TruthQuest History Review

I was never a fan of history when I was in school. Ok, if I'm being honest, I was not much of a fan of school when I was in school. Perhaps that's why the Lord then put me in a position of teaching Kindergarteners for a year and then mentoring elementary students for another six years. And now, He has blessed me with homeschooling my own sons! (Which includes history...) We are in our tenth year of homeschooling and I LOVE it! And guess what, I LOVE history! Imagine that.

Because I have come to love history so very much, you will find my book shelves lined with fabulous read alouds from every era. I've had the opportunity to try several different approaches to teaching history. And at the end of the day, our family always comes back to hands-on activities and excellent literature.

TruthQuest History is just such an approach. In fact, it can be used almost any way you prefer! In our home, we use the Tapestry of Grace. But the information found in the TruthQuest books really helps us to dig just that much deeper and bring to life the people we're studying! The flexibility makes it an easy fit for many homes.

The guide begins with a few pages just for mom and dad. These pages are loaded with terrific advice, but it will never tell you one specific way to use this curriculum. It allows you, the parent, to decide the best way to learn in your own home... reminding you that you are in charge, not the curriculum. Sometimes we need just such a reminder. It suggests that you decide what fits your family. If you have younger children, it encourages the use of hands on activities with building blocks, paints, etc. If your child is older, they are encouraged to go deeper on a subject by doing more research. This makes it an easy fit for all ages!

After a lengthy table of contents you will find the 'read aloud' parts of TruthQuest. An older child could feel free to read these pages on his own and then discuss them together with his parents. If you are working with multiple ages you could read aloud to everyone at one time. These pages are not full of the dry, dull text that I so disliked in school. It is as if the author is sitting down with the reader and explaining history in an easy to digest style.

After the commentary, you will find a section titled "Dig In." This is where you can bring in books to read together or have children read independently. These books are all incredible "living" books. And the list is extensive! Not only is there a nice long list, but there are appropriate warnings listed beside the titles. This is a fabulous resource because, let's be honest, how many of us have the time to pre-read every book? They also provide approximate ages for each book so you'll know right away if the book is a fit for your family. Many of the books listed are available at your local library. But if you want to purchase them for your own library, you can easily do so online, in bookstores, or at local thrift stores as well! In addition to books, you'll also find audio and video options sprinkled throughout. If that weren't enough, they'll give you plenty of ideas for activities and art!

"Express Your Heart" is found throughout the "Dig In" sections. In this area you can get as creative as you like! You may use art, music, composition, poetry, story telling/writing, acting, or any other way your child learns best to really grab hold of the ideas taught. This helps us to reach out to our children in ways that they learn and recall information. So if you have a child with a creative bent, run with this section! If you don't, you are certainly never required to complete it.

"ThinkWrite" is a terrific part of the study that allows your student to really chew on the information given to them by thinking, and sometimes, writing. If your child isn't a writer, you could use this section to open up fantastic discussions.

They also recommend various books to be used as 'spines' through your study. You'll easily recognize many of the titles. Streams of Civilization, Story of the World, Greenleaf, and of course the Bible are among the titles in the Beginnings study. This makes it very easy for you to create a history curriculum and style that is your own, using your favorite resources. Or, none at all! You can simply read the study guide on its own and have plenty of information to enjoy together. If you already have a history curriculum that you love, you can easily add the reading from the TruthQuest study guide to deepen your history study time.

However, my favorite part of TruthQuest is the list of living books in the back of the study guide. If for no other reason, this alone is reason enough to own the TruthQuest series. TruthQuest says that they are not giving you books to read and then leading you through a structured curriculum of each book. But instead they are providing a lengthy list of rich history books that you can choose to use to learn history!

I am very impressed with the guide, the list of books, audios, and videos, and the price! You can purchase the book, the PDF or both at a very reasonable price! But how do you choose where to start? This link will be very valuable. There are plans of study for one to eight years as well as how to place multiple children. Tour their site and you'll find supplements that may be a great fit for your family. There are lapbook materials, notebooking pages, mini book ideas, and more!

Whether you use this as your core history curriculum, or as a supplement to the spine you are using now, I believe you will find great value in its pages. TruthQuest has outdone themselves and I'm so pleased to have found such a rich resource!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Math

What if you could do your math and eat it too? Chocolate Chip Cookie Math is not only a math lesson but a delicious and fun way to learn about estimation, comparing and contrasting, graphing, procedure, data gathering, organizing information, logical thinking and record keeping!

