Such a Time As This

Faith, Hope, & Love

A Bible Study for the Whole Family {Review}

Grapevine Studies Review

A Bible Study for the Whole Family

Are you looking for ways to incorporate a Bible study into your homeschool?  It is intimidating to do a Bible study when you have multiple ages, like we do, in the home.  I’m happy to share with you what we have found – a unique study which covers multiple grades and ages.  For the past month we’ve been using the Bible study when you have multiple ages, like we do, in the home.  I’m happy to share with you what we have found – a unique study which covers multiple grades and ages.  For the past month we’ve been using the New Testament 1: Beginner John to the Apostles from Grapevine Studies for our Bible study with our older kids and the traceable version with our two littles.

Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry {Grapevine Studies Review}

I received a digital download of the John to the Apostles Beginner teachers guide, and both the student book and the traceable student book.  The pages are easily downloaded, printed and placed into a binder to keep them in order.  The beginner version, which we used, is for ages 5-7 for the student book and 3-5 for the traceable.  The ages we used it with are 3, 5, 8, and 11.  Although we had an older child who is above the age range for this particular book, he still enjoyed using it.  I really liked using the John to the Apostles Beginner book for the younger three kids because I felt it was right on their level developmentally.

Bible Study for the Whole Family

The teachers guide features the lesson goals, key points and the memory verses for each section of the lesson.  It also lists the passage to be read and it gives the abbreviated version of the Scripture passage that you can choose to read aloud if you need more explanation. The guide even shows you how to draw the stick figures for that part of the lesson.  Lastly, the study questions and answers are listed at the end of each lesson.

 

This Bible study works well if you do it twice a week.  Plan for 30 minutes a day to include both a time of review and for teaching the new lesson.  There is a Bible reading time, discussion, and then a section for the kids to draw their illustrations of the passage they just read.

Bible Study for the Whole Family

My oldest son loves to draw, so this study definitely stood out to me as something he would enjoy.  Anything which incorporates art is huge plus in our house!  However, I really like that this focuses on stick figures – so if your child doesn’t love to create art there is no pressure to do more than make stick figures.  I think the process of drawing what they learn about helps to make it stay in their minds.

Bible Study for the Whole Family

Our youngest two children are 3 and 5 and they used the traceable version.  This was the first time we did any sort of formal study with them and it was a huge success.  They both really looked forward to doing their “Bible time”.

 

Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry {Grapevine Studies Review}
 There are many more levels above what we used which are geared toward older ages and grades.  I would be interested in trying to use this again with my 5th grade son.  Level 3 features Bible geography which seems like it would be a great addition for 5th-6th graders.

Bible Study for the Whole Family Grapevine Children's Bible Study
I personally like that if you buy multiple levels you can do the same Bible study at exactly the right developmental level for all of your children.  Our family is interested in doing the topical study of Esther and the one for Ruth.  We look forward to choosing one of those next.

Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry {Grapevine Studies Review}
In conclusion, I would most definitely purchase this again!  I would also recommend it to my friends and that is why I’m so glad I can tell you all about this great product!Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry {Grapevine Studies Review}

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Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry {Grapevine Studies Review}

 

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How to Create a Home Art Center in 4 Easy Steps

home art center

How to Create a Home Art Center

Contains referral links. Please see my disclosure policy.

 

Do you long to create a Charlotte Mason homeschool for your children?  Is it your secret hope that your kids will grow to be well versed in the arts?  Do you want to simply add more art into your homeschool? I know I do.

 

When I first started homeschooling my days would go something like this: My kids and I would work, work, work, all day long on math or language arts.  We would end up frustrated or exhausted by 3pm and then we would all be fried for the rest of the night.  Not wanting to do anything until after dinner.  We never seemed to be able to fit the arts into our schedule.

 

It is a small dream of mine, to let my children create freely in the afternoons or weekends and let their creative sides grow.  I long for them to be able to conduct nature studies in our backyard.  My desire is for them to really study the masters and then replicate their famous works.  Truthfully, I hope that when their creative juices are flowing they know where to look and they find all of their supplies in an easily accessible place.

 

create an art center, homeschool art

 

After our recent move, I was sorting and organizing our homeschooling supplies. I realized I had shoved a bunch of art supplies kind of haphazardly in some drawers in my dining room china cabinet.  It occurred to me that if our things are not easily accessible, we will be less likely to use them.  So, I got to work on organizing our supplies and I can’t wait to share my results with you!

create an art center, homeschool art

Making time to fit homeschool art into your day shouldn’t be a chore!  I suddenly saw that the china cabinet was the perfect place to create a home art center!!!

 

 

I have found having a home art center makes it so much easier to be spontaneous about art.

You can create a home art center, too.

Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Buy or find a tray.
  2. Find an empty drawer – preferably in a place that is easy to access for kids
  3. Gather your art supplies (see below)
  4. If needed purchase some new ones (also see below)

Helpful tips: Choose traditional watercolors and paints in tubes.  Gather pastels, watercolor paint brushes, charcoal pencils and charcoal sticks, erasers, pencil sharpeners, graphite pencils and good quality colored pencils.  Or buy an art kit.

