Monday, August 25, 2008

Storing Bookmarks Online - A Computer Tip

I know most of us have lots of bookmarks stored on our computers. I received this tip in my email this morning and thought I'd pass it along to you.

It's good to store them online in case your computer crashes. Another benefit is that you can access them from any computer.

Two sites that are recommended:

1. http://digg.com/
Digg is a website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories, in a social and democratic spirit.

2. http://delicious.com/
Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It also means that we can show you the most popular bookmarks being saved right now across many areas of interest. In addition, our search and tagging tools help you keep track of your entire bookmark collection and find tasty new bookmarks from people like you.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Food Safety Tips

You may already know most of them, but do your kids?

Picnic – If you’re going to have an open fire be sure such a fire is allowed and be sure to obtain your fire permit. Remember to put your fire out completely before leaving.

Food on the go - Remember this very important rule: KEEP HOT FOODS HOT and COLD FOODS REALLY COLD!
Good picnic menu planning helps keep troublesome bacteria away. If you've ever had food poisoning, you know how awful it can be.

Perishable foods – particularly moist protein foods such as meat, fish chicken, cheese, eggs in salads, sandwiches, casseroles – travel safely only when kept good and cold or really hot. Otherwise they should be eaten as soon as they leave your kitchen.

Creamed main dishes and cream pies are particularly poor risks. Serve them at home when having a picnic in the backyard.

If you don’t have an insulated picnic carry-all, get foods good and cold in refrigerator, then wrap them in several thicknesses of newspaper. This wrap will provide insulation for several hours. The same trick works for hot dishes, too. I've also used a cardboard box to help keep things cold.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

OK, I'm finally DONE with the blog changes. It's been

a learning experience for me and my daughter. My daughter created the blog banner and helped me come up with the colors. I hope you like what we've done.

Have a blessed day!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

I got up this morning with an excitement deep within about the

upcoming school year! Praise the Lord! I've been praying that He would give me new vision and an excitement about our school year. After homeschooling for thirteen years, the excitement can begin to wane, trust me. It's hard to continue down the path when your spirit is dying inside and the excitement has dwindle. I don't want our homeschooling years to be boring and uninteresting. I want them to be full of adventure and learning opportunities. I need to be excited so my children will have a love for learning. Learning is for a lifetime and I want them to hunger to learn new things. I want my children to have a hunger and a thirst to follow after the Lord. If you're struggling today with starting a new school year, pray and ask the Lord to give you new vision and excitement about school. He is faithful!

May the Lord bless your day as you seek to serve Him!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Fun in the Water Games



When it's hot outside, playing in the water is a great pass time and cures the boredom. All you need is a garden hose, some water balloons or a couple of buckets and sponges to plan a refreshing day of water fun. We haven't played all of these, but here is a list of ideas:

Sponge Tag – Throw a soaking wet big sponge at the person; if it hits her,
she’s it.

Sponge Relay Races – Fill two buckets with the exact same amount of water. Form two teams and give each team a big car-wash sponge. At the start of the race, the first person on each team soaks up as much water as she can in the sponge and carries it to another bucket, squeezes out the water and runs back to hand the sponge to the next person on her team, who repeats the process.

Water balloon games - Some water balloon kits come with an adapter that fits on your outdoor water spigot to make it easy to fill the balloons.

Water Balloon Toss - Form two lines of paired players, facing each other. Have each pair toss a water balloon back and forth, taking a step backwards after every two tosses. The further back you step, the further the toss and the more likely the water balloon will burst. The last pair to have their water balloon intact wins.

Hula Hoop Water Balloon Toss - One person holds a hula hoop to his side and the other person tries to toss a water balloon through the hoop.

Hose games - Put a Y connector (available at any lawn and garden store) on your outdoor spigot and attach two hoses. Give the hoses to the kids, turn on the spigot and let the games begin!

Beach Ball Race - Place two beach balls on a starting line and have the two contestants squirt water on their ball to drive it across the yard. First ball to get to the finish line wins.

Fill the Bucket - Have the kids see who can fill a bucket the fastest. We did this at a field day one time. You have two buckets at either end of the field. You need either a plastic sandwich bag or a cup. Fill that up and carry it to the other bucket without spilling it. The first team to fill up the bucket, wins the race.

