Washing Hands
From the Jonah Veggie Tales Movie…
Do not fight.
Do not cheat.
Wash your hands before you eat.
There is nothing quite as sweet-
A message from the Lord
Be a friend.
Say your prayers.
Heaven loves a heart that cares.
That is why I’ve come to share a message from the Lord.
And if you follow God’s commands,
there will be peace throughout the land.
You will live long and happy lives…
with your sheep – your kids – your wives.
Don’t eat pigs
Don’t eat bats.
Don’t eat beetles, flies, or gnats.
Stay away from all of that.
A message from the Lord
Yesterday I was watching my 4 year old wash his hands. He was soaping each finger front, back and in between very intently. I told him "Wow, you are a very good hand washer!" He replied "This is the way God says to wash our hands." very matter of fact. I said "Why do you think that?" He replied "Because this is how they taught us to wash our hands at my church class and at church they tell you what God says."
I guess I can’t argue with that!
LOL
proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds.
Psalms 26: 6-12
Freebie Friday – Feb 29, 2008
Welcome to Freebie Fridays!
This week I am going to start out with a few follow up items to last week’s Election focus.
I found a great website called Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government for Kids. This site provides learning tools for kids grade K-12, parents, and teachers. These resources will teach how our government works. So whether your little ones are just ready for the ABC’s of Government or you want to teach older kids about Citizenship, this site has a ton of free information. There is something for everyone! Make sure to check out the section on the Election Process.
Next, thanks to one of our Freebie Friday readers, here are some great Election Notebooking Pages. This great freebie includes pages to do research about the Candidates, information to learn about Primaries and Caucuses and there is even information on Political Advertising. There are 3 pdf’s to download at the website. Make sure you get them all! If you have any trouble getting to the site save this email and return later. Sometimes we overwhelm servers when we all rush to get downloads at once.
Now, for a little something from me! My 7 year old daughter and I have been using the American Girl books as a jumping off point for American History this year. Together we designed a free American Girl Lapbook. This lapbook can be used with any of the American Girl books. There are some basic mini books that will fit any of the time periods and then there are some booklets that are designed just for each girl. We had a blast making it and we hope you enjoy it too. You will find the free mini books HERE.
This one is not so much a freebie, but a contest! Bunkhouse Sewing is sponsoring a Children’s Sewing Contest. You can find all the details HERE.
I’ll see you next week right here at – Freebie Fridays!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Freebie Finder
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
This article is from this weeks issue of Freebie Friday. If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute and the Freebie Friday Newsletter you can subscribe for free HERE. I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters. (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)
Mc Donald's
The kids asked me today if McDonald’s is our new home! Our friend that we are staying with works primarily from home, so we have gone to play at McDonald’s almost everyday for the last week! LOL
Indoor Playlands are my friend! All 3 of my kids like going and I like that they can play and be as LOUD as they want and no on cares. I can sip all the Diet Coke I want and read, knit or make phone calls.
They also have WiFi….But, it’s not free and I don’t want to pay for it….But, I am considering it! If I could blog from McDonald’s I might never leave! LOL
Since we are in a big city we can hit a couple McDonald’s a day and no one seems to care. My kids know better than to ask for food.
I am telling you I am on to something here! It’s like I have an office with an indoor Playland attached! Be on the lookout for ME at a McDonald’s near YOU!
LOL
Look What Grandma Made!!!
Happy Birthday Treasure Hunt
I did a treasure hunt in August for my oldest sons birthday. I came up with the idea because since we were living 1200+ miles from Dad we were not giving him his "real" gifts on his actual birthday. I wanted to do something to celebrate on the actual day and this was a HUGE success. The other kids quickly informed me they also wanted a treasure hunt. So a new tradition has begun!
Here is the latest treasure hunt!
Happy Birthday our little GEM, today you are 7! Time passes too fast…Soon you’ll be eleven!
A treasure hunt is the thing we will do. To celebrate and say Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!
So here’s your first clue. What could be said? You will find it hidden under the bed!
You found that so fast! What a good girl you are.