You will need:
Several brands of store bought chocolate chip cookies
Record sheet for graphing chocolate chips

Lesson:
Have your child wash their hands so they can eat the yummy cookies after they do their estimations.

Have your child take one cookie from the first brand of cookies. Record the brand on your record sheet and then have the child estimate how many chocolate chips are in the cookie. Have him/her pick up the cookie and turn it over so they get a full view of the cookie. After they have their estimation, have them break the cookie apart and actually count the chocolate chips and record the results. Based on this number have them estimate one or two more. Average the results. Repeat this with each brand (though you may want to stop letting them eat at some point hehe!).

When you are done have the student answer these questions:
1. Which brand had the cookie with the most chocolate chips?
2. Which brand had the cookie with the least chocolate chips?
3. Which brand had the highest average of chocolate chips?
4. Which brand had the lowest average of chocolate chips?
5. Which brand do you think had just the right number of chocolate chips?
6. Did these results surprise you? Why?

For extra practice you can have the child average all of the brands together.

For more great math applications in the kitchen try I Use Math in the Kitchen.

Review: Walt Disney World Adventure A Field Guide and Activity Book for Explorers

Do you think of educational when you think of Disney World? If not you should! Disney is full of everything from history and geography to science and art. When we planned our trip to Disney I was determined that in the homeschooling way, that even our vacation would be a learning experience. I flopped. Well sort of. I have to admit that in all of the chaos I did not pull Walt Disney World Adventure out at all, but not to worry! This book is so fun and thurough that we were able to complete it as a unit study after we got back!

Walt Disney World Adventure: A Field Guide and Activity Book for Explorers is a great book by Tracie A. Cook filled that retails for around $12  and is filled with fun facts and activities. There are traveling tips, back stories to the rides, puzzles and other interesting facts through out the book. It covers all four of the parks so you will have plenty do do! The over 100 pages activities are age appropriate for around 8-14 but even as an adult I found the facts in it interesting! Activities include mazes, cryptograms, numeric puzzles, decoding and so much more. With a little bit of help even my youngest could do some of the activities. And don't worry, the answers are in the back of the book if you get stuck on something!

While this book is obviously more fun at the parks or directly after, you could actually modify this to be a unit study! So whether you are just looking to make your trip educational or if you are just interested in studying Disney World, Walt Disney World Adventure: A Field Guide and Activity Book for Explorers this book is a blast!

Be sure to visit Tracie's site for other Adventure guides as well as crafts and more!

I was given a free copy of Tracie's book in exchange for an honest review. This blog is a truthful opinion of the book. Please take a moment to check out my full disclosure.

Not So Scary Halloween Art, Lesson Plans, Lapbooks and Activities

We don't celebrate Halloween for personal reasons (this is not an attack on those who do, this is just our personal conviction), but there is no getting around the kids knowing it exists so we take this opportunity to do some "not so scary" activities. Besides, you don't have to celebrate halloween to know that bats, bugs and all things creepy crawly are pretty cool!

Check out this cool pumpkin eyeball! This could be a great opportunity to learn about the parts of the eye and how they work.


This terra cotta pot pumpkin would make a cute decoration that you can leave out for Thanksgiving as well!

Who doesn't love learning about mummies? Do this mummy craft and visit the mummy maker to see if you can make your own mummy the ancient Egyptian way!

In this really cool Curiosity Files unit study Anna Lyze takes you into the world of Zombie Fire Ants. Best of all it is currently on sale for just $1!!

And halloween wouldn't be complete without exploring the grossest of body functions. Learn all about what causes zits, vomiting and even scabs and puss. GROSS!!!

These are just a few of the great ideas you can find all over the internet. So if you don't trick or treat, don't worry, you can still have lots of fun exploring the creepy and the disgusting!

Octopus Lapbook Resources

This is actually a cake!!! How cool is that?!

When my daughter picked out a stack of octopus books from the library I figured it was time to go down one of those rabbit trails homeschoolers always talk about. Octopus lapbooks are not easy to come by so here is a list of the resources I found for this lapbook. Most of these will be from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and will be under the Nico's Octopus Unit Study.


