This is the lesson in which Matthew’s Lawn Care Service is named and we began a more detailed business plan. He tossed around several ideas for names but decided on this simple but inclusive name after learning about some of the keys to choosing a good business name.
He could have said Matthew’s grass cutting, but The Kingdom Code helped him realize that he wanted a name that left room for his business to grow. Right now, he mainly cuts grass, but he hopes to one day be able to offer other landscaping services such as planting, mulching, and yard clean up. Using his name in the title helped people connect it to him and made is easy to remember.
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Key to the Lesson: “I am prepared to write a good business plan so my Treasure Builder is a success.”
In addition to creating a solid name for his business the first part of lesson four also taught him about sole proprietorships and how they work. Then he went further into his business plan. He had to decide how customers could contact him about potential jobs. Since he does not have a personal phone, we decided that he could use my husband’s cellphone number as a point of contact as well as his personal e-mail address. He also had to sit down and work through his weekly schedule to get an idea of how much time he had each week to devote to the business so that he did not take on more than he could accomplish.
The final part of this section was learning about surveys and practicing taking a survey of customers to find out more about what the needs for his types of services were as well as what people were expecting or willing to pay for those surveys. For this portion he surveyed a few family members just to get a good idea of how the survey should work. In the next section we will talk about his opportunity to survey actual potential customers.
Stay tuned for the second part of lesson four of The Kingdom Code and don’t forget that you can get 10% of this program using Coupon Code: 10TKC08! If you have any questions about our journey let me know in the comments and I will be sure to try and address them in our next installment.
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of wonderful home school curriculum products available on the market today. You can find materials to teach almost any subject you can imagine and using a variety of different teaching methods and philosophies. It is a wonderful time to be home schooling because there are so many resources and it is easy to find ways to encourage your children in their various interests and passions. However, I was reminded of a very important lesson this week, just because we can teach anything does not mean we need to teach everything.
You know from all of our reviews and posts that we love checking out new curriculum and sharing resources with my readers. We have had the opportunity to let the children explore music, art, stopmotion videos, literature units, audio dramas, and so much more. In addition, we have completed our core curricula in science, history, math, reading, and spelling. My children are getting a rich and robust education, but I sometimes forget that we do not have to do everything.
My ‘aha moment’ this week came when I finally sold the Latin curriculum that I had been storing for several years. Latin is popular among many of my home school friends and I had begun to feel like I really needed to include it in my children’s education. So, when I found a good deal on a program years ago I quickly purchased it and put it aside for when we had time. Each summer, I would look at it and decide that I needed to do it, but I didn’t have time and it hung over my head as an unmet expectation. This week I realized that I was holding on to that Latin because of what other people were doing and not because it was what was right for my children and our home school. I thought about how many other subjects my children were learning, how I was able to be successful both in life and a career without Latin, and ultimately that it wasn’t going to get my children any closer to the goals we have for them. I handed it over to my husband to sell and felt the weight of those expectations lift from my shoulders.
There is nothing wrong with teaching Latin and I am not writing this post to bash Latin. Latin can be a good program, but it wasn’t the best choice for us. Latin, in this post simply becomes symbolic of any unmet or unreasonable expectation. What I want you to know today, is that you do not need to teach everything your friend is teaching, everything your favorite blogger is teaching, or even everything the public school is teaching. You do not have to use every good program that you see. Think about the goals you have for your children and the programs and subjects that will best help them achieve those goals and then let those other things go. If we try to do all of the good things, we will become overwhelmed and carry the weight of unmet expectations that is not ours to carry. Take a few minutes this week to evaluate your expectations in relationship to your goals and make sure you aren’t carrying around the weight of other people’s choices.
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
As homeschoolers we have a wonderful opportunity to incorporate a wide variety of hobbies and electives based on our students interests and abilities. Each week I will be sharing about one or several hobbies or electives for the letter of the week. Art, architecture, aquaponics, agriculture, acting, acrobatics, and animation are just a few of the hobbies and electives that come to mind when I think of the letter A.
