I want to share a resource I found this year that has been a help in teaching my kids math. This would be a huge help, whether you homeschool or whether you want to review with your child outside of school. It is so versatile–with a little bit of everything. Whenever we begin a new concept, I go to Math-aids.com and print off a couple of worksheets to help reinforce areas where the girls are weak.

We even used these a couple of weeks ago for a review contest. I printed out a division worksheet for Miranda, and a subtraction sheet for Clare. I was able to choose the amount of problems on the page and the numbers that made up the facts (Clare needs help memorizing the upper teen subtraction families, so I told the program to only generate facts that began with 14-15-16-17-18-19-20). The good thing is that I can print several pages with the same criteria, and none of them will be exactly the same because each time I generate a new page, it chooses the facts at random.

The site has practice for fractions, greater/less than, money, percents, place value, skip counting (counting by 2′s, 5′s, etc.) and the list goes on. You also have the option to print an answer key when you print their blank worksheet, which makes it all the faster for grading!

If you want a little extra practice for your child in elementary math, go check out Math-aids.com!

This is just a little post to tell you about one of the ways God showed His sovereignty and provision to our family recently.

A few Saturdays ago, we woke up to a chilly morning. So chilly that I had to go to the storage bins to begin the seasonal clothes switch. I went through the size for each child, and not surprisingly, Miranda and Grant were the ones in need of certain clothes. Clare and Elsie are usually pretty well taken care of with their passed-down clothes and any clearance specials I happen to find the year before. I told Jason that I was going to have to find jeans/pants for Miranda, and both pants and shirts for Grant.

He informed me that one of our favorite neighborhoods was having their community yard sale that day, but said since we were getting such a late start we were probably out of luck. We had only been to a few sales when I found the perfect sale. They had lots of little boy clothes in great condition that fit Grant perfectly. He is now stocked up for the winter, and I only paid $.50-$1 for each piece.

Later on that day, we were able to get several pairs of brand name jeans for Miranda in 2 sizes for this year and next.

I thought it was pretty amazing that by late afternoon, God had completely provided most all of my kids clothing needs for the rest of the year. Now…I really need to find some good deals on shoes for Clare’s long, skinny feet!

I am mostly a middle of the road kind of person. I don’t sway to one extreme or the other on anything really. So when it comes to homeschooling, I also try to keep a balance without going to extremes. There are definitely some extremes in homeschooling, and one of the big ones is:

Rigidly structured vs. Get to it when I can

I certainly think it is wise to have a schedule to keep yourself on track, but I also know that I do have other responsibilities to take care of. If I try to keep a rigid schedule, I will almost always end up discouraged. This is an area that also depends on grade level. When I first start my kids in “pre-school”, I take a much more relaxed approach. I don’t have a curriculum, and I don’t set lesson plans. I simply get to it on the days I have spare time, and we do as much as they can handle in one sitting. If I don’t find time on a particular day, then I don’t stress about it. And if their attention span is only good for 5 minutes one day, then that’s okay. I’m not trying to turn them into a genius at age 4. Even though I follow a curriculum beginning in Kindergarten, I still am very relaxed with our scheduling. In our state, there are no specific requirements for kindergarten, and I don’t even have to send in reports until 1st grade. So as long as they are learning the needed information, I don’t worry when we only make 4 days instead of 5 in a week. I am learning that I must increase structure each time they move to a higher grade though. Once they hit 2nd grade in the curriculum I use, there is enough work to keep them busy for a couple hours a day (in addition to my teaching time). If I set a flexible schedule, it helps me AND the kids get work done.

Let me explain what I mean when I say flexible schedule. I have a time set for school to begin, for snack break, for lunch break, and for getting back in the classroom after lunch. Depending on the day, those times can fluctuate as much as 30 minutes to an hour. Rarely do our days work like clockwork. My start time is 10 AM. This is simply a meter to let me know how I’m doing in my daily schedule. Today, we actually started at 9:40, which let me know that I’m doing okay on time. On Wednesday, we didn’t get into the classroom until 10:20. When I start after 10, I know that I’ve got to keep things moving or we’ll have a late day (These are NOT good for concentration!). My goal is to give them a snack around 11, and let them take 5-10 minutes to relax and clear their minds. If I’m right in the middle of teaching an arithmetic lesson at 11, I don’t stop everything for snack break. I finish up the lesson, talk through the directions on their papers, then hand out snack. There have even been days when we work right through snack break. One day this week we were supposed to take Daddy a lunch at work, then head to the grocery store afterwards. I knew that this would take up a chunk of at least 2 hours, and that they would have to eat before we left the house. We skipped snack and stopped for lunch at 11:30. We stick to a routine as much as possible, and when there is good reason to deviate from that, I don’t let it bother me.