Vocabulary Pocket
Singular and Plural Word Practice
Prefix Oct-
What Color Would You Be?
Octopus Senses
Octopus Defenses
Octopus Anatomy
Octopus Arms
Octopus Facts for Kids
Toilet Paper Roll Octopus Craft

Lego Lesson Plans

My kids have buckets of them and we can never seem to have enough, I vaccuum them up by the dozens and my son likes to collect the little yellow heads and leave them in piles on the floor. What am I talking about? Lego of course! Legos are a wonderfully diverse manipulative that kids think are toys(wink wink). Besides the hours of fun provided by these simple plastic bricks, there are also hours of learning to be had! Here are some fun Lego lesson plans and educational activities I found.

Build a windmill and learn all about windmill architecture and renewable energy.

Center of mass-This activity explores the concept of 'center of mass.' It gives students a hands-on, discovery-based way to understand one of the most fundamental concepts in physics.

Use Legos to study geography.

Build a Lego boat and study bouyancy with this fun activity.

This can you build it? Lego lesson plan teaches cooperation and problem solving as one student describes the pieces needed to build an object as the other builds it.

Lego Math


Finally, my favorite Lego find so far is this Lego Lapbook!

For more ideas for Lego lesson plans visit Lego Eduction.

Summer Curriculum Choices with Quick Reviews

I went to the Arlington Homeschool Book Fair with a list. I was organized and had a plan. Then I got there, and the plan went out the window. I mean seriously! Do you know how many vendors are at a typical homeschool book fair? It is unreal. I went with the full intention of getting the next level of Abeka. I browsed and picked out my books. Then the lady tells me that they don't keep stock. Now maybe this isn't the best reason to ditch a well researched and thought out curriculum choice, but I did. I walked around the corner and found Rod and Staff. I ended up purchasing the full year of language arts for both the girls.

I'm pretty excited about all of the things we are trying this year so for those of you still deciding here is what we are going with for this "semester":

Language Arts, Spelling and Reading: Rod and Staff

Coming from Abeka I thought we pretty much had intense covered. I was wrong. The 1st grade is starting a bit below where Keira is, but it picks up quickly. Brianna is struggling with her attitude with the new stuff. Not because she doesn't know the work, but more because there is so much of it compared to the Abeka. Each lesson consists of 2 phonics pages and 4 reading. She is thriving on it though and once I get her past the tantrums of having to do the pages, I think she will match very well with it. It gives a good phonemic base and has them reading stories that are very Bible based. Even better is it is reasonably priced.


Latin: Song School Latin

We will actually start this on Monday and do it either once or twice a week. I haven't decided yet. It's very basic, using songs and chants to learn vocabulary. The one thing I am worried about is the apparently huge jump between Song School and Latin for Children Book A. I have heard that they are working on Song School Latin Book 2 though. For the cost, this one is definitely worth exploring.

Bible, Science, History and Social Studies: The Weaver Volume 1

This is every parents dream, especially if you have more than one spread over multiple levels. It literally takes these 4 subjects (also included are Language Arts and Creative Writing. We will are not using the Language arts because I didn't feel it was comprehensive enough. The creative writing we wing by using journals and just writing what is interesting to us), and weaves them together. One just flows into the other. Best of all every child stays on the same topic while Weaver adjusts the difficulty to that level! Here is an example of both ideas. One day your Bible lesson is about the wise and the foolish man. You read the Bible story and talk about how Jesus is our foundation and so on. Then you go outside and collect soil samples. You pour water on them and talk about the result. The younger children then talk about things needed to build a good strong house and then build one out of Legos or what ever. Middle elementary makes a list of materials needed to build a strong building, and upper writes a paragraph on what it takes to build a strong building. Now these are just my examples (though some of these are things we have done with Weaver), but you get the idea. For a more comprehensive review you can visit Christa's Weaver Review Here.

Cursive: TBD

I just haven't found anything I love so at the moment cursive is random bits of copy work.

Art: Artistic Pursuits Book 2

We love this art. It gives us the perfect mix of art appreciation and art instructions. And it's real art. I don't feel like I need to be an artist myself to teach this book. However, I have heard some parents say they prefer more art instruction so be sure to check the book out before you buy!