*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *
I could write pages about each of these hobbies, but today I want to focus on art. I chose art because it is one that we have been spending a fair bit of time on in our homeschool. I have never felt like I was an artist, despite what Nana says, but since my children were interested in learning more about various art forms, I have worked to incorporate art into our homeschool days.
We have approached art from a variety of perspectives, including art appreciation, art lessons, free time with a variety of art supplies, and even a few art competitions. When I was in sixth grade, I drew a beautiful picture of a purple flower. It is one of only a handful of assignments that I remember from my middle school years. When I look back on it, I think I remember it because that art teacher made me feel like I was an artist and gave me confidence in my picture. I wanted my children to experience that feeling of success with art much more frequently and to practice and grow their skills without stress or pressure. In order to facilitate that we have done various hands on art lessons as well as ‘introducing’ them to a variety of famous artists through books and pictures. I am going to share a list of various art resources below but I want to highlight a few that we have used on a consistent basis.
First, we love the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series. These books are a simple but engaging way to introduce students to an artist and their works. We have often taken a semester to really focus on a single artist through reading these books, studying pictures, and doing art projects using similar styles. We have recently had the opportunity to review the HiGASFY art history video series. (I will be sharing a full review of this on Monday but I will say that my children beg for more lessons.) Which breaks the study of art history up into several time periods and teaches about a variety of famous artists. You can also find Kidzaw.com Master Kitz which help children create a reproduction of a famous masterpiece. These kits are easy to set-up and complete and create beautiful projects. Starting in November we are looking forward to using our SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership to focus on advent art as a part of our Christmas preparations. I love being able to tie in various subjects as we learn.
For our more skill-based art lessons, we love You Are An Artist Chalk Pastel Lessons. I wanted lessons that were going to be fun and help my children feel successful at art. I didn’t want them to look back and only recall that one time they were able to create a nice piece of art work. These courses were the answer for that desire in multiple ways. First, the video lessons are easy to follow and vary in difficulty so that everyone can choose one where they can be successful. Second, Nana does an amazing job of helping the students gain confidence in their work. She lets them know each lesson that “you are an artist” and my five-year-old has very much taken that to heart. He is often heard quoting Nana and her supportive comments even as he works on independent projects. We also keep an ‘art cabinet’ ready for them to explore and create. This is simply a repurposed cabinet in our dining room that I keep stocked with art and craft supplies. It has drawing paper, construction paper, paints, crayons, pipe cleaners, stickers, glue, scissors, popsicle sticks, and even glitter(call me crazy). They can get out various materials to make their own projects and creations.
Whether you feel you have a natural inclination towards art or like me you do not list it among your skills, you can help your children explore this wonderful hobby and develop their personal talents and interests. There are a variety of resources available to share art in your home school. I would love for you to share your favorite art resource in the comments! Don’t forget to check out all of the other ‘A’ posts over at the link party!
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
Deals and Freebies
Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
Some children love to memorize math facts while others struggle with the memorization. My son does well with math but never completely memorized his multiplication tables and it was slowing him down with his Algebra. Online Times Alive by City Creek Press, Inc. sounded like it might be a unique way to reinforce those facts that he needed to practice.
In this program each multiplication fact is attached to a story to help the student remember the facts. When a student first logs into the program, they are given a pretest which gauges how many of the facts they know and how long it takes them to complete the test. Then they can work through the short lesson for each fact. There are periodic progress checks to see how well they are retaining the lessons that they have completed. When the student has completed all of the lessons they can take a test which will show you if they were able to get a higher percentage correct and if they increased their speed.
My son went through the program and really enjoyed it. ” I think it helped me get more comfortable with my math facts.” He started in a good place with 94% on the pre-test and finished with 98%. While this may not seem like huge growth since he started so high, the bigger success was that he feels more comfortable with the multiplication facts and feels like they are easier to recall now that he has stories associated with them. His favorite was 7 x 7 is 49 because the 7s are soldiers which sit in their 4 (fort) and make sure America stays clean. The sign looks like a 9… 49.
Each fact lesson took him only a few minutes to work through and he enjoyed the process (and didn’t even complain about having to do additional math). He would often do several lessons in one sitting and went through the entire program in about a month. If you have a student who is new to multiplication or starting at a lower proficiency, they would probably take longer to complete the program. Also note that this program is about memorizing the facts and not really about teaching the multiplication concept. This was perfect for us because my son knew and understood how to multiply he just struggled with the quick recall of facts.