I know there are many things that will affect my schedule. My workload outside of school is only one part of the equation. Sometimes the kids just wake up in that wrong sort of mood and I know this is going to be one of those days I feel constantly behind. Sometimes, we have had company the night before and their rooms are hazard zones. I would rather them get things in order before going downstairs to spend several hours in the school room. Sometimes, Mommy gets on the phone with Grandma and talks too long. It is a constant learning process for me to find that balance between being too rigid, and too flexible. I just keep an eye on the goals and timelines I set at the beginning of the year and make sure I stay close to those. There are times when I have gotten up in the morning, surveyed the situation (attitudes, workloads, other responsibilities), and cancelled school for that day. This is what I mean by flexible schedule.

How do you keep yourself motivated to stay on track? Do you follow a tough schedule or do you allow flexibility?

Well, my summer looked a little different than I had expected a few months ago. I had things planned out how I thought they would go, but reality was not the same.

Here’s what went on over the last few months. We bought a house. That makes it sound so simple, when in real life it was a long, drawn-out process. The house we purchased had been foreclosed on, so it was a little more complicated than just making an offer and waiting for it to be accepted. The bank that owned the house was not very easy to deal with. So there was a month or so that we just waited to hear something. We sat in limbo, waiting to see if our offer would be accepted, or if someone else’s bid was higher and we would be rejected. Once we finally received a counter offer from the bank, we were leery to get our hopes up even then. They had so many clauses and addendums we weren’t sure if the deal would actually go through.

Finally, when the papers were signed, a huge wave of relief came over us. And then the work began. This was a beautifully built house, but had been severely neglected. We came into an 8 year old house and had to patch holes ranging from an inch to a foot wide! There was painting, caulking, cleaning, plumbing, and so much more to tackle. I tried to keep a little bit of a routine for myself and the kids, so we would get up and do our normal schedule before driving to the “new house” and working all day. Most days, we stayed until 8 or 9 at night, then went to the “old house” for baths and bedtimes. Eventually it was easier just to move EVERYTHING to the new house so we could get more done instead of traveling back and forth.

By now, I had assumed that we would be mostly done with the major stuff and settling into life as it was before the move. But again, my assumptions were wrong. The upstairs of our new home is mostly finished, save a few odds and ends that need to be done. The downstairs, however, is still a pretty big mess. One of our projects was finished this past weekend, then sanded, creating a layer of dust on everything. Even the plates that are behind closed cabinet doors had dust on them! So with each new  project finished, more work keeps popping up.

Though the house is not completely finished, I am trying to shift my focus a bit and get things back to ‘normal’. A new school year is upon us, and my books came in last week, so next Monday is our scheduled start date. I also have missed writing, so I am trying to make time for blogging a few times a week. With that goal in mind, I plan to try to pick up blogging where I left off in this post, at the beginning of summer. We’ll talk about training our children, homeschooling, fun stuff the kids like, things that help them get into routine and accomplish goals, ways that they serve others, and more.

Oh, and I’m sure I’ll do a post on my new house very soon. I love to show it to people, but I would love to get some of the boxes unpacked first.

Just ran across this free magazine subscription on one of the blogs I follow. In my opinion, this is well worth signing up for if you have younger kids. There are some neat recipe and craft ideas, but you can also allow the kids to do a fun look and find activity. (If you need directions, click here.)

Go here if you want to subscribe. I just signed up, then skipped the “special offers” that popped up at the end. Hopefully you’ll be enjoying free Family Fun in a week or two!

Thanks The Coupon Project!

I see a pattern in my own life, that when I am blessed with more stuff, I often WANT even more. I also see examples of this from my kids. Logically, it would seem that the more we have, the more thankfulness it would produce, right? I think the problem is when we begin to expect the things we get, as if we deserve them. In reality, we are told to be content as long as we have food and clothing–all the other stuff is extra!