Lot's of Lapbooks:

Because Weaver is designed to last 9 months and we are stretching it to a year (blog coming soon!) we will be adding in lapbooks as a fun way to supplement. Currclick offers lots of fun and sometimes FREE LAPBOOKS.

One of the great things about homeschooling is getting to start fresh and change up the things that didn't work for you. I am very excited and am looking forward to sharing how everything worked for us!

Ice Cream Lesson Plans and Printables

Summer is here and you know what that means, ICE CREAM!!! For school today we are going to be doing all of our lesson plans with a sweet treat twist! Because I teach pre-kers on Mondays I will be including in some of the printables I used with them. July is technically National Ice Cream month but we finish with the pre-k in May so we are doing it early. You will have to excuse my excessive use of exclamation points. How can you help it when you are doing something so fun?!


Letter of the Day: I is for Ice Cream! Print this out for some penmanship work. If you have a younger child this page can be colored or stamped.

K5 and up will enjoy this Free Ice Cream Lapbook! With plenty of printables you can easily adapt this to your older or younger children. We are going to have alot of fun doing this Acrostic Poem!

For art we are going paint with popsicles that I made in advance. I used popsicle molds but ice trays and popsicle sticks are a good way to do it too!

This is a "vintage" audio clip about how ice cream is made!

Picture Credit


Of course an ice cream themed lesson plan would not be the same without some ice cream chemistry. Otherwise known as, ice cream in a bag! Learn all about the whys and hows of making ice cream and enjoy a yummy reward at the end!


Here are a few other printables I thought you might enjoy, all ice cream themed! We used this survey sheet to collect data on our friends and family's favorite flavor and then graphed it here on this ice cream themed graph paper!

The Curiosity Files Explorations: The Platypus Review

We have alot of fun with most of the products I am asked to review. In fact I can't think of any that we haven't been able to enjoy or make enjoyable. However, I don't often find one that I want to rave about. This one is it! The Curiosity Files- Platypus, a downloadable unit study (the bundle can be purchased on CD), by The Old Schoolhouse, has been a truly enjoyable unit study! Professor Ana Lyze (bu dum ching!), does an excellent job of making the oddities of the platypus and interesting and fun experience. Plus, it is very reasonably priced at just $6.95! Even better is that there are 9 in the series, and they can be purchased as a bundle for a nearly $2 savings per study!

The study is very comprehensive and while we did squeeze it into a few days (we were having so much fun we couldn't stop!), it could easily be spread out over a week or maybe even two if you followed the "rabbit" trails that pop up, and trust me, even with my younger girls we had plenty of them.Because it included Bible, math, language arts, poetry, copy work, science and even some history, you could easily put all other work on hold to do this study. And, anytime I don't have to search down extra links and resources for a study I am excited. Dozens of links and website suggestions are included in the study. It saved me alot of time not having to search for graph paper, pictures of platypus burrows, and so on. As with most studies you can always add library books, but I didn't find them necessary at all. The reading portion is well laid out, though for my children's ages (6 and 7) I did have to use some different wording and I skipped portions of it that were more geared towards older children. However, considering the study is rated for ages 8-13, I found it very easy to adapt to my own children's ages. After we got past the reading is where the real fun began for us. The platypus unit study has numerous hands on skills in all areas. We glued beans into drawn illustrations of burrows, graphed beads, made tent "burrows", solved word searches and there were so many things I either didn't list or we didn't have the time to do! I am telling you, this study was just packed with these activities!

I think what I loved most as teacher, is the adaptability of the study. A few ways we adapted included counting out our beads by 's and 10's instead of using the worksheet and as I men

(I should say that since my kids are younger we leaned towards and enjoyed the hands on activities in the study, but there were plenty of more in-depth lessons and worksheets for older students as well. Though, the activities are enjoyable for the older ones as well! )

I only have one complaint about the study and it is just a matter of personal preference. I like to print out hard copies of my unit studies that I keep in binders. I just find it easier for me to read that way. This particular study has alot of graphics and background images that make it impossible to print without using an enormous amount of ink. This is minor though and is not going to keep me from purchasing the other studies available in this series.

You can purchase this unit study as well as many other great products from The Old Schoolhouse website or you can call at 1-888-718-HOME. Be sure to check out the sales. Some of this series is on sale for just $1.00! And if you buy and don't love it, The Old Schoolhouse has a 7 day money back guarantee on all e-books published by TOS.


