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School of Tomorrow

July 23, 2012

We’re gearing up to start another year of homeschooling next week and wanted to share with you our favorite curriculum for young children. During the early years we enjoy using A.C.E. {Accelerated Christian Education}. They use wonderful animal stories to teach kindergarteners letter sounds. In each story is a hidden character lesson. Your child will be learning more than just letters and numbers. What we’ve found to be most beneficial is the biblical lessons sewn into each subject. They will be learning Bible stories as its own subject also.

I won’t lie, there are parts that can be construed as politically incorrect. You have to remember that, depending on which edition you get, some of these were written back in the 1970’s. But that in no way makes them any less engaging and enjoyable. Our children have always been eager to read more of each story. A letter sound is given an entire week on it’s own. So for example ā is for āpe. The story talks about aging ape and how he is greedy and not considerate of others. Aging Ape learns a big lesson by the end of the week on how to share. The long letter ā sound is used throughout the entire week.

Throughout the Bible stories the children are taught, in an easy to understand way, about the gospel. They learn about creation, David, Jesus, Paul, etc. There are stories that were made more memorable for me in the A.C.E. curriculum because of how it is written. And there have been plenty of times my kids have remembered Bible stories that I had to think about.

Now we do change up curriculums when we get to second and third grade. But we’ve already had three of our kids go through A.C.E. for kindergarten and we plan on having the rest of them do it as well. The character lessons are worth every penny. It’s just a side benefit that they learn letters, math, history and science.

Before I finish this post I want to add that we chose A.C.E. because I wasn’t confident in my ability to educate my children on my own. A.C.E. is a full curriculum that guides you through the teaching process. It helped so much that I’ve gained the confidence and am now reaching out into other ways of teaching our children. A more hands on approach. But that’s a whole other post for another day. For now, if you’re curious about homeschooling and you’re a follower of Christ. I strongly encourage you to try A.C.E. with your young ones. Build a good, strong, biblical foundation.

Blessings!

In Homeschool

Homemade Laundry Detergent

July 22, 2012

In an effort to save money we began making our own laundry detergent over three years ago. People have joked with us recently asking if we still making our own laundry soap {assuming we’d have given up by now} but honestly it’s so extremely cheap and you only have to make it about twice a year. I don’t plan on going back to the commercial brands at all!

Fels-Naptha is the bar soap you’ll use in the detergent recipe. We keep a spare bar on the wash sink because it has proven to take out the most difficult stains. One of my daughters spilled red juice all over a pure white dress. Assuming the dress was a goner I still tried to get the stain out. I wet the stain with water and then rubbed the bar on top. We were shocked to see the red completely removed from the dress. We’ve also used it on carpet and upholstered furniture. If you don’t make your own detergent at least keep a couple of these bars on hand.

The laundry detergent recipe below was taken from the Duggar’s website.

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Liquid Laundry Detergent

4 Cups – hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*
½ Cup Borax

– Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

*Arm & Hammer “Super Washing Soda” – in some stores or may be purchased online here (at Meijer.com). Baking Soda will not work, nor will Arm & Hammer Detergent – It must be sodium carbonate!!

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I’ve never added the essential oil because I always forget. That and I’m usually in a hurry to use the new soap. But I imagine it would make the laundry chore more enjoyable.

It can be difficult to find a place to store your 5 gallon paint bucket of soap. We keep ours in our bathtub.

I would hesitate to keep it in a garage due to the temperature changes. Maybe under a sink if you have the space? If using a paint bucket the lid should be strong enough to keep little ones out of. Still, be careful if you have curious and strong children.

I hope this helps you save money and time as you serve your family in the laundry and finance department!

Blessings!

In House

Big Bubbles

July 11, 2012

I remember as a kid we used some kind of rope and filled our kiddie pool with soapy water and made big bubbles. We only did it once but I’ll never forget it. I never paid attention to how it was actually done and didn’t realize there are recipes for making those large bubbles. Part of our summer bucket list was to make big bubbles and so we found a recipe and went to work.

