Camping, cooking, and chess were the first three hobbies that came to mind when I thought about the letter ‘C’. Then I was reminded that my two oldest sons are also participating in coin collecting.  Other C hobbies could include calligraphy, collecting, crochet, carpentry, cross-stitching and more. We are excited about an upcoming camping trip and my sons are really enjoying coin collecting together so I decided to share more about those hobbies today.

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Aside from a few nights in my backyard I never spent much time camping as a child. However, my husband spent many nights camping with his family and his scout troop. I was a little nervous when we decided to try family camping for the first time, but I was hooked. I love the quiet of the outdoors, the smells of the campfire, the sense of peace that fills my soul when I get away from the rush of ‘regular life’ and enjoy a quiet day of camping.  In addition to the enjoyment we get from camping, we have found that it allows us to stretch our travel budget much farther and therefore, we get travel more frequently.

Today I wanted to share a few tips that have made family camping easier for our family. First, we typically camp in state or national parks. These campgrounds are inexpensive (normally $20-$25 a night) and normally have fire pits, bath houses, and showers available. When it comes to food there are several things to consider. Cooking over an open fire can be lots of fun but requires time to get the fire ready, cook, and clean up. So, we normally plan that for an evening or morning when there is nothing else on the agenda. If we are going to be busy, we pack things that can be precooked such as muffins, boiled eggs, or granola bars. Another time saver is bringing your instant pot. This may seem silly since you are camping but if the site has electric hook-up (check when you make reservations) or you have an inverter for your car this can be a great way to help get a meal ready in a hurry. We can put oatmeal in the instant pot while we tear down camp in the morning or soup in the evening when we get back to camp too late for a fire meal.  This saves us time and money (not eating at a restaurant) and keeps things fairly simple for me.

During the day my children can often entertain themselves fairly well at the campgrounds. We hike the trails, play with sticks and leaves, and just enjoy the great outdoors.  In the evening as we sit around our campfire, we enjoy telling jokes, playing Would You Rather Games or using conversation starter prompts to guide our conversations.

For basic equipment you will need a tent, sleeping bags, camping chairs, insect repellent, and meal supplies. As you begin camping more you may want to add sleeping mats or an air mattress, field guides for your hikes, cast iron cookware for fire cooking, and a dining canopy for those rainy days. If you are new to camping, you may want to try a campground with rustic cabins or a camping event where some of the supplies are provided to ‘get your feet wet’ and work out any problems.  I highly encourage you to give camping a try!

Coin collecting is not a hobby that I was ever really interested in but my thirteen-year-old really enjoys it and has shared that love with my five-year-old son as well. One of the great things about coin collecting is that it is fairly inexpensive to get started and while you can spend lots of money on rare coins, you can also find a good variety just by going through your change from various transactions. My son got started with a version of this book and as he started collecting more coins he switched over to using Whitman Coin Folders and passed the other book on to my five-year-old. The Whitman Coin Folders are about $4-$5 each and have slots for specific sets of coins. For example, Jefferson nickels from 1962-1995. They are a great way to organize your collection and set goals for what coins to find.

When we first started, we just sorted through the coins that were in our house and the coins we got back as change from the store. However, as my son has gotten more into collecting, he has also begun to save his money and buy a few specific coins from auctions. In order to make sure that he is getting a good deal he has a coin value book and I check online as coin values can change quickly. We use eBay to search for similar coins that have sold recently. This gives us a good current value.

If you want more information about cooking be sure to check out Homeschool in the Kitchen and Adding Fun Into Your Homeschool: Cooking.  Also stay tuned for a review coming the week of October 14th on a great new chess game! I would love for you to share your favorite ‘C’ hobby resources in the comments! Don’t forget to check out all of the other ‘C’ posts over at the link party!

Camping Resources

Self-inflating Sleeping Mat ( I actually prefer these to air mattresses)

Camping Chairs

Hammocks (not a requirement but we love ours)

Tent (what you need will vary based on your family size but ours is similar to this and we love the screened in porch if the bugs get bad)

Tarp (to put under the tent to protect the bottom)

Dining Fly

Field Guides (for hiking)

Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Sleeping bags (Tip: My husband got us two identical sleeping bags and zipped them together so that we have a giant sleeping bag big enough for both of us.)

Coin Collecting Resources

Whitman Coin Folders

Coin Holders

Coin Collecting For Kids

State Quarter Map

Guide Book of United States Coins

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.

Resource Library 

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

Sally Clarkson is launching her newest book, a devotional for moms! You can purchase it at Amazon now and join in the launch party next week!

Fit2B is my go to for family fitness and health education. I love the many workouts she has available that are all tummy safe! I also use her girls course to help with teaching my daughter about her body, puberty, nutrition and more. They are having a 30% off sale this week only!

We have been listening to Alice in Wonderland on audiobook to prepare to watch a live version of the play this week. I had forgotten just how ‘crazy’ the book feels. If you are interested in listening to it, it is only .66 on audio right now.

These are the last few days of the big Last Chance sale for SchoolhouseTeachers.com at only $29.95 for three months it is a great deal. You can check out how we use this program in our posts on the blog!

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.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

When I sat down to consider hobbies that begin with the letter ‘B’ I realized that my children participate in at least five different ‘B’ hobbies.  We enjoy biking together as a family, bird watching, boating, bowling, and baking! My favorite is spending time at the beach but I don’t know if that counts as a hobby!