PS: As soon as my husband reveals the top secret location of the cord I need to download photos from my camera, I will add a few pictures of some of our favorite things we did!

I was given this unit study free from TOS to review. Everything written here is 100% honest and 100% mine.

Butterfly Lesson Plans, Crafts and Resources

I bought the girls a few insect habitats around Christmas, including the Insect Lore Butterfly Kit.




This was one of the best things we have done. Our caterpillars arrived within a few days of ordering and we watched them double in size nearly every day! After they were done growing we watched them go from hanging upside down to transforming into chrysalis' and then into butterflies. Today we released them out at my parents and watched them flit from flower to flower. Everyone from my husband to my 2 year old enjoyed this project and we will definitely be re-ordering!

Spring is the perfect time to study about insects that help pollination. Here are a few resources to help with your butterfly lesson plans, crafts and lapbooking:

Butterfly Lapbook by Hands of a Child

Butterfly Crafts

Painted Lady Life Cycle Video

Free Butterfly Lapbook Resources

Butterfly Lesson Plans

Butterfly Pollination

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.

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....

Carnivorous Plants Lesson Plans and Resources

Uncle Lonnie always buys the best presents; that is, according to my girls. This time we were surprised with a package that contained a Carnivorous Plant Growing Kit. The girls are more than excited about this! Yesterday we planted the seeds and now have it outside germinating. It takes a while to grow the plants, but I can't wait to not have to hang fly traps in the kitchen.

Here are some resources to help your schooler learn all about carnivorous plants. Be aware that some of these sights may use some evolutionary language:

Glistening Carnivores: Plants That Eat Bugs

What is a Carnivorous Plant?

Types of Carnivorous Plants

Types of Carnivorous Plants with Some Great Pictures

National Geographic Kids on Carnivorous Plants

Venus Fly Trap in Action (youtube)

Upper Level Worksheets

Enjoy!

American Girl Samantha Valentine's Lapbook

Currclick has a great deal on American Girl Samantha Valentine's Lapbook! For just $1.00 you can get this great Valentine's Day lesson plan and lapbook for your Valentine's Day but only until February 15th, so get it quick!

For other great Valentine's Day activities, lapbooks and lesson plans visit here!

Valentine's Day Lesson Plans and Activities

Crafts are all over the Internet so I am going to give you a few resources for lesson plans and educational activities with a Valentine's Day Theme. Some of these would also make great gifts for your special someone(s).

Lesson Plans:

Valentine Lapbook Ages 5 and up
Will you be my Valentine? Valentine’s Day is a day to send cards, candy, and maybe even flowers to loved ones. Learn the history, customs, and traditions of this lovable holiday in the Valentine’s Day Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. This 64-page project pack includes a 10-page research guide and 16 hands-on activities to help your student learn and celebrate Valentine’s Day!

L is for Love
L is or Love introduces preschoolers to two greatest commandments as presented by Jesus. Biblical references include Matthew 22:37-40, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Romans 5:8. L is for Love includes basic preschool skills such as phonics, less than, writing practice, bar graphing, L words and counting. Easy to assemble, hands on activities encourage interaction and retention!

Designed to prepare preschoolers for kindergarten by introducing Biblical knowledge, language skills, math skills, social studies skills, and science skills to preschool age children through hands on activities and practice. All lap-books include an art activity, sight words and a memory verse. In addition, there is a list of extension activities to strengthen the skills presented in the lap-book



Valentine's Day Bible Verse Copy Work




Valentine's Day Science:


Fizzy Bath Bomb

Candy Science

The Science of Sugar

Language Arts, Math, Cooking, Art and Other Subjects:

Valentine's Day Recipes

Box of Chocolate Adjectives

Graphing Conversation Hearts

Healthy Hearts Musical Chairs

For more great ideas visit Teach-nology.

Shared at Raising Homemakers.

We Choose to Shelter.

I homeschool because I have seen the village and I do not want it raising my child.

We recently ditched cable. Mostly it was an economic choice, but we had also grown tired of the filth that it presented to our children in the form of cartoons and "educational TV". I've been told that homeschooled children are less mature when compared to public school children because of how sheltered they are. I observed. They are right. Well, at least in a way they are.