1 cup Joy dish soap
1 cup corn starch
12 cups of water
2T baking powder

Mix together and let sit for at least one hour.

Now we made the above recipe but we weren’t creating the dreamy big bubbles we had been hoping for so we added 1 cup of corn syrup. I’m not sure if it helped but it’s worth trying if your bubbles are holding together.

We poured it in a tin bucket and used rope we had tied into circles. We also strung two straws onto string and made a circle. Kind of like making handles for little hands. That one seemed to be a big hit and made strong medium bubbles.

I’m not sure if the kids or the adults had more fun!

{we had just done face painting, hence the puppy face}

Blessings!

In Family

Brave {aka, worst Disney princess ever}

July 10, 2012

Let me start off by saying I wasn’t looking forward to this movie when I first heard about it a year ago. I’m a sucker for romance so a princess without a prince seemed wrong to me. However, once the reviews came out {and seeing that it was the only kids movie playing} we decided to take all our kids to their very first movie in a theatre. We went on the fourth of July when all the parades were happening to lessen our effect on the other viewers. And thankfully the theatre wasn’t too packed. Still full, but not enough for me to take my son out when he decided that he too did not like the movie.

The previews were horrendous. The first preview was for Paranorman. An animated movie about a child that talks to dead people. The second preview was THE WORST! Started out with a voice over saying “I was raised Christian.” Ok, cool, I’m thinking this is like Soul Surfer. Yeah, not even close. It was a preview for the Katy Perry movie. Then a preview for an animated monster world movie. You get the idea. I pretty much sat there with eyes wide, jaw dropped and speaking loudly to my husband, “this is why we don’t go to the movies!” I also want to mention that it had been over five years since I had been to the theatre and my husband and I always joked that the first five minutes are just previews so if we’re late it’s ok. Boy has that changed. Literally, the first twenty seven minutes were previews {and bad ones at that}.

The main attraction began and, without giving away too much, the characters are completely unrelatable. An overbearing mother and a spoiled daughter. I’m all for girls learning all kinds of trades. No problem with that. It’s the whole feminist feeling of the movie that sickened me. I know this isn’t a Christian movie, far from it, but it flew in the face of everything I’m trying to teach my daughters.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent,children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life… Philippians 2:14-16

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:1-4

I heard of a friend praying over her children before bed after they had watched Brave. If you are raising your children in a biblical household I strongly encourage you to turn away from this movie. Do not subject your children to the inevitable lessons taught. I even had nightmares because of Brave. And I’m not talking about all the scary bear scenes that are littered throughout.

Guess we’ll keep our eyes out for some better movies to make up for this theatre experience.

Blessings!

In Parenting

Summer Twister

July 9, 2012

We just finished our Five Days of Family Fun for the summer and we are wiped out! It was too hot to go to the beach and too expensive to vacation anywhere so we chose to stay home and mark activities off our summer bucket list. One of the best vacations ever! And I really can’t overstate how incredibly exhausting it was. So much so that I have posts galore to share with you this month! Most ideas were taken off Pinterest {tweaked here and there}.

Without further ado – the activity that will last all summer! Summer Twister.

This idea was taken from DIY Showoff but was changed to accommodate us. That wonderful man of mine went out and bought us some yard paint. To make the circles I simply took an old banker box and traced a dinner plate on the inside. Then it was cut out using a utility knife. The circle that was cut out could have been used to make the spinny thing for the game but we ended up just writing directions on index cards and flipping through them {right foot blue, left hand yellow}.

Below you can see how we sprayed the paint onto the grass using the banker box. And since it’s yard paint it shouldn’t kill our grass, right?

Spraying the circles was actually really fun. Took about five minutes to do. The children then had to wait until I was sure that the paint was dry enough for them to play on. Once they got the go ahead they were all over it!

Even the littlest one tried to play. Right Head On Red.

So there ya go, there’s a project for you and your family this weekend. Fast, easy, fun and highly entertaining! Plus you don’t have to bother with that silly Twister canvas getting all messed up under your feet. Have fun!

Blessings!

In Family