Buy a plastic tray from Amazon, Ikea, Target, or Walmart that will easily fit your supplies.  You can get a plastic one, like we have, or try this wooden one. Make sure you include a nice pad of acrylic paper, watercolor paper and a sketch pad.

 

create an art center homeschool, homeschool art

 

create an art center

I hope this helps you create your own home art center and add a little art into your homeschool!

If you enjoyed this, please pin it!

home art center homeschool art

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Make Writing Fun {Review}


Make Writing Fun

A Review of

Here to Help Learning

My daughter has hit a phase where she is writing and drawing almost constantly. She is about to turn 9 and she loves to sit writing stories, poems, and cards. She then proceeds to illustrate her little creations. So when I had the opportunity to review an online writing curriculum subscription, I was ecstatic! My daughter and my 5th grade son loves learning to write with Flight 2 Essay Writing from Here to Help Learning!

Here to Help Learning Review
I received a digital subscription to Here to Help Learning. In the digital subscription, everything you will need is available as a download and an online video. Each lesson includes instructions to the parents along with pages for the student. The program walks you through the steps to create the teacher’s binder and a binder for each student. There is tons of help and instruction for both teacher and student. My kids took a short pre-test before we chose our flight. The pre-test is included to help you choose a level if this is your first time using Here to Help Learning.

Make Writing Fun The program is divided up into two levels: paragraph writing and essay writing. Paragraph writing is geared toward kids in grades 1-3. Essay writing is intended for those kids in grades 4-6. Then within each level, there are three paths we could choose from. It seems that those three paths were fairly interchangeable. The differences between them were the projects and assignments. We ended up choosing Flight 2 Essay writing for our family. While my daughter is actually still in 3rd grade, she has excelled in language arts. If my daughter was older then I know that there are sites who can do my essay for me, if she ever needed help writing an essay, but for now at her age this programme is perfectly fine. My son is in 5th grade and both kids did fine with this level. We used Here to Help Learning twice a week. The videos are approximately 15-20 minutes long. On Wednesdays, we watched the video for each lesson and on Friday we worked on the writing assignment. At only twice a week, it is super easy to include writing into our homeschool.

Here to Help Learning Review
This curriculum has been a JOY to use! Here is what I loved as I used this program with my children:

  • A teacher is walking my kids through the writing process.

My husband and I have been looking for more ways to utilize technology in our children’s schooling and I found that this is a great way to do it! I admit that I was a bit afraid to start ANY writing program because I didn’t really know where to begin. I like that this takes away my fears. There is someone else who is actually doing the teaching through the screen and I’m just walking them through the steps and reminding them of what they learned in the video. The fact that they are getting writing help now will hopefully mean that in the future, when they are older, they will be confident young writers. However, I have heard there are many different resources to help with writing, such as thesis help which will come in really useful when they start high school!

  • The videos are entertaining.

My kids loved that the videos were fun and sometimes even a little silly. They giggled a bit as they watched each day, but still came away with a further understanding of the writing process. I loved that the videos weren’t intimidating to either of my children. Both of my kids enjoyed watching them and completing the assigned writing projects.

  • The videos had a positive message.

Besides teaching my kids how to write an essay, the videos are full of positive messages and ideas for the kids. I love that this program goes the extra mile to reinforce Biblical principles to our children.

  • The program is not overwhelming.

I’ve been afraid of starting a writing program with my son because of his dyslexia and dysgraphia. I felt that it might be too hard or to too overwhelming for him and turn him off to language arts for good! Although my son is dyslexic, I found this was a good program to push him just a little and stretch his writing skills.

Here to Help Learning Review
I love that the writing process is broken down into steps for the students. They were able to produce much more than I realized they would – because of the way this was presented.

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They worked hard on each step and came away learning how to produce a finished work – including having better grammar, spelling, and fluency in writing.

Here to Help Learning Review
In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this to my friends and I would use it again next year. I can’t say enough how much I liked that the message of each video was so positive and inspiring. In one of the videos, the kids were shown how to present an oral reading of their story. In addition to the tips on how to be the speaker, I loved how the teacher spoke of how to show respect to the person speaking. This was wonderful practice both for the student reading their piece and for the sibling who was listening.

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I feel like my children really grew in their writing strength during their time using this curriculum and I can’t wait to keep using it. One of the flights actually includes a way to “write a book” which my daughter is over the moon about. She told me she can’t wait to publish a story and I’m excited about this feature as well. To find Here to Help Learning on Social Media click here:

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Grace for Moms {When Staying at Home is Hard}

When Staying at Home is Hard

 

Many years ago, I was a little girl who loved to play with my stuffed animals, make up imaginary worlds, ride my bike, write stories, and draw portraits.  As I grew I dreamed of what I would be when I grew up.  I remember my mom saying I could be anything I wanted to be.  As I entered college I had hopes of becoming a writer and doing my art on the side.  I sang every week in our praise team at church, I baked and I still painted portraits for fun. Over time, after giving birth to my first two children my husband and I made the decision that I would be staying at home full time.   I was excited at this new adventure – but had no idea how trying this job could be.

