Blog Carnvial: School Room Tour Update

MMCW is hosting a School Room Carnival! Share your blog posts and photos of how you organize your home learning environment. We will all be inspired by tips and ideas! Simply send the URL of your blog post to me at mentoringmoments@aol.com by Friday, July 30th. Yes, we’re extending the deadline to give everyone a few more days. You do not have to be a homeschooler to participate. The carnival will run on Thursday, August 5th.

School Room Carnival

MMCW is hosting a School Room Carnival! Share your blog posts and photos of how you organize your home learning environment. We will all be inspired by tips and ideas! Simply send the URL of your blog  post to me at mentoringmoments@aol.com by tonight. You do not have to be a homeschooler to participate. The carnival will run on July 28th.

Organizing School Supplies

When our oldest was born, I would fold clothes slowly as he slept.

Slowly because I was watching intently to make sure he was breathing.

As you can imagine, not much got done during those days. Between watching him sleep, working full time and folding those clothes, it seemed like there was no time for anything–especially an organized home.

Fast forward sixteen years, three more children, add on homeschooling, music, sports, and writing for Mentoring Moments and Oasis. I laugh when I recall those early first child days–I was clueless to what the phrase I have no time really meant.

Back then I thought of myself as an organized person, maybe because I could stand in the container aisle of Wal-Mart and think up innovative ways to store things. Always on the lookout for ways to save space, you could have called me the Queen of Rubbermaid.

These days, organization is not a pastime, it is a necessity. The saying is true–the more children you have the more organized you have to become.

In a matter of weeks our kiddos will be going back to school. That means school supplies can easily get misplaced and find themselves spread out all over the home. My command central is our supply closet…

Supply Closet

Finding a way to organize all of our school supplies and books proved easier than I thought when I found these plastic drawers at Wal-Mart. Drawers are purchased individually, so one can stack as many as needed. I was able to fit five large drawers for craft supplies, office supplies, art paper, notebook / loose leaf paper, and a pencil/pen/glue/crayon/marker drawer. Two smaller plastic drawers hold computer software /audio CDs and math manipulatives.

If you are a grandmother,  these drawers make a great spot for crayons, paper, Play-Dough, Barbie dolls, doll clothes, race cars, Legos, and more. The drawers do slide out, so they can be transported elsewhere in the home and put back when finished.

Stores are ramping up their school supply aisles right now and preparing for back-to-school sales. Save money by purchasing enough to last the entire year and store them in your supply closet. To get the best deals, purchase only the necessities for the first week or so of school, then stock up later in August when stores will offer deeper discounts. I normally purchase upwards of 12 packs of both college-ruled and wide-ruled paper, for example, which means I shop only once for paper a year.  Instead of running to Wal-Mart at 10 pm for  paper, I send the kiddos to the supply closet. Other items I stock up on are magic markers, glue sticks, boxes of pencils, erasers (we go through them like crazy), construction paper, index cards, poster board and art supplies.

Another nifty organization idea…

Closetmaid.com
My friend Michelle shared this link with me. You can enter your closet dimensions and receive plans for a professional remake you can do on your own.

Let’s keep this going…

MMCW is hosting a School Room Carnival! Share your blog posts and photos of how you organize your home learning environment. We will all be inspired by tips and ideas! Simply send the URL of your blog  post to me at mentoringmoments@aol.com by July 23rd. The carnival will run on July 28th.

Question: How do you organize school supplies?

Fun Math Helps

Skip Counting Charts…Wonderful free printable charts to help little ones learn to skip count. I have the 5’s chart on the fridge now.

Free Online Graph / Grid Paper…Bookmark the site for the next time your children needs graph paper for an assignment. No need to run to Wal-Mart at 10 o’clock.

Educating Our Children

Whether it is through homeschooling, private school, or public school, educating our children is a priority. The reasons behind the educational choices we make for our children are varied, yet the common link is our love for them. With that in mind, MMCW’s Educating Our Children section strives to balance all three avenues: public, private, and homeschool education.

We want to celebrate the differences and similarities among each of the three avenues of education. Whether you realize it or not, we all face challenges no matter the direction we’ve taken. I’ve heard public and private school moms say they feel looked down upon by homeschool moms for their choice. I’ve heard homeschool moms say they feel looked down upon by private and public school moms for educating their children at home. Bottom line, it’s a vicious lie the enemy tells to discourage us all. We’re on the same side.

How do I know this? I homeschooled my oldest through kindergarten and first grade, then he attended private school from second grade through fourth grade and public school from fifth to ninth grade. He is currently back at home with three younger sibling being homeschooled. The most amazing part of my children’s educational journey has been seeing the Lord in each step. Public, private, and homeschoolers all have hard days–a test is failed, the math concept doesn’t click, and the dog does eat the homework.

