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Building Relationships

May 6, 2010 in Offspring Corner with 1 Comment

Alexa and I were at Home Depot the other day and the cashier looked at her asked her if she was “playing hooky”.  Alexa looked at her and said, “no, I’m home schooled and I have already finished my school work today.”  The cashier went on the inquire about what we do in home school and how we approach socialization.  The cashier mentioned she was a casualty of budget cuts in our local school system and lost her teaching job 2 years ago.  It’s funny, socialization is the first concern people have with home school.

I have met many who home school their children in the last 15 years.  Most of them utilize the help of home school co ops.  This is a great tool for those who want to make sure their child’s education is well rounded.  Generally a group of people get together a couple times a week to trade off teaching and to give their children an opportunity to learn from others and meet other children.

I will admit we have only been a part of a co op for a short time and it just did not work out for our family.  We have used a totally different model to help our children with socialization.  Our goal is not just to expose our children to other people but to teach them how to interact with others.  We are fortunate to live in a community with lots of children around.  Socialization has proven to be a simple task with our daughter.  She is a natural born social butterfly.  People flock to her and she loves being around others.

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3 Steps To Overcoming Fatigue

May 4, 2010 in Health And Wellness with 1 Comment

We all have too many things on our plate right now.  We all get tired and we all need help overcoming fatigue.  We are all at different seasons in our lives but we can put these 3 things into practice to help us help our families.

1. Eat the right foods

You have all probably heard about sugar highs, those are accompanied by sugar crashes.  When you have too much sugar it raises your blood sugar levels.  Although this may seem good at some point you will experience a “crash” in your blood sugar levels, causing exhaustion.  I love fresh fruit, it’s a great sweet kick when I feel like eating something sweet.  I like chocolate and candy just as much as the next girl, but I only eat it after I have had fruit or protein to offset the sugar rush.  I like to make things easy on myself so I keep pre sliced apples on hand.  I was my grapes right when I get home from the store and cut them into small bunches so I can just grab a few and take them with me.

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Wants And Needs

May 3, 2010 in Devotions with 1 Comment

Anyone who knows me knows I like to paint.  I like to paint the different rooms in my house.  I have been known to carry various paint swatches in my purse.  I carry the swatches to help me choose the coordinating items I need to go with the room I painted.  Well maybe I don’t need the perfectly coordinated items but I really want them.

This has been a long standing issue in my life and I suspect in the lives of many others as well.  I have a hard time understanding what I want and what I really need.  Sometimes we can’t tell what we really need until we are forced to make the choice.

When our daughter Alexa was born, in 1999, we did not have much money.  We literally had $20 in our bank account.  We had cut out many luxuries we thought we needs and realized we could live without them.  It became crucial to our families survival to truly examine what was really needed and what was not a necessity.   We suddenly realized cell phones, cable, gym memberships and many other things were all wants.  We didn’t truly need any of those things.

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Is Your Body A Temple?

April 27, 2010 in Health And Wellness with 0 Comments

You’ve probably heard someone at some point say, “your body is a temple”.  This statement comes from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  The verse tells us our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, we are not our own.  So what is a temple?  There are several uses for a temple, here are three.

1. A place of worship

We use our bodies to worship God.  This is a very difficult undertaking.  Worshiping God with our bodies means we need to take care of ourselves.  We must eat right, exercise and get enough sleep.  I know what your thinking, you think there is not way I can do all those things with what I have on my plate right now.  The question is, do you want to worship God?  If the answer is yes then we need to say no to some things in order to take care of ourselves.  We need to treat our bodies with respect and compassion.  We can worship God more freely when we’ve taken care of His temple.

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10 Essential Apps For Moms

April 14, 2010 in Tech For Parents with 0 Comments

appstore

1. Facebook 

Free

  • Update your status
  • Upload pictures
  • Read your news feed
  • Comment on friends

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Mobile Entertainment Options

April 14, 2010 in Tech For Parents with 0 Comments

slingplayer

The choices for mobile entertainment can be overwhelming and confusing.  Here is a breakdown of some of the most popular devices and a few that are under the radar.


1.  FLO TV.   The FLO TV system generally sells for $199 and requires a monthly subscription of $14.99.  It has a 3.5 inch touchscreen display, integrated speakers, and lasts up to 5 hours on a charge.  The programming on the system is limited though and you are really at the mercy of what they are showing at any given time.  In the age of DVR’s many kids might be wondering why can’t I record or rewind this.

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5 Things To Consider Before You Home School

April 14, 2010 in Homeschooling with 1 Comment

Home schooling your children can be a huge undertaking. When people find out we home school our children, they generally have the same reaction, “I could never do that”. The thing is, if your evening considering it, then you are halfway there. I compiled a list of 5 things that need to be considered in making your decision.