Here’s an example of a way I was able to talk through this with a couple of my kids this week. On Saturday, our family piled in the van and drove to the park, where a church in our area was hosting an Easter egg hunt. In addition, they advertised games, prizes, and food. It started at 1 pm, and since we had a late breakfast, we opted not to eat lunch until we finished the egg hunt.

The kids had a blast. They got their faces painted (except Grant who wanted his bunny painted on his arm). They played a couple of kid games, like bean bag toss, in which they won prizes. They hunted eggs and came out with a nice batch of candy. Then about 2:00, we headed over to the hot dog stand to redeem our lunch tickets. We were standing in line when the pastor of the church came by and apologized because they had just run out of hot dogs. I guess last year they had about 350 people show up, this year over 750 people turned out for their egg hunt! We thanked him and decided to head to the car so we could go home and get some lunch.

Immediately, the grumbling began.

“But I’m hungry.”

“We still have game tickets. Why can’t we go use them?”

“I want to win more prizes.”

Of course, by 2:00 they really were hungry. But the blessing of all the fun they had been having for the last hour was just cancelled out by the fact that #1) they were out of food and #2) we were leaving. Instead of being grateful for the sacrifice and service of all who helped put on the event, they were hung up on how this lack of food affected them.

Here’s what we were able to talk about:

• Lots of people donated candy, prizes, and money for food out of their own pockets
• Lots of people donated their own time to come and cook, put out the eggs, paint faces, run games
• They had already received blessings from this event
• It was selfishness to demand or expect more
• We have plenty of food, including hot dogs, at home

These are the moments that kids do not learn from textbooks. They are everyday moments that we ALL face, when things are not always what we want them to be. Times we can allow ourselves to be the most important OR times we can choose to put others first. Let’s learn to be content with food and clothes, and be extremely grateful for the many other things we take for granted. And let’s pass that thankfulness on to our children!

Isn’t it so hard at times to know what is really going on in the hearts of our children? Here’s a scenario (might be a true story) that may have happened in my home recently.

After the lights were out and the door was closed for bed, I hear loud crying and yelling from a 6 year old. I listen for a response from the 8 year old and hear very little, if anything. This is the way most fights go between them–one being overly dramatic and the other administering some sort of stone cold silent treatment. The more one is silent, the louder the other yells, and vice versa.

I opened the door to help work this out. Know what it was all about? This penny.

Well, on the surface it was all about a penny. Underneath, there were layers of feelings that had to be uncovered. Now, I could have done as I sometimes do, and talked to them about the yelling and the fighting, but the fighting was not the real issue. Both girls had some hurt feelings (yes, over a penny) and when they understood how the other one felt, they actually felt remorse for their fighting!

A few weeks before, the 8 year old had given a penny to her sister in an earring box, by placing it under her pillow. The box, along with the penny had been put in a drawer and forgotten about, until this particular day.  When the 6 year old found the box, she decided to reciprocate. She placed the box, with the penny inside, under her sister’s pillow. So when the 8 year old got into bed that evening, she discovered the ‘gift’, and a fight began.

Once we talked through the situation, we found out that 8 year old was offended that her sister didn’t want her gift. She felt that her sister had rejected her kindness. 6 year old’s feelings were hurt because her act of love was also rejected. (Since we took the kids’ money to the credit union, 8 year old’s bank was empty.) 6 year old had noticed the empty bank and was simply trying to help her fill her bank, starting with this penny. Both girls had hearts of love, mixed with a little selfishness too. Once they got past the yelling and the silent treatment, they realized that their anger was not necessary.

(Oh, and we did work out a solution to the problem. Since both girls wanted the other to have the penny, we decided they should both use it. The girls will share a ride together on the horse at Meijer, which costs only a penny!)

How many times do I just put a stop to the fighting? Give a little reprimand about being “kind to one another”, and let that be the end of it. I know it is so important to help them get to the heart of the issue, so they can learn how to deal with these things themselves. How do I accomplish that though?

Listen.

My first reaction is usually to storm right in and try to fix the problem with my mommy powers. But the only way I can help them learn to deal with their problems differently, is to listen. Find out what is going on in the mind and heart. I can also ask questions that will slowly help them realize that their action or behavior was wrong. Sometimes, having to give an answer to a question, out loud, will help the light dawn in their own mind and suddenly the issue is resolved. It is difficult for an adult, much less a 6 or 8 year old, to see past their own hurt feelings and have compassion for the other person. With a little nudge in the right direction though, it can be done.