Ice cube fun - On a super hot day, crack open a tray or two of ice cubes and let the kids use their imaginations and play until the ice melts!

Icy Building Blocks - Sprinkle a little salt onto an ice cube and press it onto another ice cube. The salt will melt the ice slightly and then it will refreeze to hold the two together. Stack the ice cubes to form a pyramid, a wall or other structure.

Ice Cube Melting Race - Give each child an ice cube and see who can get it to melt the fastest in their hands. Working in pairs or teams is best, so when a child's hands get too cold, they can pass the ice cube off to a teammate.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

It's Back to Homeschooling Time

We're starting back to school this week. Yes, it is time for a new homeschooling year to begin. The summer has flown by! This will be my 14th year of homeschooling. Where has the time gone?! It seems like just yesterday I was starting this journey with our oldest. We graduated our first child this past May, so this year I'll be adjusting to just having to school two children. It'll be hard to wrap my mind around that, but I hope it makes things easier. I have been asking the Lord to give me renewed vision for this school year. I need His grace to continue this journey until our third and last child is graduated in seven years. We must get the Lord's vision for our homeschools. When we have God's vision for our lives, and we trust for His grace to flow freely, then we are able to faint not, not grow
weary, fail not to complete the race.

Here are some ideas of what I do each year that may inspire you:

*First and foremost, seek the Lord about making plans for the upcoming year. If possible, take a week off from all other activities. If it works into our schedule, we'll plan a day trip for dad and the children to do something special. That gives me time at home alone. They have fun and I get to have some quiet time to think. (The older I get, the harder it is for me to concentrate, so this quiet time helps immensely!) Spending time drawing near to the Lord with a daily time of worship, prayer and studying the Word of God makes the school year get started off on a better note.

*Begin to plan your upcoming homeschooling year with a "What I Want to Accomplish This Year" list. Write down everything you would like to accomplish this year for each child; don't forget to include character building, skill building, and good habit development for those weak areas. Pray over this list every day and write down ideas as to how you might accomplish these goals.

*Pull out all the homeschooling materials that you would like to use this year. If you don't have any homeschooling materials yet, pull out your catalogs and circle the resources you would like to use and mark the pages with sticky notes of flags. Pray over these materials, asking the Lord to show you how to use each one to meet each child's needs. This is also a good time to purge the materials you no longer need or will be using. Donate them to your homeschool group. You never know who might just be needing what you have sitting on your shelf unused. I've been blessed many times by instances like this in my homeschooling years.

*Make a list of all materials that you feel you need to purchase or acquire in the next few weeks. Include specific supplies of all kinds including software, school supplies, organizational tools, etc. This will save you time and gas money. I spend one day running errands gathering up as much as I can for the beginning of school.

*Create a "Teacher's Notebook" for yourself. You will want to keep copies your Resource Lists, "What I Want to Accomplish This Year" list, Mission Statements, lesson plans and whatever else you create in this notebook. I set this up using dividers and have one section for each child. If you multi-level teach, you might want to have one section for each subject or unit study.

*Create, download or purchase lesson plan forms. I use http://www.donnayoung.org/ for these.

*Create a weekly schedule for your child so they have a framework for their daily work.

*Ask you husband to review your plans and to pray over them. Wait for his input before proceeding any further. I find this to be very important. Sometimes the fathers get left out of our homeschools and this puts them in an active role. The Lord certainly has guided my husband in areas that affect the children that I wouldn't have thought about.

*After receiving your husband's input and comments, make any changes to your plans so far and order materials, books, resources, and go shopping for school supplies.

*When you receive your new resources, take time to read through them thoroughly making notes and using sticky notes to help you when you begin schooling your children. Do not skip this process. This is an important step that we often forget. I found early on that it's too hard to school if you don't know where you are going the next few months. That's what I call "flying by the seat of your pants". That's too hard, in my opinion. Homeschooling takes planning. As the saying goes, "Failing to plan means planning to fail." You are also setting an example of learning passion. We want to raise children who LOVE TO LEARN, right? Learning is for a lifetime, so watch the attitude you display during this stage.

*Set up an organizational system for keeping your resources orderly. I bought some crates at the Dollar General many years ago for each child and myself. It was such an inexpensive way to organize our schoolbooks. I require that my children put away all homeschooling materials when school is over each day. This will make your life and your home more pleasant.