One thing that I think is important to note about this program, is that the data from their progress is stored on the computer and not online even though it is an online subscription based program. This may not be a big deal for most families, but it does mean that all work must be done on the same computer to be saved. It is also available as an app on iOS 9.0 and above. We do not have any applicable devices so I have not tried the app, but some of the other Crew members checked it out and you can find out more about how that worked in their reviews.
If you have a child that struggles with learning their multiplication facts or is finding themselves slowed down in higher math because of their multiplication speed, Online Times Alive may be the program for you! It is a fun and engaging way to remember the multiplication facts with just a few minutes of work each day. If you want to give the program a try, City Creek Press, Inc has been generous enough to offer my readers a coupon code to waive the sign up fee($6.95 value) It is— lovetolearn. Also, be sure to click on the graphic below and read all of the other Crew Reviews to see how other families used this product.
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
If you are following along with our journey, you know that we have been quiet for a few weeks. We had a wonderful vacation visiting family and then a hurricane that got me a little off track with my sharing. However, while I am behind in sharing, my son has been working through this program and growing his business. I will share more about his progress later, but he has over doubled his business in the last few weeks using tools and skills that he learned in The Kingdom Code.
Lesson three was about how entrepreneurs build businesses. This section uses the cowboys of the 1800s as a lesson in supply and demand. Then helps them understand how to apply that to their new businesses. It also shared about a failed business venture and how the entrepreneur had the courage to start over and was successful in his next venture. I think this is a great way to help children understand that they may not succeed at everything they attempt but they should keep trying. We had recently listened to a biography of Milton Hershey and were able to connect that story to this lesson as well.
*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *
Key to the Lesson: “I am an entrepreneur who has the courage to take risks and seek advice.”
The second part of this lesson talked about the importance of mentors and how to find a good mentor. My son chose to use his dad as his mentor. He has built his own business which provides for our family and had also done some part time work in landscaping. This made him a good choice for a mentor for my son’s landscaping business. As he grows his business, we may also consider having him work with someone that we know who runs his own landscaping business full time.
Stay tuned next week for lesson four of The Kingdom Code and don’t forget that you can get 10% of this program using Coupon Code: 10TKC08! If you have any questions about our journey let me know in the comments and I will be sure to try and address them in our next installment.
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
Tacos were a weekly occurrence and almost always a favorite!
Our Hurricane Relief Story
In the first few days after the storm, the decision to pause our homeschooling was an easy one, no one that we knew (public, private, or homeschooled) was ‘doing’ school. The public schools were shelters, people were still without power, and many businesses were closed. The entire town was focused on disaster relief.
The first week went by, and then the second week, and then people started asking when we were going to start back to school. I didn’t have an answer because I felt like we needed to start back, but I knew in my heart that what we were doing was far more important than any ‘school lesson’ I could teach them.
In those early days, I was thinking in terms of days and weeks, but it soon became apparent that I needed to think in terms of months. I certainly didn’t want to neglect our academic subjects for an entire year, but I also didn’t want to prioritize them over the very real, very immediate needs of our community.
In the end, we took several weeks completely off, and then as we could, we added reading, math, and spelling back into our schedules. Even later, we picked back up history and a few other subjects to finish out our year. We condensed, prioritized, and added a few weeks to the end of our year, but in the end, we completed the work even with the break and the changes.
*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. *
Lessons Learned
While we were not doing all of our ‘normal’ academic subjects during that time, my children learned more last year than quite possibly any other year. They learned about serving others, they learned about different cultures (Amish, Mennonite, etc.), they learned about supply distribution, how to talk to people who are in crisis, how to prepare food for large groups of people, how to rethink menus based on grocery availability, and allergies, construction skills, and so much more.
I could have spent hundreds of hours lecturing them about these various topics without them learning half of what they did actively participating in the process.
I share our decision-making process not because it is the only right way but because, looking back, I learned a very valuable lesson, it is okay to take a break and press pause on the academics. I have no regrets about the days that we stopped ‘doing school’ and spent helping in our community.
