10 Day Real Food Challenge

We have been slowly but surely making the change from processed foods over to what is known as REAL food. When I stumbled across 100 Days of Real Food, I was impressed with her commitment to change and decided that my family would do a similar challenge, only much shorter. Since we go into "shock" every time I make a diet change we will be doing a mini-challenge of just 10 days. Starting Sunday (as that is my grocery day), we will be elliminating the following for 10 days:

1. Refined Grains-Bye bye soft and fluffy white bread. Hello dense whole wheat. Maybe I will use this week to go grain free as well ugh.
2. Refined Sugars-I was already pushing these out the door but both my husband and I still have a minor soda addiction. Not sure this is going to go over well with him.
3. Pre-packaged Foods-Again another thing that we haven't really been eating, except for at breakfast. Guess I will be getting up earlier next week! Might even surprise hubby by getting up and making him a proper breakfast at the crack of dawn.
4. Fast Foods- Since they undoubtedly fall under at least one of the above, any and all fast food will be a no. Another one that shouldn't be too hard though as we don't eat out that often.

Those are the rules! In 100 Days of Real Food's rules, they also eliminated deep fried foods. We are not big eaters of deep fried, but I believe that animal fats are healthy for you so as long as the item being fried is done in an animal fat I am ok with it.

I am hoping that the 10 days will turn into a 20 day and then into 30 days which leads to a lifetime of changes, but I am willing to take baby steps!

Picture Credit

The Molder Family Homeschool Statement of Purpose

This is something I did about a year ago when I was having a hard time and I encourage you to do something similar. Having it to go back to during those hard times has really been a blessing!

The Molder Homeschool Mission Statement:

We chose to homeschool because:

*First and foremost we seek to put our children in environments that are most likely to lead to their salvation and redemption through Christ's Blood. We believe those environments include, church, home, and the homes of friends that share our beliefs.

*We seek to bring glory to Christ by raising and educating our children at home where we are able to guide them according to Biblical standards, protecting them from as much of the world's influence as possible until such time they are spiritually equipped to handle it.

*We seek to teach our children history, science, literature, and all other subjects through a Biblical perspective. Equipping them with the tools needed to stand for their faith against worldly teachings such as evolution, humanism and other world views.

*We seek to provide our children with an individualized learning experience gathering from all resources available to us. We believe that as parents we are called to be our children's educators and that we are best equipped to handle our own children's personalities, learning styles, emotional and psychological needs and that an environment specifically designed with their personal education in mind will give them to opportunity to explore intrests and develop skills needed for their future in a way that promotes self-confidence, self-discipline and a genuine love of learning.

*We seek to hand down our own morals to our children teaching self-sacrifice, servantship, respect, Godliness, modesty, restraint and other Christian characteristics.

*We seek to control our children's peer interaction so that they are not continually exposed to world views until the foundation of their faith is laid securely.

Deuteronomy 11:19 (King James Version)

And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Edible Rock Recipes for Geology Lesson Plans

We are doing geology in Weaver right now. Suits my youngest daughter perfectly, as she loves to collect treasures from nature. When she was nearly 3 we took the girls to Disney World and as all the characters passed us by we found her collecting giant leaves. These days we have similar stories to tell about her collecting rocks.

You can visit my post on Making Your Own Rock Candy for lessons related to crystals and minerals. For the three basic rock types here are some recipes to make your geology lessons fun and hands on!

Igneous Rocks

1 can evaporated milk (6 oz.) 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts 1 1/4 cups tiny marshmallows 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 1 teaspoon vanilla 1. Grease an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch pan. 2. Combine evaporated milk with sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring for 5 - 9 minutes. 3. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and stir gently. 4. Pour into prepared pan. Let cool. (Refrigerate) 5. 1 pan (8 x 8) makes 30 1 inch squares.

