As I’m still mulling and thinking about our upcoming school year {homeschool convention was wonderful and I am waiting for a few new things to arrive at our home!!}, we are going to be finishing up a few things over the next few weeks. When our move came up, we switched to the basics {handwriting, math, reading, and language} and squeezed in other things when we had time.

We are definitely on a ‘lite’ schedule since we have friends over for playdates, swim team, VBS and more coming, and what we’re doing will be no more than about an hour a day total as we break it up over the week. Here’s a little peek at what our summer plans {the next six weeks or so} will look like:

Writing: All of the kids will be working through their new WriteShop curriculum. Zachary only has about 5 weeks left of a 10 week cycle in Primary A and the girls have a bit more than that in their Primary C book, but they are LOVING this new writing curriculum. We switched from Writing with Ease because it was becoming more of a hinderance to the kids and they didn’t enjoy writing at all. WriteShop has put the fun back into our writing time and the stories and creativity have been injected back into our day!

Spelling: We’re continuing with one lesson a week with All About Spelling for the older three. The lessons are not tedious at all, so this will be a great subject to continue through the summer with the kids.

Reading: Lots of reading in general for the older three and Kaleb will be working on his All About Reading Level Pre-1 with Ziggy the Zebra this summer. A quick note: you can also download  TWO free e-books for your preschool and kindergarten child: In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra and Safari Stories with the Zigzag Zebra and find out more about the All About Reading Level Pre-1 program. We love it!!

Vocabulary: One of the new things that I found at convention was a great vocabulary program from Dynamic Literacy. We’ll be working on some of the Foundations 1 program with them before we start the year to see how Zachary does with it.

For the most part, that’s about it! Fairly laid back and relaxed while I plan and plot out the upcoming year. What about you all ~ what are YOUR plans for the summer?

In all honesty, the hardest thing for me is finding a way to balance the need for discipline and still extend grace. I’ll admit that there is a lot of fear in my heart relating to the balance. There is obviously a need for discipline in everyday life to maintain order and sanity…or my kids would be going nuts at mealtimes and any sense of decorum would be out the window.

Much of that though also has to do with HOW the discipline is administered. There’s a nice way and then there is the way that is frequently present when Mommy has reached her absolute limit of patience and completely loses it over something really, really insignificant.

It’s in this area that I am consistently failing, berating myself over how horrible of a mother and trying to figure out what I can do to change things.

And in all honesty…I cannot change things.

Read more here…

Christian homeschool curriculum provider Alpha Omega Publications has teamed up with The Mercy House to provide quality education to young mothers in Kenya, Africa!

The Mercy House, founded by Kristen Welch of We Are THAT Family, is a non-profit ministry in Kenya, Africa that desires “to provide a safe place…proper nutrition…Bible teaching…” life skills and so much more for pregnant young mothers in Kenya.  The house is a place to get them out of the streets, prevent them from having an abortion and prevent their children from being subjected to extreme poverty and even worse conditions.  Be sure to read about the entire Mercy House vision. It’s something that I support 100%!

Alpha Omega Publications has donated their online, homeschool curriculum, Monarch, to cover the first year of the residents’ education.  AOP has a true desire to “make a real difference for Christ in the world” and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to join together with The Mercy House.

And, because AOP desires to help the homeschool community here at home in the United States, AOP is offering you the opportunity to win curriculum as well!  For the opportunity to win a 5-subject set of AOP’s Monarch curriculum head over to this sweepstakes page, fill out the entry form, like AOP on Facebook, and you’re done!

Alpha Omega Publications will be spreading the word about The Mercy House on both their main homeschool Facebook page and Monarch Facebook page as well as on Twitter, so be sure to follow along there for all the details! While you are over on Facebook & Twitter, be sure to like The Mercy House Facebook page and follow Mercy House on Twitter to get a more inside look at what is going on with this great ministry.

  

Our boys love to build and design things, so a new building toy is always sure to keep them busy! This month we had the opportunity to review a set of 96 Interlox blocks from Guidecraft.

Interlox are plastic squares that can be clipped together to create and build. No screws. Nothing fancy ~ just clip and build. The squares all intersect as specific points and are made out of plastic, so you cannot bend and make curves, but overall are sturdy.

Each square is transparent and there are six different colors in the set of 96: dark pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, making a lovely rainbow of colors…which the kids had fun putting in order.  I didn’t notice it, but the kids pointed out to me that each of the squares also has a specific pattern on it. The patterns that we found were diamonds, circles, starts, hearts, flowers, and octagons.

Once they discovered the different shapes on the Interlox, Zachary began making elaborate patterns, sorting and re-sorting them and having fun in different ways without building.

Our only complaint?? We want more! The box comes with 96 squares and as our kids started building and creating, they wanted more squares to build with, meaning we’ll have to get another box. :)

Interlox can be purchased directly from the Guidecraft website, via their NEW Facebook page, or from Amazon. If you’d like to win a set for your kids, Cindy @ Along the Way is giving away a set of Interlox. The giveaway ends Monday, April 25th {US residents only}.

I picked up the book Power of a Positive Mom to read along with a group at the Homeschool Village. Yesterday {after a rather intense morning with the kids}, this passage jumped out at me:

There is no greater investment we can make in the lives of our children than giving them generous doses of encouraging words. It costs us so little in time and effort, but the rewards are priceless. When our young people are reminded of their God-given value, they receive deposits of confidence, security, and well-being in their emotional bank accounts. They begin building on their strengths, knowing they have something to contribute to the world.

~ Karol Ladd, Power of a Positive Mom, p. 38

Jenn had a great post on this topic yesterday at the Homeschool Village and you can also join in a discussion on the book in their Blog Frog community.

Starting March 31st, the Homeschool Village is hosting a Garden Challenge that anyone can participate in ~ even if you don’t have garden space!

You don’t need acres of land, intricately planned plots…just a desire to learn and have fun as a family. Plant one tomato plant or plant twenty, it doesn’t matter!

Find out more about the Garden Challenge at the Homeschool Village. They will be hosting a monthly link-up where everyone can share what they are doing, planning and progress on their gardens and/or containers.

The most IMPORTANT link-up comes next Thursday, March 31st at 10am, so be sure to mark your calendars!! The first 10 participants to link up March 31st will receive a $15.00 CurrClick Gift Certificate!! And to make it even more fun, there will be a special ‘add-on’ preschool pack to go along with my Garden Preschool Pack that I will be releasing on Monday ~ available only to participants in the Garden Challenge!

Quick! Pull out some pots, soil and seed, start planting, and link up next Thursday! You know you’ll have fun doing it!