Now go and find one out in the car.
Now that was too easy. Here is clue number two.
Look in the bathroom in a basket that’s blue.
You think this is easy? Let’s make one not so.
Under the sink is where you should go!
You found another! Just one more to go.
Look under the T.V. The BIG one you know.
You found the last one! We hope you had fun!
We love you so much our precious one.
Happy Happy Birthday!!!!
Love Mom, Dad and your brothers.
Her she is with her pile of gifts! (All little things I picked up on the 4 for a dollar table at Claire’s!)
Opening gifts.
Her brothers look on!
Have I mentioned my 13 year old is silly! LOL Yes he is wearing one of her new headbands! Crazy boy!
Loving on her new stuffed penguin.
It was a very happy day! She was actual very surprised when she woke up to a treasure hunt. She said "I didn’t think you could do it when we are staying at someone else’s house!" She is such a sweet girl!
She is 7!
Our little GEM is 7 today!
WOW!!!
Precious little girl,
More like me than anyone else on the planet.
I am so glad that God brought you into my life!
You make me smile and laugh every day.
Together we are "The Girls".
We giggle and laugh and share our feminine sides,
in a house where we are outnumbered by boys!
I love the way you squeal with glee when I get a new haircut,
or shoes, or anything!
You notice the smallest detail. If I so much as light a candle you know it!
You are a precious gift of God!
I hope you know how much you are loved!
You truly are our gem.
Happy Birthday my little girl!
XOXOXO
Mommy
Since she already had her birthday party early we kept things simple and went out for pizza with some friends last night.
Here she is opening gifts.
A hug for Snow White.
So pretty!
Reading a card with Dad. It is SO nice to have him around again!
The Princess with her guests.
Silly shot!
Happy Happy Birthday to my precious little girl!
Mom
HWTB 2-22-08 – Freebie Finder – Education Is…
I recently came across a wonderful, free, Charlotte Mason-based E-Book, titled Education Is An Atmosphere, A Discipline, A Life. I love this book so much! It agrees completely with my philosophy that education is more than reading, writing and math and focuses on the training as well as the importance of parents in the education of children.
I especially like the chapter called Are You a Thermostat or a Thermometer? It discusses whether we are setting the direction of learning for our children or just reacting to what is happening around us. (Not a question I want to answer every day!)
This E-Book offers many good things to think about. Plus, you’ll find practical ideas to help you implement these concepts in your home.
You will find the free download HERE.
Happy Homeschooling!
Jamin
This article is from the Home Where They Belong Blog. If you are interested in more freebie’syou can subscribe to The Homeschool Minute as well as the Freebie Friday Newsletter HERE. I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters. (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)
FF – 2-22-08 – Elections
It seems that all I hear about these days is elections, so I thought it would be a good time to find some freebies to help us teach our kids about the election process. Here is what I found.
The first resource is a great free 12 week unit study on Presidents and Elections. This unit is designed to give primary-aged students an introduction to the office of the President and the election process.
Smithsonian in Your Classroom offers a free study called Winning the Vote: How Americans Elect Their President. This free download is designed for children grades 4-9 and covers Art, Geography, Language Arts, and Social Studies.
Homeschoolshare.com has a free Elections Lapbook! This could be used on its own or in conjunction with either of the studies above.
Make sure to check out the latest contest in the Schoolhouse Store. The race is on to be the 30,000th customer! The prizes are bigger and better than ever! You could win a gift pack worth over $800.00! The details are all HERE.
I’ll see you next week right here at – Freebie Fridays!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Freebie Finder
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
This article is from this weeks issue of Freebie Friday. If you are interested in getting The Homeschool Minute and the Freebie Friday Newsletter you can subscribe for free HERE. I will be passing along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week in both of these newsletters. (Not to mention all the other great info you will get from The Homeschool Minute!)
My Birthday
Yesterday was a great birthday! As usual I planned about 4 days of FUN into one day! LOL
Here is my birthday from a homeschool perspective….
