Using the Bible for school

We use our Bibles daily.  We start the day with our Bibles open, we read individually before we start our day, then we study a small section for a family devotion.  Right now we are working through Hebrews – a few verses a day.  In the past we have walked through Romans and James. 

In the past we have used the Bible for copywork daily too, we have copied verses we have been trying to learn or memorize, and even copied Bible Drill verses.  I like to use the Bible for copy work because it has different vocabulary, because there are no grammar errors I need to watch for, and because it continues to pour that truth into their hearts!!

I am excited to get my hands on these E-workbooks for next year though (as a part of the Ultimate Homemaking EBook Bundle)! 

 

Homeschool Find!

Who knew?  Well, I never really thought I needed it to ask.  But today I was skimming my yahoo group daily distro (not even sure which one) and someone mentioned how they love generating worksheets on WorksheetWorks – OH MY!!!
This is, like, brilliant and so amazing for this momma of 4 different grades, 5 kids (4 plus, really), at all levels in many areas!  Oh my!!

I am so excited because of one main reason.  My kids love learning cursive.  Yet, I do not want to make it a “goal” because then they will hate it and whine.  Weird, I know.  So I am trying to gently offer cursive lessons without making it seem like work.

This website  can print out their verses for them to copy in cursive and they can copy, or trace!  This may not excited anyone else, but it made my morning!

I also printed the verses my kids copywork (in print) for my youngest son, and a copy for my little girl.  And she sat and copied the same three her brothers did. 

This morning, my oldest (did not use this website with him, but he still copied verses) wrote his in print, but since I taught him cursive lower case b’s yesterday, all the b’s on his copy work sheet were cursive!  They are tickled to be learning, and I am thrilled that it is not something we are fighting about.

For simple letter practice I did use Donna Young’s site to print out a sheet for 2 letters and lots of room to practice. 

 

I do love her site – so many great tools there too!  But for copy work that I want to control, I simply love WorksheetWorks!!  There is more than just handwriting too – check out their math (great for review), geography, and lots of fun puzzle like things.  These will be great to use while we are travelling this year, for their notebooks to have in the car!!

Sunday Summary

Today we were blessed to have sweet friends over to play, eat and talk with!

We enjoyed our slow-cooked pork loin as pork tacos, Spanish rice, and even some homemade tamales!  I may have to post some pics from those and my recipe.  They were not as superb as the ones I made in November with my mom and Louie, but they were okay.  Our friends thought they were great, that inspires me to make some better to show them I really can make some decent tamales.

Thought I would organize my week tonight and look back over my meal plan, get my oatmeal in the crockpot tonight for breakfast in the morning and get some beans soaking too!

Here is my meal plan for this week {nothing fancy – but cheap}

24 ~ Monday: Beans & Rice

25 ~ Tuesday: Meat Loaf

Tools of the trade

So I implemented a new tool in the past week or so.  While working on the house a couple of weeks ago – I was listening to a Family Life Today broadcast and they were talking about prayer.  (click HERE to go to the broadcast) I am sure I have heard many people talk about prayer, how they pray, ways to pray, things to pray about, etc.  This time though, it seemed different.  This was a man who talked about how he prayed everyday.  He had a small stack (well small is my interpretation – not really sure how big the stack was) of 3x5 cards that he carried everywhere. [I think this appealed to the former Army Officer in me since I always had 3x5 cards on me with notes]
He explained that he had a card for everyone in his life he was praying daily for.  He had the same one he started with years ago for his children – and specific prayers he prayed over them and for them over the years.  I am not sure my specific cards will last years, but I loved the idea of note cards with each person’s name.  He then said he put requests, needs, and verses on these cards that he was praying.  Then whenever he had a few moments in his day he would pray through them.  He said it is usually a 30 second prayer per person.  This is what caught my attention.  This is not a system to add hours of prayer to my already busy day.  This was a system that I could implement today and might just last a while!
So I got out some note cards, put each child’s name on a card, then put many other cards in there (parents, brother(s), friends, our nation) and I start each day praying through these cards – it is very quick – not insignificant quick, but doable quick.  I love that each time I look at my card for one of my kids I am reminded of the real battles he needs me to help him fight through, not just what comes to mind that morning.  It reminds me of the important stuff, then I found character traits that I am specifically praying for each of my kids (their weaknesses).
I have really felt like this way of praying for those in my life is much more significant than anything I have ever done before. 
So that is one tool I want to rave about today.
The other is HERE.
It is a chore chart generator for your home.  I saw this and saved it on my computer the other day.  Today I was able to actually play with it a little while and OH MY!!  It is so good!  You can make it do anything you want.  I can go in and assign chores specific to each child each day – and have daily ones too.  I just love it.  I cannot wait to implement it next week.  It is going to get our home running much smoother I think!!
Hope one of these tools will help you simplify your life!!