Metamorphic Rocks

1/2 cup shortening or margarine 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup chopped nuts 1/2 cup well-drained crushed pineapple 1 egg, beaten 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon salt 1. Cream the shortening and the sugar. 2. Add the beaten egg and vanilla. 3. Add the dry ingredients and mix. 4. Stir in the fruit and the nuts. 5. Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. 6. Bake for 7 minutes at 375 degrees. Note: Chocolate chips, coconut, wheat germ, etc. can also be added.

Sedimentary Rocks

1 1/4 cups crushed flake cereal 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 cup margarine 1 cup chocolate or butterscotch chips 1 1/4 cups coconut 1 cup chopped nuts 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz.) 1. Melt the margarine. 2. Mix with the cereal and the sugar to make cereal layer. 3. Press into an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan. 4. Sprinkle the chips over cereal layer. 5. Sprinkle the coconut over chips. 6. Sprinkle the nuts over coconut. 7. Pour condensed milk over the layers. 8. Bake for 25 minutes at 325 degrees.

To Everything There is a Season

And one of mine is about to end.

I have been working 2 days a week since before the girls were old enough for school. Since I worked a Mother's Day out, it worked for us when the girls were little and Karl was still trying to find a secure job. He worked as a contractor for his current company for several years before he was hired on as a full time employee. Anyways, when I quit working at my previous MDO, and another opportunity "fell through", I decided to work out of my home. It is the perfect situation for me. I still work 2 days a week, but I am in our house so I can still get the girls homeschooling done. Well, I could up until this year. Sigh, with Brianna and Keira both moving into more time consuming grades, a hard decision had to be made. My husband and I both agree, that it is time for me to leave the working world completely to focus on our children's education. As much as I agree with this decision, it has been bitter sweet. Partly because I really enjoy teaching, and partly because it is scary to think that I will no longer be contributing financially. Not that we are hurting, but sometimes I still hold on to a bit of that feministic idea that I am not contributing something worth while if I am not bringing in income.

So in June, I will start a new chapter. One where I am fully and completely focused and committed solely to the ministry of my family. I am happy and sad at the same time. I really don't remember what it was like not to be working!

Peter Enns Unbiblical? Jay Wile Plays Semantics

A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads "Thou shalt not disagree"; and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins "Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything. It is now the accepted thing to talk over religious differences in public with the understanding that no one will try to convert another or point out errors in his belief. The purpose of these talks is not to confront truth, but to discover how the followers of other religions think and thus benefit from their views as we hope they will from ours.~A.W. Tozer

By now you know that the dis-invite of Ken Ham to the Great Homeschool Conventions in Cincinnati and Greenville is the talk of the homeschooling world right now. What you may not know is that there are other individuals who are involved in this controversy as well. Dr. Jay Wile formerly of Apologia and Susan Bauer of The Well Trained Mind, have both put themselves into the middle of it. Hopefully, I will have time to do a bit more looking into Susan's stand on the controversial dismissal, but for now I want to share a bit of Dr. Wile's response to it. On Dr. Wile's blog he has yet again voiced his disapproval of Ken Ham's outing of Dr.Peter Enns unbiblical views, but more interesting than the blog is the comments. While Dr. Wile states adamantly that he does not agree with Enns' non-literal interpretation of, well frankly, just about the entire Bible, he seems to be consistently defending him and unwilling to call it like it is, WRONG. If Enns is wrong, that is he is not interpreting scripture correctly, then wouldn't that make his views unbiblical? I mean either you have a correct interpretation or you don't, either you are biblical or you are not. So, my question to Dr. Wile would be, at what point does it become unbiblical? Peter Enns represents a growing and dangerous liberal movement not only within the homeschool circles, but also within evangelical Christianity. The movement has not just led to the "theistic evolutionist" view point, but to much more dangerous ones. A non-literal translation of the Bible undermines the entire authority of the scripture! Starting with Genesis, Ennis has systematically turned the Bible into a book of metaphorical fairy tales.