It can be easy to become slaves to the curriculum or the calendar, but I am so glad that I took the road less traveled and focused on the opportunities that were in front of us. When we signed up to help, I wasn’t thinking about what my children would get from the experience, but in hindsight, I can see that we gained as much as we gave.
Even the baby wanted to help!
Modeling Service
As a Christian, I know that we are called to be servants. We want our children to grow up to be servants for Christ, yet we often forget to give them the opportunity to see and model that behavior.
Often people assume that children are too young to help, but if we do not teach them to serve alongside us, then how will they learn. Sometimes you have to be more creative in ways that children can help, and sometimes it is about having confidence in them.
Doing Hard Things
The summer before the hurricane hit, my then twelve-year-old son and I read Do Hard Things together. We both enjoyed the book and agreed that people do not give teenagers enough opportunities. However, neither of us was really sure how we could give him opportunities to ‘Do Hard Things’. God answered that question in a powerful way after Florence.
My son was able to help coordinate supply distribution as well as take over setting out and putting away cots for volunteers. These were some big jobs, but he worked hard and did a great job. We did it to help others and meet a need, but in the process he gained leadership and organizational skills.
Even my then four-year-old was able to serve. He would help put up cots, tote supplies, and help fill coolers. The baby couldn’t really serve since he was only about six months old, but his presence and his laugh were often a source of comfort and joy for tired and emotionally exhausted volunteers.
Many Different Ways to Serve
While not everyone is prepared or called to cook hundreds of meals, everyone can do something. I think one of the biggest lessons to learn is that there are ways for everyone to serve, even if you have small children, allergies, etc.
For safety reasons, I could not take a six-month-old into flooded houses to ‘muck and gut’ them like many of our church members and the volunteers who came to the church. However, I could and did feed people.
There were others who couldn’t be at the church for whatever reason who baked desserts to give to volunteers, washed clothes for volunteers and flood victims, and drove lunches from the church to the job sites (sometimes with sleeping babies in the car). We are all at different points in life, with different circumstances and abilities, but that shouldn’t stop us from serving. With a little creativity, there is a job out there for everyone.
Our Family Goals
When I think about our overall goals for our children, having them be Christ-serving, kind, and compassionate adults who love the Lord and serve others is at the top of that list. Our time serving and helping certainly helped model those goals and introduced them to dozens of other wonderful adult volunteers who were modeling that behavior.
They met a couple who spend six months of their year living in a camper, going to disaster areas, bringing in teams of volunteers, and helping people rebuild their homes. There was the Amish gentleman who came and stayed at our church for two months to help lead teams and rebuild homes.
Another retired couple came down three different times for a total of four weeks, bringing friends and working hard. The college students who took their fall break to come and help people they didn’t know rebuild their homes.
Those are just a few of the numerous role models that my children were able to meet and work alongside. The academics are important, but they can be (and were) learned later.
The Blessing of Homeschooling After a Disaster
While I pray that a disaster never strikes your area, if it does, I hope this post will help you to be able to use the flexibility of homeschooling to help your community. While our goal in helping is not to be self-serving, know that the lessons learned will serve your children well in the future. I would love to hear how you and your family have served in the community either after a disaster or just meeting the everyday needs of those around you.
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library; we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
I had high hopes for a nice morning basket time last year but in reality, it didn’t happen very often. Our together time was spent serving at church (look for my post later this week about our year of service in the aftermath of Florence) or working on more ‘pressing’ educational assignments and much of their learning was done independently. We did what needed to be done and I have no regrets on that end but I really missed the time together and wanted to get back to it. I spent a lot of time contemplating how I wanted to work out our morning basket time with ages ranging from thirteen years to eighteen months.
We are only about a week into school, and I fully accept that we may have to modify or adapt, but what has been working so far is to do our morning basket time in the living room right after breakfast. The toddler is still awake and happy, and everyone else is ready to go. The toddler plays on the floor while we learn together. I decided to focus on a few short items each day and not to stress about covering a certain amount. In general, I just do the next thing for a couple of subjects including hymn study, composer study, read aloud, and Bible.