Time

Home schooling does not have to consume your whole day. You do need to consider how this will affect your daily routine. If you have smaller children it can take more time to do school than if your children are older, like mine. Take into account that you will be preparing lessons, monitoring experiments, grading papers and planning and leading field trips among other things.

Both parents involved in decision making

You have to both be on the same page on the decision to home school your children, this is imperative. It would be very difficult to home school if one parent is against it. Make sure you both understand the level of commitment this will require from you both. It is a team effort not just one parent involved, you both need to make the commitment.

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4 Tips To Take Better Pictures Of Your Kids

April 14, 2010 in Family Fun with 3 Comments

Girl

1. Bounce Flash.

All DSLR cameras and many point and shoot cameras offer a hot shoe, which is a little metal piece on top of your camera for mounting an external flash. When selecting your flash it is important to get one that will tilt upwards, or bounce. This allows you to shoot the flash up at the ceiling and the light will fall softly on your subject, instead of casting a harsh shadow behind them. The lighting in your pictures will also seem less “fake” and will look more natural.

2. Get Closer.

Many photographers are afraid of getting too close because they don’t want to chop off their subject matter. Most shots though would benefit from a closer perspective as it offers a few advantages. It eliminates ugly background clutter from your shots and allows the viewer to focus on the main part of the image. If you are shooting at a low aperture, like 2.8 or 4, getting closer either with your feet or zooming will blur the background for you and make your subject pop. By shooting at a wider angle you are leaving more of your background in focus, which is confusing to the eye.

3. Use A Reflector.

The most important part of your picture is the light you provide. The easiest and most inexpensive way to provide good light is through a reflector. They can be used both indoors with flash or studio lighting and outdoors with sunlight. Most companies make reflectors with multiple surfaces to meet a variety of conditions. We use a reflector like this, Westcott 40-Inch 5-in-1 Reflector, in our studio.

4.  Pick Your Background.

Every time you take a picture of something your are shooting what is in the foreground, your subject, and your background, whatever is behind your subject.  In your final prints the background is more important than you may think.  Take extra time to make sure there is nothing distracting and that your background is pleasing to the eye.

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Top 3 Ingredients For A Successful Homeschool

April 14, 2010 in Homeschooling with 0 Comments

Your success on your home school adventure is measured by your willingness to evaluate and change things when necessary.  Your success will not be measured by your education or even by your childrens grades. I have found there are three important things to encourage success.

Is Your Family Relationship Healthy

You need to start at the top with this one.  Is your marriage healthy?  Make sure you are both on the same page about home schooling.  When you make your initial decision to home school you need to both agree as I mentioned in a previous post.  Make sure you are providing an encouraging and secure environment for your children.  This will require initiative and discipline.  You need to be wiling to put aside other things to concentrate on getting this effort off the ground.  I am not saying your home needs to be perfect but you do need to take the overall health of your home into account in order to be successful in home schooling.

Make sure your home is educationally stimulating

You want your home to encourage your children to learn.  Our home is filled with what many would call, too many books.  We want our children to have access to books so they can look things up and read at their leisure.  Our kids read not because it is an assignment but because they enjoy it.  You want your home to reflect your commitment to education.  I like to have materials available for my kids to work on projects spontaneously.  Education is enjoyable when you make it easy for your kids to learn.

You need a support system

I have to say without our support system we would really struggle with home schooling.  Initially it can be hard to garner support from family who does not understand the home school process.  My husbands parents had a hard time initially with our decision because they did not understand it, my father in law was a public school superintendent for many years.  They are now are biggest champions.  A support system does not mean you need to only surround yourself with others who home school.  Most of our close friends do not home school their kids.  The important thing is to have people around you who stand in the gap with you through your home school adventure.

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Not The Sum Of Your Parts

April 14, 2010 in Dinner Conversations with 1 Comment

We need to talk to our children about their body image. This starts with us, as parents. We need to understand our part in this problem. Parents, especially mothers, do not understand how detrimental it is to our children to put our bodies down in front of them.

Psalm 139:14 tells us about someone who has the right image of themselves. David is praising God because he understands that he was wonderfully and fearfully made. When I was young I had a poster in my room, it was the picture of a small child and at the top it said, “God doesn’t make junk”. That says it all.

Many people today, especially women, get hung up on what they weigh and what size they fit into. God created us, we need to appreciate His creation. This is what we need to impress upon our kids. God created us in His image.

This concept however is not a free pass to not take care of your body. We need to model for our children what they need to do to care for their bodies. We must model healthy eating and the importance of exercise in our lives. 1 Corinthians 6:19 gives us a reason why we need to take care of our bodies, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we truly understand that concept we will see the importance of teaching this to our children.

We must teach our children that they are not the sum of their parts. 1 Corinthians go on to say in 6:20, “we were bought at a price”, we are to honor God with our bodies. Our model is the best way to show our children how to live this out in their lives.

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