You cannot expect the Bible -- written in ancient times for ancient eyes -- to enter a modern scientific discussion, and you cannot fault the Bible when it fails to answer our questions. This is not a new insight. Augustine said famously 160 years ago that Christians embarrass themselves when they appeal to the Bible to settle scientific matters (cosmology was the issue he was dealing with). Even if many Christians throughout history did assume that the Bible is scientifically accurate, the problems with that position have been understood for a very long time, long before the modern era. - Peter Enns

Dr. Enns has taken the accuracy of the scriptures and thrown it out as being too old fashioned to be interpreted by science. The problem, Dr. Enns, is that we aren't supposed to be interpreting scripture by science, but the other way around! Secondly, Dr. Ennis has taken the Gospel out of the equation when talking to children. His curriculum tells parents not to tell children of their sin nature:

What should not be emphasized is the child's miserable state of sin and the need for a savior... Fuller lessons concerning sin and grace will come in time, and certainly parents and churches have the responsibility to teach the fullness, of what the Bible has to offer. But most young children simply do not have the emotional or intellectual maturity to grasp the adult concepts in the Bible. ...Do not allow yourself to be convinced that you are somehow shortchanging your children by not addressing adult concepts at such a young age...I believe in God's displeasure with sin. But to introduce children to the God of wrath right at the beginning of their lives, without the requisite biblical foundation and before the years of emotional maturity, can actually distort their view of God. Telling God's Story by Peter Enns

I don't know about yours, but my Bible says that without an understanding of our fallen state we are unable to come to Christ in a repentant state, beg for His forgiveness and become born again. Furthermore, my children are not stupid, and are amazingly perceptive when it comes to the things of God. Not only does this stand as an insult to our children's intelligence, but it is just plain dangerous as they have no hope of salvation without an understanding of sin, God's wrath, judgement and provision. Jesus himself said, "suffer the little children to come unto me"! Finally, while this is certainly not the last of the intolerable teachings of Peter Enns, I will end with this quote:

It is entirely accurate to understand Israel’s kings as messiahs: they were anointed by God to do his work. We need to resist the temptation to think that “messiah” in the Old Testament means the supernatural, second person of the Trinity, who will die for our sins. p83 of Telling God's Story

This, in my opinion, not only qualifies as unbiblical, but as heretical. It simply speaks for itself. So tell me again Dr. Wile, what does one have to teach to be considered unbiblical?

I refuse to link to Peter Enns book. Amazon carries it if you wish to verify my uncited quotes. The free book offered online is missing some of the quotes. If you look in the comment section one of the ladies has kindly linked to a scanned copy of the page that contains the page 83 quote.

Homemade Corn Starch Sidewalk Chalk Recipe

Corn starch has to be one of the most versatile craft products I have ever come across. After making yarn hearts with corn starch glue, I did a little search and found out you can also make side walk chalk paint! Best of all it is so easy!

Materials Needed:

Corn Starch
Water
Bowls
Food Coloring

Procedure:

Mix 1/4 cup corn starch to 1/4 cup of water. Stir until well mixed. It it is a little tough at first so hang in there; I found a fork worked best for mixing. Add food coloring.

The "paint" will go on the sidewalk a bit watery but will soon dry into a chalky picture. The kids had fun with this for hours today! I did double the recipe because we had extra friends today, so if you have several children you may want to do the same. You might also want to double it just to store some for later use.

Review and Give Away for Artistic Pursiuits!

Congrats to Twinkle Mom! You have won your choice of books from Artistic Pursuits!

ALERT: Plagerized copies of Artistic Pursuits are currently being sold. Remeber that Artistic Pursuits is color printed through out the entire book, not just on the cover! If you have purchased a copy that turned out to be fraudulent please let Dan or Brenda at Artistic Pursuits know.