*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *
For hymn study, the first few days of a month we read about the story of the hymn, who wrote the hymn, and any scripture references that align with the hymn. Then each morning we listen to one or two editions of the hymn and sing along as we learn the words. We can also include copy work and art lessons into our study but typically I assign those to be done outside of morning basket time.
In an effort to make it very easy for me to include composer study into our routine, I signed up for the Women Composers study over at Enrichment Studies. Each morning I get an e-mail with information about a female composer and links to listen to their works. This takes 5-10 minutes and is a great way to expose them to a variety of composers. This course is one semester long and next semester I will choose something else in its place, possibly an artist study.
I know reading aloud is one of the most important things I can do in my home school. I also know how easy it is to get busy and not include this time, especially with older students. However, by having it on the list first thing in the morning I am more likely to get it done and by reading aloud the same book to everyone we have a shared family experience that brings us closer. I started this school year with Who Was Beatrix Potter?which aligned well to the book I was reading with my five-year-old and some books that I had read personally. I plan to choose a variety of fiction and non-fiction books as we go through the year.
My two oldest children have their own Bible study/devotional times, but we also like to include Bible time together. This can range from reading a section in the Bible, going through a Bible study, or currently memorizing our Bible verse for the year. Each year I choose a Bible verse as a sort of theme or anchor in our year. This year I chose Deuteronomy 6:6-7. I created some fun printables with the verse to help my children memorize them and I have even included them as a free download (at the end of this post) for you if you would like to use them for memorization or a reminder.
I do not necessarily do every one of those things every day, but we spend 20-30 minutes together on those things before my older children work independently for a bit and I take the two youngest on a walk. We enjoy our time together and it helps us fit in some of those ‘extras’ that are easy to forget.
I would love to hear what you enjoy for your morning basket time? How does it work in your home?
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
Deals and Freebies
Free 5 Day Learning without Worksheets Challenge: FREE 5-Day Learning Challenge We have done several of her different challenges in the past and they are lots of fun and easy to implement.
Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
When I say the first North Carolinians, who comes to mind? Are you thinking of the Lost Colony? We will get to the Lost Colony soon, but this month we are talking about tho.
We will work through North Carolina’s History and geography throughout the year. Each month I will share some resources specific to the topics and time periods we are studying that month. I also have a more comprehensive list of North Carolina history resources that I continually update as I find new resources.
*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. *
As we delve into North Carolina history this month, we will begin by studying the American Indians of North Carolina. I am excited about this study because I know very little of my ancestry, but the little I know traces my roots back to the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina.
We started our study by watching North Carolina American Indians Live! as a family. This very educational film shared the historic lives of American Indians and their modern-day lives. It helps to dispel some myths about modern-day American Indians. Next, we plan to check out the Pepsi Regional History Center.
Over the next several weeks, we plan to try out some of the recipes and read the book If You Lived with the Cherokee together. My son will be researching a tribe or aspect of the life of the American Indians in pre-colonial North Carolina and presenting it to us as a family. He will complete a stop-motion video to accompany his project if time allows.
My daughter will be completing the American Heritage Girl badge on Native Americans, focusing on those in North Carolina.
While I do not think we will make it to Town Creek or Cherokee this month, I hope we can travel to at least one of those locations before our study of North Carolina history is complete. They offer wonderful resources to better help us understand those native tribes.
If you have a tribe near you, many of them offer festive and educational events that are open to the public. You can learn more about their ancestors and their current traditions.
I encourage you to check out some of the wonderful resources I have found below (many of which are free) and tell me in the comments what resources you use to learn about American Indians. Don’t forget to check back next month for resources on The Lost Colony through the early colonial era.
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
Deals and Freebies
As we enter into the fall season and return to our routines it often feels much like a new year and a chance to start over. What are you doing to get/stay healthy? I am trying to drink more water and take daily walks.
If you are looking for some starting over with a healthier lifestyle you might want to check out the Healthy Living Bundle that is on sale for just a few days. At only $37 for 93 ebooks, ecourses, and printable packs it is an excellent deal. This includes help with allergies, nutrition, gardening, exercise and more.