 

I’ve learned that being a stay at home mom is a lot of work.  It’s so easy for us moms to get caught up in the day to day…so much so the days just run together.  There have been times when I don’t know what day it is anymore.  This is especially true with a house full of littles, a bunch of sick kids, or a baby who doesn’t sleep well. It happens far too often that we are never off the clock – we give and we give and we don’t even have time to shower as we hit the ground running from the moment we wake until the moment we collapse into bed.

 

Something happens as the years merge together and we are engulfed in this lifestyle of little children and babies and pregnancies and a messy house and endless laundry.  Then the guilt sets in.  This guilt that whispers in our ears that we haven’t done enough.  We aren’t enough.  We aren’t enough for our children because we failed to read them a bedtime story for the 5th night in a row.  We aren’t enough as homemakers as we clean yesterday’s messes off our dirty table and try to figure out if the laundry needs to be restarted or just thrown into the dryer.  We aren’t enough as wives as we give all we have to our children and have nothing left for our spouse.  Suddenly we lose our voice because the overwhelming guilt tells us we aren’t worth it.  I’m here to tell you we must stop this endless cycle.

 

Mom, listen to me.  You will burn out.  You will lose your compass.  You need to slow down.  You need to plan for breaks.  Ask for help when you need it.  Give yourself some grace.  While this job is one of sacrificial love, we need to show ourselves some love, too.

Staying at home can be daunting. I challenge you this week to try to include one or two of these:

  • start a new hobby
  • start a project
  • find something to do that is enjoyable to you
  • rest each day
  • take lots of short breaks throughout the day
  • have a date night with your spouse
  • do something relaxing (take a bath, have a massage, get your mani/pedi, take a nap, read a new book)
  • get out of the house – spend time with other moms
  • join MOPs, MOMS Club, or another group
  • exercise

 

Even though with the birth of each child we morph into a new mother, we need to still remember the girl that God created is still inside of us somewhere.  We are each unique and gifted and God’s creation.  He loves you, mom.  He wants to use you right where you are…even with your cluttered sink and unfolded clothes.  You are His and you are loved.  So while you are busy taking care of the blessings He has given to you – remember to take care of yourself as well.  Trade in your guilt for grace today.

 

What helps you when you are staying at home with your little ones?

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Costco Homeschooling Finds

Last week I decided to take a last minute trip to Costco with the kiddos.  Costco is such a huge store that if you don’t have a list with you, it can be overwhelming.  Their kid’s clothing section is like the Bermuda Triangle.  I’ve been known to disappear in it.  If you haven’t yet checked it out, just know that they usually have a good share of Carter’s clothing but they’ve been known to have Hanna Andersson and Gymboree.  Last week they had Gymboree dresses which come with matching tights for $12.97.

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If I’m not lost in the clothing, then it’s the book section.  I could just stand there for hours.  Even with all six kids … hours.  That’s because they love it, too.  So, back to our last week shopping trip.  I found several items that I’m using with my preschooler and kindergartener.  They have been thrilled to have a few extra “school” items and so am I.

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Wipeable Dry Erase Workbooks

The first thing I picked out were these cute wipeable Crayola Workbooks – one for numbers and one for letters.  Each one comes with 3 “dry erase” markers.  These three markers don’t smell like typical dry erase markers.  My 3 year old and my 5 year old have been so excited to write in these books.  Each page contains traceable letters or numbers and little “art” projects to complete.  Best of all, they can be used again and again.

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Workbooks

I also found two different kindergarten workbooks that contain a variety of fun projects.  These are great for practicing handwriting, math, logic, They sell a variety of these types of Scholastic, BrainQuest, and The School Zone workbooks which are priced between $7.99 – $9.99.

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Puzzles

My three year old daughter picked out a pack of The Learning Journey Wooden Puzzles.  The two that she chose was a cute duo including a wild animal puzzle and a numbers puzzle.  These are geared toward young kids probably 18 months -3 years old.  These puzzles were a great deal at $9.99 for two – these could easily be over $10 per puzzle.

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Novels and Children’s Literature

Lastly, my 11 year old, who is a HUGE Minecraft fan found a pack of Minecraft original novels.  Costco sells a 4 pack for $11.99!!!  I couldn’t believe what a good deal these were.  I found these on-line for between $7-10 per book.  There are many more books at Costco.  They sell American Girl literature, classic novels, toddler and preschool board books and many others for kids.  They also have a huge selection of best sellers, novels, biographies, craft books and cookbooks.  I love perusing the book aisle.

 

For more deals on homeschooling products and products for kids sign up for my newsletter!  What Costco Homeschooling supplies have you found?

Chaotic Bliss Homeschooling