I am one of those parents. The one whose stick figures can only be recognized by turning off the lights, squinting your eyes and tilting your head slightly to the left. Ok, so maybe it isn't that bad, but I will be the first to admit, I am not an artist, which means I thought I couldn't teach art. Have you ever priced art lessons?! The few that I have found locally are close to $200 for just 2 hours. Needless to say we can't afford that for one child, much less two and a third later on. My choice was to find a great art curriculum that I could teach with no skill of my own. I also wanted it to be real art, not crafts, that incorporated a bit of art history. I found all of that in Artistic Pursuits. Brenda Ellis' art programs provide children of all age levels and abilities with a comprehensive art studies program. Students are taught the basics of art and art history while engaging in real art, hands on projects. Fresco paintings, sculpture, screen printing, water color and oil pastels are just a few of the techniques found in these books. The books are also illustrated with pictures from real children so your child will not be intimidated by a professional artists work. As your students progresses the books get more detailed. Best off there is NO teacher preparation needed! For the younger children you simply read the pages associated with the lesson. Older children can read and do the work completely independent of you! Materials can be purchased through the Artistic Pursuits site or you can do what we did and purchased as the items went on sale at our local Hobby Lobby. If you pay full price, the pricing is comparable. It just depends on if you want the convenience of purchasing all at once. Now for the fun part. Brenda at Artistic Pursuits has given me one book to give away! The winner will get to choose which ever book they want!! For one(1) entry you can "Like" Molding Minds Homeschool on Facebook. For one(1) entry you can Share On Facebook or on on your favorite social media site (to share just cut and paste this blog into your status and let me know where you shared). For one(1) entry you can follow Molding Minds on Twitter. This is a total of THREE(3) chances to win! Please post a SEPARATE COMMENT for each entry and be sure to leave an email address for me to contact you at if you win!

Winner will be draw on March 31st!

St Patrick's Day Crafts and Lesson Resources

Just a quickie with some links to St Patrick's Day Crafts and other resources!

DLTK's Site has resources for all ages! Crafts, songs, coloring sheets, and word searches are just a few of the resources you will find on this site!

Enchanted Kids is another great site! Check out the cute potato face craft or make a rainbow in a cup! There is also a nice number of printable worksheets and lapbook printables.

Lesoon Plans Page has a list of St. Patrick's Day lesson plans.

Adventures with Luke

We had quite a day today. My run of no ER worthy injuries was broken. Little man was playing outside at my parents and fell. He cut his head on a brick used to boarder flowerbeds. When it first happened I didn't actually notice the cut. My younger daughter said she thought he had been stung so I ran over to him to make sure he was ok. His foot had gotten caught and he was crying because he was stuck. I got his foot unstuck by taking it out of his shoe, checked to be sure he didn't have a leg injury and asked him if he wanted to go play. He cried for his shoe and said yes so I carried him over to the a/c unit to slide his shoe back on. It was as I was getting him off the a/c when I noticed his head bleeding. After dotting it off, I decided it was better safe than sorry and took him into the ER while my dad watched the girls.

Luke hamming it up for the camera. He was so proud of his head injury that he told just about every passing stranger about "hurting his noggin".

By the time we got to the ER he had calmed down (he was only crying because he wanted to go back to Pa's house) and within a few minutes had sweet talked a little old lady into a sucker from the gift shop. We waited, and waited and waited and finally saw the PA. Thankfully he only needed a bit of "glue" and we were out of there. In total we were there for 3 hours for a 15 minute fix.

I'm glad that adventure is over and I hope not to have another like it.

Seventh Generation Amazon Deals

Got an email this morning with a code that could translate into some great deals when combined with subscribe and save!


Exclusive Savings for Amazon Mom Members: Get 15% off the select Seventh Generation products when you use the code SEVCLEAN (details and restrictions) plus another 15% off when you sign up for Subscribe & Save. (restrictions apply). (Applies only to products sold by Amazon.com. Does not apply to products sold by third-party merchants and other sellers through the Amazon.com site.) Offer expires April 10, 2011. Participation in Subscribe & Save not required to use the promo code.

