Heart Work

No amount of effort will make our kids godly.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit and our daily dependence on Him.  - Sally Clarkson

A friend and homeschool support group leader shared that with our group after hearing Mrs. Clarkson speak.  I read the quote and the first thought that came to mind is, "how freeing!  The burden is off of me and on the Holy Spirit."

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:30  

There is still much work to be done in training our children in the ways of the Lord, but our focus needs to be on Jesus.  Faithfully walking with the Lord and sharing that walk, and God's truth, with our kids.  But the Heart work is His.  Not mine.

Smoothie Snacks

Brock loves getting creative in the kitchen.  I'm hoping someday I'll be able to turn him loose on dinners at least once or twice or week if he keeps up his interest in playing around with different foods.

Smoothies are a snack favorite of his.  We regularly make Green Smoothies, but today tried adding a little more to shake things up a bit.

For a basic green smoothie you need orange juice, banana, yogurt, and spinach.  Amounts depend on your taste, but I usually do something like:

1 1/2 c OJ
2 bananas
2 spoonfulls of plain yogurt, probably around 2-3 tablespoons, I don't really know I just use a spoon from my utensil drawer
1 small handful of spinach, just enough to make it green!
ice, I usually do a couple of handfuls

Be careful to not over do the yogurt or spinach or it will get a bitter taste.  If for some reason it does end up too bitter, just add a little more of something sweet to balance it out.

So for something a little different today, we made PURPLE smoothies!  We added strawberries and blackberries to the mix.  I cut back on the banana and only used 1, and I actually had french vanilla yogurt instead of plain and then all the other stuff as usual.  I don't fret if I don't have a particular ingredient I normally use, I just use what I have.  Seriously, it's hard to mess these up.

Yum!

Times Trick

I just saw the 9x finger trick on Pinterest.  I've used that for as long as I can remember, but it made me think of another trick.

Brock was working on these one day and he started explaining a new way to figure out the 9x.  I had never heard of this and as far as I know he figured this out on his own, if he saw or heard it somewhere he's keeping it a secret.  Either way it is quite helpful, a couple of more steps than the finger trick, but good problem solving practice anyway.

Let's take 6x9. Your tens place number will be one less than the factor that is not 9 (in this case 6), so that would be  5.  Your ones place number will be the difference between 10 and the number nine is multiplied by so that would be 10-6=4.  That makes the product 54.  It only works up to 10x9; but pretty cool, huh?

Getting Ready for High School

High School?! (Gasp!)  Wow, time does fly.  I've spent a little time this past week gathering resources to plan Braden's high school course of study.  I found our state's, as well as our local school districts, requirements for graduation.  I know I don't have to follow it, but it is a good guide to work from.  Plus, it will provide the needed credit hours required for entrance to most colleges, should that be in his future.

I'm most concerned about grade and record keeping.  I've not kept grades or formal records in these younger years, just worked to mastery and kept current lesson work on hand.  I found the HSLDA high school section of their website helpful.  They recommended Transcripts Made Easy .  I downloaded the ebook.  I'm hopeful it will be easy to follow.  Kathleen Duncan was also a recommendation, but I don't see her seminar schedule in my area any time soon.  I'll keep watching though.

Any 'high school help' recommendations would be appreciated.

Birth Days

Brock's birthday is tomorrow and that prompted a little birthday talk as we were sitting around tonight.

They were being silly......

Me:  "Braden, you were born on a Saturday."

Braden:  "I was born to par-tay."

Me:  Brock, you were born on a Sunday morning."

Brock:  "I'm holy.  Me and Jesus were meant to be together."

 That made me laugh!  I thought it was cute.  Apparently, all of us not born on Sunday are just plain heathen!

All in good fun!

Time Flies

I keep this little shoe on the book shelf in my room, because it's so darn cute! 

This is one of Brock's first "Benny shoes."  His favorite movie has always been The Sandlot. (File that one under "parenting fail", but that's a whole other post...)  I think Brock wore these when he was about 3 or 4, there have been many other pairs just like these, in just about every size since then.  I'm not sure, but there may have been an even smaller pair. 


Well, Brock is now 10 years old, and growing FAST!   This is somewhat of a milestone in his life.  He's always wanted the black on black chucks.  We actually spent a whole Saturday several years back looking for them, only to be told near the end of our day, "they don't make those in kids' sizes."  Great! 

Guess what?!  He can wear men's size shoes now.....

Getting It All Together

Behind me sits most all our books for the upcoming school year.  Gathered together it seems like a lot! 

I just checked HSLDA's website and pulled up Texas' requirements.  We are very blessed here, with little to no restrictions.  The HSLDA analysis says, "Homeschools can legally operate as private schools in Texas" and "Homeschools must be conducted in a bona fide manner, using a written curriculum consisting of reading, spelling, grammar, math and a course in good citizenship; no other requirements apply." 

I think we have our bases covered.  Here's what we have:

Braden 13years
Bible/History/Geography/Literature - Notgrass America the Beautiful
Math - BJUP Fundamentals of Math
Grammar - Step by Step Grammar Vol. 1
Science - Apologia General Science
Vocab/Spelling - Critical Thinking Word Roots

Brock 10years
Bible - BJUP Bible Truths 5
History - BJUP Heritage Studies 5
Math - BJUP Math 4
Grammar/Writing/Reading - BJUP English 4
Handwriting - BJUP Handwriting 5
Spelling - Sequential Spelling
Science - Abeka Investigating God's World

For our planning this year I bought them each 'The Homechool Student Planner'.  Of course I'll be right alongside them and giving them the materials I choose for them; but I want to slowly work towards them keeping track and setting their own goals. We'll see how that goes! 

How's your school year coming together?

I'm Melting, Melting

You know like from the Wizard of Oz   hehe :-)  I've been trying this past week to pull myself out of my "meltdown".  Have you had a homeschool mom meltdown?  You know where you panic, even ever so slightly, that your doing it all wrong.  Well, that's been me this past week.  I think I'm on the upswing now of my little down turn, sticking to my course and really praying for guidance for any changes that need to be made, or none at all.  I'm finding it hard to put into words right now so I'll just keep praying... 

I walked out the back door other day to this scene.  I thought it was funny, took the picture and then got on to them for climing with their guitars in hand.  :-)

Broken Bloom still BLOOMS

y So I have to tell this story  It probably won't mean much to anyone else but I don't want to forget it! 

My 10 year old, Brock, with his own money, picked out a rose for me today.  Too sweet, right?!

Bittersweet to him....He pointed out that it was taped near the top.  His brother, being silly, accidentally knocked the bloom clean off the stem.  Braden felt awful.  Brock was devastated.  His dad offered a rose from his bouquet, he wasn't going for that though - this was the one HE picked!  A little doctoring by dad with some scotch tape - good as new. 

I probably would have never know if he hadn't pointed it out; except that he looked so sad and teary eyed when he gave it to me.  I could feel his disappointment.  It brought tears to my eyes as he told me what happened.  Of course not because my flower was broken, but because it obviously meant a lot to his 10 year old little heart.  He will realize someday, it's not really the actual flowers that matter, but the heart behind it. 

My heart sure was in bloom!