*Create your daily schedule. Be very realistic. You can start by listing everything you want to accomplish Monday through Friday. Put a time beside each task. Make adjustments and pray over this schedule. You will want to make adjustments as you begin homeschooling. Again, I use http://www.donnayoung.org/ for this resource. I print off a "working copy" so I can pencil it in, erase, make changes, etc. I use that one for the first week of school and then make a real one to go by for the rest of the school year. You can have that laminated at Office Depot if you desire.

*Purchase or create a planner for yourself. You will want to keep appointments, fieldtrips, activities, special events, menus, chore schedules, and so on within this planner. This planner is your best friend. Make it work for you, not the other way around.

*Decide when you will begin school and make a plan for how you want the day to go. A friend of mine with many children told me the other day that she decided to have an orientation day this year. She took each child and spent the entire school time introducing them to their new books, went over what they would study for the year and got them started one on one. She said it was much less hectic than starting with five children all at once, all in one day. I think that's a wonderful idea. Make it fun, perhaps they can decorate bookcovers, organize their school supplies, let them get familiar with their new books, have a special activity planned. Start your day with prayer and a little time in the Word as a family. Another friend told me many years ago that when she started her homeschooling days with prayer and Bible time, the days always went much better. I took her words of Godly wisdom.

*Remember to ask your husband to pray for you in the weeks to come, and give him specific daily prayer requests for your family. This keeps him connected to what is going on in your homeschool.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Blog changes - be honest, okay?

As you can see, I've done some changes to the blog. Can you tell me if it's too hard to read or is it okay? I can't decide about the blocks in the background. Thanks for your comments!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Backyard Adventures

As the weather gets nicer and the days get longer, encourage everyone to get away from the TV and go outside by planning some creative outdoor fun! Plan an outdoor adventure! Try going on a safari in your own backyard, set up bird watching stations around your yard, or take a nature walk and collect special treasures. Before you begin your adventure though, you might want to prepare some fun supplies:

Pretend Binoculars:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/craftstechniques101/ig/Chapter-9--Crafts-and-the-Grea/Pretend-Binoculars.htm

Check Box Camera:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/craftstechniques101/ig/Chapter-4--Child-Development/Check-Box-Camera.htm

Up Periscope!
http://familycrafts.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=familycrafts&cdn=parenting&tm=8&gps=296_348_1020_592&f=20&su=p284.9.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/periscope.html

Friday, August 1, 2008

When the heatwave hits....

and everybody is getting tired of the summer heat, here are a few tips for surviving:

1) When the "summertime boredom" hits and the kids are tired of doing the same things, try to ignore the "boredom whine". If you offer solutions all the time, you are not allowing your children to use their own creativity. Offer a suggestion that they go look through their rooms for something to do. If that doesn’t work, give them chores whenever they say they’re bored. (This will usually 9 times out of 10 END THE WHINE at my house. LOL!)

2) Have a planned activity each day that stimulates their creativity. Prepare one activity a day – supplies for a water fight, an art project or science experiment, a hike, etc. Do something that gets them out of the everyday, and triggers their mind to think of something different or unusual so that they can stimulate their own creativity.

3) Get them outside every morning, before the “dangerous sun times” and make them stay there until lunch. There are playgrounds, bicycles, sports and games etc. that can keep them going for hours if they are bored enough to find something to do. We can all use the extra Vitamin D the sunshine offers. You know even if it's raining (and not storming, of course), dress them appropriately, and send them out for at least an hour. Kids can always make puddle jumping, rescue earth worms, and making mud pies a lot of fun.

4) Kids like routine. Create a daily, loose-but-structured routine that gives each day some framework. You can include chores, scheduled activities (meals, screen time, outdoor play, a planned activity, etc.) Don’t over schedule or you’ll be doing them (and yourself!) a disservice. Kids’ lives are so overbooked these days that they never have time for dreaming or self-discovery.

5) Restrict Screen Time. Yes, I said that because if your children are anything like mine, they are drawn to the computer screen and they'll stay there for hours. We have to limit it or it can become addictive, especially in the summer when it's hot outside. And honestly, it makes it so much harder when we start school back, that it is really not worth it. Try and keep “mindless entertainment via a screen” to an absolute minimum. Let kids schedule one TV show plus one hour for games each day, and then let them use the rest for other things.