Disclaimer: The above photo is NOT a one-store shopping trip and NOT a typical week’s worth of shopping for us. It is simply a photo of groceries on my kitchen table.}

Recently, we decided we needed to cut our grocery bill down considerably. We had stopped shopping once a month due to life circumstances, but the shopping weekly was killing our budget.

We started by shopping our pantry, but you still have to go shopping, and I needed a way to cut the bill once I was in the store.

That’s when I decided the best place for us to start was in shopping one store and one store only.

Shopping takes a lot of brain power for me!

I alternate between shopping at WalMart and shopping at ALDI depending on any non-food extras I might need that week that cannot be purchased at ALDI. When I shop at ALDI, I cut our grocery bill in half of what it was. When I shop WalMart, I have to be much more careful. Alas, sometimes a trip to WalMart cannot be helped.

Here’s how I do my One Store Shopping:

1. Shop your pantry first. This method will ALWAYS save you money. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down every meal you can make from your pantry, keeping track of any extras you need to purchase to make that meal.

2. Look at the weekly ads for your store. We don’t get the newspaper, so I look at these online:
ALDI ads
WalMart ads

3. Put together meals from the on-sale items in the ad. As you work your way through the ad, consider what meals you can make from their on-sale items and then fill in the blanks with the extra groceries you need to complete that meal.

4. Write our your final meal list and grocery list. You can use this handy monthly meal planner or just use a piece of paper. I keep my meal list on the side of the refrigerator and my grocery list on the counter until I’m ready to go shopping.

5. Stick to the list. Stick to the list. Stick to the list. If you are really wanting to save money, you will need to follow this rule even when the extra goodies in the store call your name! Your budget will thank you!

I have been very pleased with the results and it is making the fact that we have to shop weekly less painful.

Now it’s your turn! Do you shop one store? Do you shop those store’s sales? Do you shop weekly or not?

Wanna know where I got that nifty mei tai baby carrier? Here’s how I made it!

Never miss a post!

April 2, 2012

Making Liquid Hand Soap From Hotel Bar Soap {Welcome Home Link Up}

soap A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about how we made liquid hand soap. We were using our homemade castille soap at the time and even with the gylcerin added, it wasn’t particularly thick. So, I was a little surprised when I had someone comment about how thick and unusable the soap was when they used a traditional bar of soap like Ivory.

Since then, it has plagued me as to how I could make that recipe work for regular soap, especially considering my husband goes on a lot of business trips and comes home with all these little bars of soap that never get used (mainly because I don’t like the mess bar soap creates on a counter).

Last week, necessity became the mother of invention. We were out of soap refill, I was tired of paying for it (we go through a lot of soap!), and I had some extra time to figure out how to make the 4 bars of hotel soap I had on hand into liquid hand soap.

I started by grating all the soap. They were all different kinds from different hotels. The 4 bars together equaled 2 cups of soap shreds.

I put those shreds in a large pot on the stove and began adding water and more water and more water. Several times I had to let the soap cool so I could test the consistency and then yes, add more water! Finally, at 20 cups of water, I had a usable soap!

So, here’s the recipe at its lowest ratio:

Bar Soap to Liquid Hand Soap

1 cup of shredded bar soap (hotel or not)
10 cups water

Melt soap in water in a large pot on the stove. Let cool slightly and poor into containers. Soap will thicken as it cools.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to this week!

I also want to take a moment to tell you that all this month on the Welcome Home Link Up I’ll be featuring my friend Renee’s Norwex business! That’s right! You told me about Norwex on my one-day cleaning post, Renee emailed without even knowing I had written that post, and I am now the proud owner of Norwex products! I’ll be telling you more about this adventure next week! But, in the meantime, look through her site, and if you would like to order anything, please contact her at DrPoschen at cox dot net so I get hostess credit (so I can get more of these great products!)

{and check out the Spring Sale from A Slob Comes Clean – coupon code: SPRING gets you her ebook on taking back your house for only $3!)