Here are a few of my favorites. All deal prices include discount code and subscribe and save discount.

Seventh Generation 45 oz dishwasher gel (4 pack)-$18.51

Seventh Generation 25 oz dish soap (6 pack)-$12.64

Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Emerald Cypress & Fir Scent, 32-Ounces Bottle (Pack of 8) -$22.37

The Homeschool Exchange and K'nex Giveaway!

Congrats Jessica!!! You are the winner for this giveaway!

I looked around facebook to see if there was a group for trading and selling homeschool curriculum and there was not so I started one! Come check it out and post your no longer needed homeschool resources! To get it jumpstarted I am going to do a little giveaway. I have 4 boxes of K'nex to giveaway!! K'nex are a great building toy that will keep your child busy for hours while they Imagine, Build and Play!

One lucky winner will recieve one each of the following K'nex model building sets:Collect and build Back Hoe, Collect and Build Front Loader, Collect and Build Excavator and Fire Rescue with working motor! All you have to do to enter is Like The Homeschool Exchange! That's it for this one! Please leave a comment with an email contact after you have met the requirements.

Winner will be contacted via email and will have 72 hours to respond. US residents only.

Alpha Omega The Weaver Curriculum Review

My good friend over at Hearts4Home did an excellent review of Weaver Volume 1. Since we are considering giving it a try, I thought I would share her very comprehensive review:

It just isn't possible to sum up The Weaver in a paragraph. So I suggest that
you grab a cup of tea or some chocolate and put your feet up for a few minutes
while I tell you our experience thus far! We've not been using it that long, but
I have to share what a blessing it has been for our family!

When I first
started homeschooling my preschooler in 2004, I was drawn to the idea of a Unit
Study approach. I loved the idea that I could teach both kids on the same topic
but at their own level. I looked over some types of Unit Studies and just didn't
feel like God was opening the door for me to use any of them. Either it was
clearly not for our family, or it was so overwhelming to me that I couldn't
picture how to make it work. I tried various styles of learning, and all of them
were wonderful in their own way. But something still seemed to be missing and my
longing for unit studies didn't go away.

Unit studies have a base that
all other subjects are centered around. For example, many are history based. As
the student learns a new part of history, all the other school subjects deal
with the same topic. Some are based on science. But still, none of them stood
out.

Now, if you have read my article My Foundation for Homeschooling
you will understand where I was coming from. I didn't want to just have 'Bible
time' as part of our day. I wanted every part of our education to point our eyes
to our Creator. And, it is sad to say, sometimes Bible time would get left out
of our day because we ran out of time.

No matter how good my boys are
(and I do think they are pretty good kids), they had many days where apathy was
the attitude toward their school work. I know that we had the curriculum we had
because I prayed and felt so certain in what I bought. And I still feel certain,
I believe God had us where He wanted us, using what we were supposed to use.

In the late fall of 2010, I once again found myself asking the Lord if
there was something else I had missed. I truly don't recall where The Weaver
first popped up. But it was online somewhere. One reference lead to another. I
was getting very curious and excited!

I wasn't looking to change things
THIS year. I was thinking ahead to next year. But along came a sweet woman who
happened to have an extra set of Weaver volume 1. I didn't expect to see it come
so soon, but the mail moved FAST and it was at my home in a matter of a few
days. I tore open the box and started to devour the information inside! It was
as if this was written just for us!

What is it that makes me love it so?
First, this curriculum is based in Scripture. So let's say that today we read
about the Tower of Babylon. We'll then start learning about architecture. Then
we'll build some sugar cube buildings. You can see how that little project
turned out on my article
http://hearts4home.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-goals-weight-lifting.html New
Year Goals. With that in mind, you will never run out of time for Bible, because
it all STARTS in the Bible! You can't do any other school work without opening
in the Word

To read the rest visit HERE....