Whatever educational course you have chosen, MMCW’s Educating Our Children section is here to cheer you on with encouragement and strategies. In the coming weeks, you’ll see posts and links here and there on education–for all of us. Take a moment and see if they can be of help to your family.

If you would like to share about your children’s educational journey or have a specific area you’d like to see addressed, let us know. Email mentoringmoments@aol.com.

To leave a comment:

• If you are reading this post in email form, click the article headline. This will take you to the article on MMCW’s website.
• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

Living History Museums

The weather may still be a bit nippy outside, but don’t let that stop you from planning a visit to a virtual history museum. Many museums now offer virtual tours online at no cost. With over 2,000 living history museums in the U.S. alone, there are plenty of places to visit without leaving home. In fact, take a world tour! Just do an online search to find links. Living museums are an excellent way to find more information for book reports and assignments.

Comment to this post with your favorite links!

Jamestown Settlement

Museum of Natural History

Another way to visit the Louvre

Creation Museum

To leave a comment:

• If you are reading this post in email form, click the article headline. This will take you to the article on MMCW’s website.
• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

Teaching Kids About Money

Today, I wanted to share some things we are doing to train our kids to be wise with money.

First, people are more inclined to save money when they have dreams and goals for how that money will be used. We are already helping our 11, 8 and 6-year-old sons think about their long-term goals (like cars and college) and their longer-term goals (like buying a house or having a wife who stays home with their children).

Just this week our 8-year-old resisted the temptation to spend all of his birthday money as he thought about his goal to save some money for his summer vacation and the rest to add to his car fund. He will have to double his lifespan before he is ready to even think about buying a car, but the money won’t be there if he waits until he is 15 to start saving it. We are already planting seeds in their minds that it is important to pursue a career that allows them to be involved and available to their families, and at the same time meet the responsibility of being the sole bread winner.

We also talk to our kids about money A LOT in our every day situations. We left a drive-thru line a couple of days ago when we saw the prices. I told the kids, “This place will cost $4 per person and we usually spend $2. I can’t justify spending twice as much as usual. Think how hard Dad works for this money! We can’t waste it!”

They hear statements like these all the time:

“Everyone needs to order water at the restaurant. It would add $10 to the bill if we all got soda!”

and

“God provided this for us. We need to be responsible with it.”

We explain to our children how credit cards work, with examples that help them understand the benefits of cash-back and the high costs of carrying a balance. We tell them why we buy our gas at this station rather than that one. When we decide to wait to purchase an item until it goes on sale, we verbalize that so that our children know we are exercising patience to save money. They understand that if we spend money on one thing, something else cannot be purchased. They are not under the illusion that money grows on trees.

They know that we usually eat at home, because it is cheaper. They know that when we do go out, we choose places where kids eat free at certain times or on certain nights of the week. They hear us say, “I’m going to order such and such because it sounds good AND fits within my budget.” Even mom and dad keep an eye on economy when we go out to eat.

We also talk to them about bigger purchases, like our house or our car. We help them to understand what those things cost and why we chose one over another from a financial point of view. When we have financial needs, we pray about them as a family. We talk to them about our tithe.

The children and I talk regularly about how grateful we are to their dad, for providing for us and enabling me to stay home with them. I ask them to think how hard life would be for their dad if I didn’t guard the money he brings home, and that it will be impossible to achieve their own goals for family life if they marry a frivolous woman.

Our kids are not always wise in the choices they make with their own money. But they are learning. And when they fail, and blow all their money on something they don’t need, that’s OK. We use that as a lesson, too. I would rather see them learn that lesson at age 5 than at age 50.

As we take the time to verbalize our thinking and explain our actions, our children gain a better sense of how to handle money. They also begin to formulate the values that will shape their own families one day.

To leave a comment:

• If you are reading this post in email form, click the article headline. This will take you to the article on MMCW’s website.
• Scroll down until you see the box entitled ‘Speak Your Mind’.
• Enter your name, email (it will not be published) and your website or blogsite if you have one (you do not have to have one).
• Click on the big empty space and then begin typing your comments.
• When you are done, click ‘submit comment’.  That’s it!  We look forward to hearing from YOU!

Eight Ways to Enhance Language Arts at Christmas

1. Make up a story to tell your children over a period of days or weeks during the month of December. Swiss Family Robinson began as a series of stories that Johann David Wyss told his children bit by bit, each night at bedtime. As a parent, you can capture your children’s hearts and imagination with the retelling of the Christmas story and stories of your childhood Christmas memories.

2. The Long, Long Christmas Book Train. Around the ceiling in your homeschool room, put a large construction paper red or green train car each time your children finish a book in December. Challenge your children to read enough books in December to make the caboose and engine meet or fill up a whole wall! When the Christmas train goal is met, throw a Christmas train-themed party with another homeschool family.