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While my children enjoy going out on their grandfather’s motorboat, they mostly use our kayaks. My older two children share a Walker Bay 10 which is a small boat that can be powered via oars, a sail, or a small trolling motor. This ten-foot boat is absolutely perfect for them because it is small enough for them to manage independently and allows them to learn and experience a variety of activities. My eldest son has also taken a free boaters safety class to help him learn to safely operate a boat and to qualify for his NC boating license when he gets a little older. In addition to being fun boating can be great exercise, a good avenue for nature study, and a great way to enjoy time together as a family.

Baking is one of my daughter’s favorite hobbies and we all enjoy testing out her projects! She bakes a variety of different breads, cakes, cookies, and other desserts. She first started baking bread using the recipes in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day but has also been blessed with family recipes from several other folks. She uses a variety of cookbooks and internet sites for her dessert recipes. She has earned her cake decorating badge for American Heritage Girls and also taken a cookie decorating class through 4-H. In addition to providing us with tasty treats, we are able to use her baking to bless other people through holiday gifts, treats for volunteers, and meals for families that are dealing with sickness or loss.  Like many hobbies, this hobby is also a great life skill that will benefit her throughout her life.

Bike riding is one of the ways that our family can enjoy time spent together while also meeting our health and fitness goals. My husband doesn’t enjoy riding but the children all love it. We found this great baby/toddler bike seat and a fun jungle themed infant helmet so that even the baby could join us for bike rides. We get to enjoy time outdoors, exercise and have fun together. We happen to live on a private road that dead ends down at the river, so we can ride together down to the river and back, sometimes stopping to enjoy a picnic or nature time down at the river. If you live on a busier road, there are often parks with bike paths that you can use.

If you want more information about bird watching be sure to check out Nature Study: Birds.   I would love for you to share your favorite ‘B’ hobby resources in the comments! Don’t forget to check out all of the other ‘B’ posts over at the link party!

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.

Resource Library 

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.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

As we finished up the second part of lesson four in The Kingdom Code, my son had the opportunity to work more on his business plan and really get into the process of actively recruiting customers for his business. Each step of the way has brought exciting opportunities for him and he continues to be excited and self-motivated with this program.

In our last entry we talked about how he did a practice survey of family members related to lawn care. During this portion he had the opportunity to complete a survey of actual potential customers.  Since he is obviously too young to drive and it is not practical for me to drive him to different places each day for work we had to evaluate the time commitment for each job. As we discussed this, he realized that as much as possible he needed to look for customers close to home. Therefore, when he did his customer survey he chose to talk mainly to the families that live on our road where he would be able to walk to work on his own. While many of the neighbors did their own lawn care, they were all willing to speak to him and gave him lots of positive feedback. It also opened up several new jobs for him as these people asked him to do work for them while they were out of town or otherwise occupied.

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Key to the Lesson: “I am prepared to write a good business plan so my Treasure Builder is a success.”

During this portion of the lesson he also spent some time writing down more specifically which services he would offer, how long it would take him to complete the service, and coming up with selling points to show people that they needed his services.

One of the most fun and creative parts of this lesson was creating a logo. We talked about logos of various businesses and how they make a business easy to identify. Then he had the opportunity to work on creating his own logo. He drew some ideas on paper but then later had one done digitally by a local t-shirt designer (a gift from his father to reward all of his hard work and diligence).

Finally, The Kingdom Code taught him that, ” We never promise something we cannot do.”. As someone new to running a business I think this was a really important lesson. He doesn’t need to promise jobs that he is not skilled to complete. For example, he is skilled at grass cutting and weed eating but is not yet ready to offer planting services. This was a week of growth and engagement for his business.

Stay tuned  for lesson five 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.

Resource Library 

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.

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.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

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.

Resource Library 

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!

Art History Resources

Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists

Schoolhouse Teachers Art Courses

The Master and His Apprentices (Art History) Review

Art Skills/ Hands-On Art

Kidzaw.com Master Kitz

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastel Lessons

Schoolhouse Teachers Art Courses (over 20 different courses all included with your monthly or annual membership.)

Artistic Pursuits (A Review)

Giant Art Jar (great way to start your art cabinet collection)

Toucan Art Box (monthly delivery service with art projects, use this link to get your first box free)

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.

Resource Library 

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.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

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.

Resource Library 

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.

Welcome to installment two of our Journey Through the Code with the The Kingdom Code . This is the week my son had been waiting for, he could pick his business and get started. I loved that it was only lesson two and he was already getting started. Some programs want to teach them everything before they get started but they can easily get bored or frustrated. By only waiting until lesson 2, he was excited and motivated.

Lego Businesses

Lego Businesses

Lego Businesses

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Key to the Lesson: “In a free enterprise system, I can build a better business if I seek wisdom.”

In this lesson he learned about capitalism and free enterprise. We discussed various ways that businesses can be competitive and what freedoms are enjoyed by the owners of private businesses. We discussed various business opportunities and what each one of them would involve, the difficulties that would need to be overcome, and which one would work best for our family. He created a city featuring various service businesses out of Legos and then he chose his own business. Once he had chosen, he filled out the Treasure Builder Permit which was an agreement between the child and parents about the business that would be started. I loved how formal and official this made the business feel for my son.

He was learning to seek wisdom from the Bible and from trusted mentors, the value and benefit of entrepreneurship and free enterprise, and how to analyze the potential benefits and challenges of various opportunities. My son choose to open his own grass cutting and lawn care business as a way to best utilize his time and talents.

Stay tuned next week for lesson two 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.

Resource Library 

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.