Free 5 Day Learning without Worksheets Challenge: FREE 5-Day Learning Challenge We have done several of her different challenges in the past and they are lots of fun and easy to implement.
Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
*Some links are affiliate links; see disclosure below*
If you are like me, when you hear the name Reading Eggs you think of reading, but this great program has come out with some wonderful math resources as well. I recently had the opportunity to review one of their new workbooks: 200 Essential Math Skills for Kindergarten. My five-year-old started ‘kindergarten’ a few days ago, and I thought it was a great book for him to try.
Each lesson in the book was four pages long and had about 8-10 questions/activities for him to work through. This included items like matching, tracing, drawing, coloring, and writing numbers. The book begins by covering numbers, colors, and shapes. Later it covers time, patterns, adding, three-dimensional shapes, and more. After every five lessons, there is a quiz to review what was learned, an achievement certificate, and some fun activities such as color by number that they can complete. If you pair the workbook with the online program, there is a spot to mark at the end of each lesson showing what you did online. The programs pair well together; however, this book can also be used as a stand-alone program.
He was excited to receive it in the mail and wanted to get started right away. He enjoyed most of the activities and could normally complete a lesson in one session. A few of them were taking him longer, and we broke them into two sessions. The book is broken up into 50 lessons with an additional 10 quizzes, which means that for a traditional 36-week school year, you have to complete less than two lessons each week to finish the program. This gives you lots of flexibility to let them work at their own pace. He was learning and mastering the lessons well, except that he struggled a little bit with the number and color words. I felt like this was a good concept to be introduced to, but since he was a little young to expect mastery, we just let him work through those parts as he could and move on. He mastered writing the numbers and making the shapes without any problems.
He didn’t like to take his time coloring but he was learning the concepts.
He didn’t like to take his time coloring but he was learning the concepts.
I loved that it was colorful and engaging. I also found that having it in a book like that, as opposed to on the computer or something with many parts and pieces, made it very easy to do math wherever we were. We started the book towards the end of the summer before we started our regular school year. Since it was only taking him a few minutes a day to complete a lesson, he was happy to work on it three to four days a week. We had a couple weeks of family visiting and spending time on the river planned. He could bring it with him and work on it while he rested in the afternoons. Once we came home and started our school year, he has been completing half a lesson to a full lesson each day at his desk.
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.
“Jesus Loves me, this I know…” These simple words bring back so many memories for me. I remember singing that song at church as a child, hearing other people sing it to me, and then when my children were babies it was one of the songs I sang as I rocked them to sleep. The words are so simple, but the meaning of those words is powerful.
1 Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.
The words of this song were written by Anna Bartlett Warner in 1859. She wrote the words as a poem that was included in her novel, Say and Seal. In 1861 William Bradbury added a refrain and wrote the tune to the song as we know it today. “Jesus Loves Me” is occasionally listed in hymnals under the name China because of its popularity with churches in China. There is even a story of someone using the term, ” This I know people” to secretly describe Christians.
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There are some really simple ways to study this song. It is an easy one to memorize the lyrics to and there are some great options for learning to play it on the piano, violin, recorder or other instrument for beginners. There is also a version that shows the song in American Sign Language that would be fun to learn. We also plan to spend some time looking at various verses in the Bible that tells us that Jesus loves us. I have also included some free copy work for this song as well as a variety of versions that you can listen to and enjoy.
When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.
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Deals and Freebies
As we enter into the fall season and return to our routines it often feels much like a new year and a chance to start over. What are you doing to get/stay healthy? I am trying to drink more water and take daily walks.
If you are looking for some starting over with a healthier lifestyle you might want to check out the Healthy Living Bundle that is on sale for just a few days. At only $37 for 93 ebooks, ecourses, and printable packs it is an excellent deal. This includes help with allergies, nutrition, gardening, exercise and more.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com is doing an amazing sale this month! Buy One year get One Year FREE! We use this for several of our courses and one price covers all the students in your home for as many of their over 400 courses and you would like to use.
Free 5 Day Learning without Worksheets Challenge: FREE 5-Day Learning Challenge We have done several of her different challenges in the past and they are lots of fun and easy to implement.
Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.
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