3. Name that Christmas “Stuffie.” Give each of your children a $1 small stuffed animal or “stuffie” for your December homeschool mascot. Spend an hour thinking of names for your Christmas “stuffie.” Each child makes up their own list of 20 or 50 creative “Yuletide-themed” names, depending on the child’s age. Then, have them eliminate names and come up with their most favorite.

4. “Read to me by Skype.” Have an older homeschool student, cousin, aunt, or grandpa skype or telephone each day during December and read your younger child a Christmas theme story. If you have older children, have them call up a younger homeschooler each weekday in December and read to them.

5. Don’t get out of your regular library habit. Your children could easily stay home during busy days and use the internet, but they also need to visit the library in person. Stay and read at tables. Do a Christmas craft, if offered. Gaze and gawk. Dawdle through the aisles.

6. Writing enhances reading. Reading also enhances writing. There are many opportunities for a child to write around the “Holy-Days.” The lost art of letter writing can be found again, when your kids write letters to each relative.

7. What you do; not just what you say. Even during the busy month of December, Mom and Dad need to read each day to set the “reading is important” example.

8. Cereal Book Club. During December invite some homeschool friends over to your home for a Cereal (Serial) Book Club. Each child brings a box of their favorite healthy cereal to share and a copy of an assigned book in a certain series with the topic of winter or Christmas. Each child shares the book’s name, two amazing facts about it, and reads their two favorite pages of the book aloud. Encourage all the children to finish the other books in the “cerealies” (series).

Who to Thank this Thanksgiving

While it’s a nice thought, very polite, and good manners to teach your kids to be thankful, it is not the whole truth.  It’s like wishing someone good wishes, when you could be praying for them.  It’s like saying a good word, when you could be saying a good word about Jesus.  It’s like hoping they get well, when you could be praying and trusting for the Great Physician to heal and comfort them.  It’s like standing in the middle of a field and saying thank you for the trees, instead of looking up to heaven and thanking the God and Creator of the universe for His creation.

This Thanksgiving, let’s not just teach our children to be thankful, let’s teach them Who to thank.

1. Crown of Thanks. Cut different shapes and colors of leaves out of colored paper.  Write on the leaves what you want to thank God for.  Tape on the wall, up around the ceiling.  Circle the room with a crown of thanks to the Lord.

2. Be Thankful Finger Play.

Lord, I have two hands, 10 fingers that I can wiggle
Lord, I’m thankful for jello, yellow jello that I can jiggle

(Hold up your hands, wiggle your little finger on your left hand first.
wiggle wiggle – First, I’m thankful for_________.
Keep your hands up high, wiggle your ring finger next on your left hand
wiggle wiggle – Second I’m thankful for ________.
(Keep going with all ten fingers, until you are all the way to your little finger on your right hand.)

Lord, I’m thankful for 10 things, but there’s so many more.
But most of all I’m thankful for Jesus. It’s Him that I adore

3.  Thank You Reflection. Keep Post-its in the shape of a turkey or leaf near the bathroom mirror with a pen. Family members and visitors can write down what they are thankful for this Thanksgiving week and post-it on the bathroom mirror.

4.  Thank you List. Make a list of what we are thankful list, instead of what we want.  Do you usually have an ongoing grocery list on your refrigerator where family members can write down a grocery item that is missing from the cupboards or refrigerator?  How about keeping a list of what you are thankful for this Thanksgiving?  Keep a running list of what you are thankful for, what you do have this Thanksgiving.

5.  Thankful Cake. On the dessert table this year at Thanksgiving consider including a Thankful Cake.  Write on the top of the Thankful Cake in the middle “We are thankful for…”   Then, write in icing different things that your family is thankful for on top of the Thankful Cake.

6.  Thank the Lord Around the World. Thank the Lord in different languages.  Write or record thank you in many different languages around the world.  Before the Thanksgiving family prayer at the table, play the recording as you thank God for loving the whole world and giving his only begotten Son for the world that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

7. Hymn Sing. Why not start or continue a Thanksgiving tradition of singing together? Sing several hymns or praise songs together before or after your Thanksgiving meal.

8. Thank You Video. You can make a video throughout the morning of Thanksgiving Day, interviewing family members with the question, “What are you most thankful to the Lord for this Thanksgiving?”  Show the video before or after Thanksgiving Dinner.  Most point and shoot digital cameras come with a video camera function which can serve this purpose well.

Do some of these things so that your family might remember that we are not only thankful this Thanksgiving but that we know who to thank – To God be the Glory.

Tools of the Trade…Post-It Flag+ Highlighters

While I love the highlighter, I have to admit it’s the flag post-its that have stolen my heart. The small flags have worked wonderfully as bookmarks in my children’s school books this year. They are strong and stand up to re-application. Infact, I am still re-applying some of the flags that I began using last August! Highlighters are available in 15 colors and flags can be refilled easily. Post-It also now has flags available in writing pens too.

What can you not live without in your homeschool? Share your favorites by submitting to mentoringmoments@aolcom.

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