The kids and I started out the day with breakfast at Kripsy Kreme Doughnuts. Trying to make the day educational I read all the signs about how doughnuts are made to the kids. Then while we were eating we talked about what makes up a dozen and what a bakers dozen is. (MATH!) Then my 13 year old told us the History of the doughnut. It turns out he just saw this on his new favorite show Good Eats. This conversation morphed in to a discussion about the Pilgrims and how they went to Holland before they came to America since doughnuts came from Holland. (A fact which I never knew until I homeschooled my kids.) (HISTORY!)
While at Krispy Kreme we met a homeschool family! This was VERY exciting since we have only been here 3 days. (Hi Mindy!) So the kids played and watched the big machine make doughnuts while we Mom’s talked homeschooling. (SOCIALIZATION!)
Then we headed to my favorite store…IKEA!!! The drive to IKEA was very stressful. It was raining and this was my first time to drive in the city. On the way there I taught the kids a few new words! LOL (LANGUAGE ARTS!) Only kidding! hehehe
Once we made it to IKEA the 2 littles went to the PlayLand. My 13 year old and I walked every inch of IKEA in 1 hour. (P.E.!)
We left IKEA and headed to Dad’s work to meet him for lunch. On the way to Dad’s work we encountered our 1st experience with toll roads. This led to an in depth discussion about how taxes provide things like roads and why people would ever agree to have toll roads in their area!!!!!! (SOCIAL STUDIES!) (Plus as an added bonus the kids learned a couple more new words! LOL) My 13 year old then entertained us by describing how Mom was like Dr. Jeckle and Mr Hyde depending whether I am on a freeway or a toll road! (DRAMA!) (He does a very funny impression of me turning into a monster when I hit a toll road! LOL)
After lunch with Dad (Where we learned things like standing in line and eating fast so Dad can get back to work in a hurry.) We headed over to see some homeschool friends of ours. THAT’S RIGHT! God has blessed us with homeschool friends from where we use to live! They moved to our new city 22 months before us and have been waiting patiently for us to arrive. It was SO fun to see them all having a blast together like no time had passed since we last saw them. (SOCIALIZATION) They were playing a Lego Computer game part of the time we were there. (COMPUTER & LOGIC SKILLS) Of course my friend and I got some good socilaizing in too!
Then we headed back to where we are staying to meet Dad and our friends for dinner. On the way to meet them I am it was raining and the traffic was terrible. I am pretty sure I heard some praying coming from the back seat. (BIBLE!)
WHEW! That was one great educational birthday! We covered Math, History, Socialization, Language Arts, P.E., Social Studies, Computer and Logic & Bible! hehehehe
Want to know what gifts I got for my birthday?
THIS has been ordered from my husband and THIS from my kids!
P.S. Thanks to ALL of you who sent me birthday wishes! You all bless me so much. I am overwhelmed with the number of comments and emails I got yesterday!
Are We There Yet?
We have arrived! We are "there"! Our whole family is under one roof again! It is not our roof, but thanks to our gracious friends who are letting us stay with them, our family is back together.
The trip was mostly uneventful. The kids kept us laughing and Dad kept us moving forward.
In case anyone is wondering what we are doing for school during this time….I limited myself to bringing 2 crates of "school" stuff. One is FULL of books. We brought all our American Girl books. all our Magic Tree House books, lots of readers for my daughter. My oldest son brought a dozen or so books of his own.
The second crate is full of….LAPBOOKING supplies! YAY!!!! I figure this is the perfect time to push everything else aside and just have fun lapbooking!
We also have one backpack with everyones Math. My oldest son will be doing most everything on the computer. He is listening to books on LibriVox.com, playing at spellingcity.com, reading his Bible online at bibleina year.org, and he is working on his Armenia lapbook. He is using the Free Country Lapbook from Homeschoolshare.com.
I am sure a good deal of our schooling will take place out and about. We have lots of places to explore in this new and very different place we hope to soon call home.
As for me today is my BIRTHDAY…there is nothing in the world I would rather have today than my family back under one roof!
Just Call Me Jamin 