You see, my daughters only knowledge of current fashion trends are what they hear and see on their friends. They still prefer pretty little girl dresses. The only Taylor Swift they have ever heard has come from friends, or music playing in the mall. They are still terrified of most movies with a PG rating and even some with a G. They know that boys and girls get married but they have no idea what a boyfriend or going "out" with someone is. They have no concept of illegal drugs or real life violence. Your child must now have a knowledge of all things secular and sinful to be considered mature.

You may say that, yeah that's because your oldest is 7. Well, 10 years ago I would have agreed, but over the last few years I have seen kids as young as 2 exposed to graphic and violent TV and video games, sexual content not only on TV but at school(sex ed and handing out condoms to elementary students?!) and in peer groups, parents are ohhhing and awwing over their 8 year old having their first boyfriend. They are exposed to drugs and alcohol. We (again as a whole) purchase these things for our children, we allow them to be exposed to it in the name of "experience", we spout things like "If you keep them sheltered they will rebel" or "a little rebellion won't hurt, how else will they learn?". Would someone please, point out the Biblical reference for this? And further more, all you have to do is a little google search to find out that teen pregnancy, violence, drug use, and so on have been on the rise for years. Letting our children be exposed to these things has not resulted in Godlier, spiritually sound children!

Can you send your child to a private school and still protect them? Well, sort of. I went to a private school and I will say that yes, for the most part my parents did a fine job of protecting me from the world. I still don't know what weed looks like, didn't have a single drop of alcohol until I was of legal age(and even then it wasn't really my "thing"), and even though I do think that my "casual" dating in high school did rob me of a bit of my heart, it was at the very least very limited. However, I still have to honestly say that I did not come out completely unscathed. As far as public school, thank the Lord my parents had the good sense to refuse my pleas to attend.

So what about public school? The truth is that you simply can not send your child into an environment that is full of sex, violence, anti-Christian sentiment and a general hatred of all things Biblical and expect them to come out whole. Our children are molded by what they see around them and no matter what they get the few hours they are at home or at church, it can not compare with the hours upon hours of influence they get at school. Not to mention that most of us can not be entirely sure of our children's spiritual status at younger ages which makes the environment even more dangerous as they have no spiritual conscience!

I guess the question you probably want me to answer now is, do I think that homeschooling is the only way? I wouldn't be as presumptuous as to say yes to that. I do think there are some circumstances in which it is impossible (though for the most part I think they are self-inflicted circumstances), but what I do know is that we are called by God to raise our children , to train them and to bring them up in Christ, and I do think that is all but impossible when the majority of their training comes from a source other than you.

Bible verses that support the parental raising, training and educating of our children

Will I expose my children to these things one day so they aren't "shocked into rebellion" by them? Yes, but I will do so in a controlled environment in which I can Biblically answer questions. We have recently begun dealing with the fact that not everyone believes in God. My daughter has been able to ask questions and we are able to discuss it in a way that solidifies her faith while exposing her to how to be in the world but not of it. As she grows and matures the doors will open for deeper conversations.

We chose to shelter.

Disclaimer: I speak in general terms on this blog. I do not believe anyone should be forced to homeschool. I believe in choice. I just happen to think that Christian parents should choose to homeschool.

Amazon.com Cyber Monday Deals: Melissa and Doug

Check out these hot Cyber Monday deals on educational toys by Melissa and Doug!

There are also several Tag Books marked down to $8.00!

In the lightning deals there is a Celestron 44104 500x Power Advanced Biological Microscope marked off 46%! This will go fast so be sure to grab it!

A Cowboy's Chuckwagon

I love homeschooling (you didn't already know that did you?). It has given us so many opportunities to do unique things. From our Japanese class to this one A Cowboy's Chuck wagon, we are truly blessed to be able to take advantage of all of the learning opportunities presented to us! For this one we headed over to The Hall of State at Fair Park for an interactive look at how cowboys, fur trappers, women and other pioneers would have lived life in Texas' younger days. The kids got to play with period toys and of course we put them to work doing chores like grinding corn for corn bread and washing the laundry by hand!

Brianna playing with a toy that children from that era would have played with.

The next time I start to complain about doing laundry, I will have a peek back at this photo! Could you imagine the time it would have taken?!

Freshly churned butter, YUM!

Grinding some corn for some corn bread for that butter!