Finding ways to celebrate Easter is always fun.  This activity is one thing that the kids really like doing, and for younger kids it can really make it real that Jesus is not in a tomb anymore.

All you need is marshmallows, melted butter, a cinnamon sugar mix and a tube of crescent rolls.

The marshmallow represents Jesus (we talked about white representing his purity).  The butter and cinnamon/sugar mix represents the oil and spices that covered Jesus body after his death.  The crescent rolls are the tomb.

Roll the marshmallow in butter.

Then roll it in the cinnamon/sugar mix.

Place the marshmallow on the open crescent roll.

Then wrap the roll around the marshmallow.

Make sure you seal the seams well.

Then put your tombs on a cookie sheet (I always forget to put some aluminum foil down…but I would recommend doing that).

Bake according to the package directions…and then open your tomb.

This is the part that the littlest kiddos are always so amazed at…”Where did Jesus go?”.  What a great opportunity to share with them that “He has risen, indeed!”.

And Sawyer, well, he was busy playing on the floor.

We did this activity last year too.  It’s here.

Blessings to your family this Easter!

Aren’t people’s stories fascinating?  I have always been intrigued by others’ lives.  I find that I learn so much through others.

Last week I was able to sit down (via Skype) with Becky who is someone that I have learned SO much from.  She shared her story of how her and her husband, Mark, came to have 14 children.  It just so happens that we were able to record our conversation so we could share it with you:).

Becky has been married to Mark for 31 years.  She has home-schooled all of her 14 children, and she has gained her wisdom through surrendering to God’s call in her life.  I have enjoyed gaining from Becky’s wisdom over the past decade.  Feel free to grab a cup of coffee and listen in as I talk with Becky and she tells how they went from having 5 to 14 children.

“From 5 to 14″ ~Interview with Becky

Check out other episodes of “Walking with the Wise” at Family Legacy Media.

“Walk with the wise and you will become wise…” ~Proverbs 13:20

If you have something more that you would like to know about Becky or her family please let me know by leaving a comment.

Blessings to your family,

I know, it’s really March fifth, but I told the kids that we were going to pretend that today was March 4th because yesterday was Sunday, and we don’t have school on Sundays:).

A long while back I read an article in a Family Fun magazine.  This article was from a mom who set March Fourth as their goal setting day to “March Forth” into the next year.  So, today we did a little activity to “March Forth” (fifth).

We painted feet (this brought many giggles)…

and marched on paper.

Then the kids set to work writing and drawing their “goals” for the next year.

Here’s Cade’s poster…

…and Ella’s.  (Ella actually put her feet on the back of her poster so this is Addie’s feet:).

Blessing to you as you “March Forth” this March fifth,

Don’t forget to check out WLWW (Women Living Well Wednesdays)!

Wow!  There is SO much home-school curriculum out there that it is overwhelming!  I was recently talking with a friend and she said that it is best just to pick something you like and go with it.  You can always be second guessing yourself and thinking you are missing something or that something else would be so much better.  I think that is very true!  I also think that you should make sure you give things a good test run before abandoning it.

Here’s what we have been using this year, and we are planning to get this curriculum for next year too.

My Father’s World is our base curriculum.  This is just the teacher’s manual and Bible Reader.  There is a lot more that comes with it (science, music, art etc) depending on what package you purchase.  My Father’s World covers our Bible/history and language arts/phonics.  I really like the timeline that we are making this year.  It is pretty tricky to show well in a picture, but the kids color a picture from our Bible story that day and place it on our timeline on our wall. We started with creation and are currently through 1000 BC.  After I read the story Cade reads a simplified version out of the Bible Reader.  Then they get a chance to draw a picture about the story and write about it.  It seems like the stories really stick with them as they are hearing them twice and then drawing and writing about them.  They are also memorizing a verse from Proverbs each week that correlates.

This is Ella’s Bible Notebook page from our Samson story today…

and this is Cade’s.

Cade does his Language Arts in another workbook that correlates with the story.  While he is doing that, Ella and I work in Phonics Pathways.

My Father’s World has very limited math with it, but we use Math-U-See and really like that as well.

If you have something that you love using feel free to leave a comment.  I always like to hear what is working for other people.

Blessings to your family,

PS  Don’t forget to link up for WLWW!

I would be the first to tell you that I am not an “artsy” person.  I don’t draw, and I’m certainly not a drawing teacher!  If the kids want help drawing something they go to Kirk, who is quite talented at drawing.

We are using My Father’s World as our base curriculum for this year.  It covers our Bible/history, phonics (with some supplementing) & language arts.  It gives us recommendations for art and music.  I figured I could use all the help I could get with art so I purchased the drawing curriculum that they recommended.  To my surprise, I have really liked it…a LOT!

The only thing to take into consideration with this art curriculum is that initially you really have to read quite a bit in preparation, but once you get the premise of how it works you are set.

Here is the first drawing that Cade and Ella did:

These birds are after a few more lessons (Cade needed more paper because his bird got so long:)):

These horses were after a few more lessons:

I love how they each really made their horses their own.

What has worked well for you with art or crafts??

Blessings to you,

We had the opportunity to serve at Feed My Starving Children a little while ago.  It is a great organization that uses adult and child volunteers to package nutritious meals for starving children all over the world.  We were fortunate to have the organization come to our area and “set up shop” close to home.  I was able to go with Cade and Ella.  Cade was less than excited when we left, but he was quite touched by the experience when it was done.

We were also interviewed for Rotary Club Radio to talk about this event.  It was fun to hear Cade and Ella so excited about packing food for other kids.  You can listen to the interview here right here.  We come on air at the 5 minute mark.

Length: 25 min.

Sporting Hair Nets

A FMSC Employee Giving us Instructions

Ella Focusing on Placing the Bag Under the Funnel

Ella Scooping Powdered Chicken

Cade Weighing the Bag

You can go to FMSC.org to find out if you have a location near you to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.  Cade was most proud of the fact that in our 2 hours of volunteer time the group that we were with packed enough food for 47 children to have 1 meal a day for 1 YEAR.  That’s pretty amazing!!

Blessings to your family,

Things seem to be ever-changing around here.  We find something that works for a time and then shift to something else as the need (or want) arises.

So, here’s what is working for us right now with our chores.  I wrote about how “Day Chores” were working well for us here.  Those have continued to work well for us so I have integrated that into our new chore charts.  I actually downloaded charts from this site so as to not reinvent the wheel.  They are pretty basic charts with the days of the week and then I make a list of their chores for the week that they can check off.  For example, Cade’s chores every morning before breakfast are getting dressed, making his bed, and getting 5 pieces of firewood brought into the house.  Every other day in the evenings  he has vacuuming the kitchen or helping with dishes.  Then his “Day Chores” which are once a week are vacuuming his room (I really like our stick vacuum for the kids:)), shaking rugs, taking out the garbage and dusting.

I know that there is some debate about whether to tie an allowance to chores or not.  For us this has seemed to work well.  The kids get 25 cents for every year old they are at the end of the week if they have completed all of there chores with a happy heart and have done it well.  This has also given us the ability to have the kids take responsibility for their own money.  It cuts down on begging for things in the store because they can spend their money but once it’s gone, it’s gone.  This has also made giving more meaningful to them as it is truly their money.

We also give the option of “bonus” chores from time to time.  The kids can choose to do the chore or not.  They get extra compensation if they choose to do it, but they don’t have to.  I haven’t had them turn me down yet:).  They do have to decide whether they are going to do the chore BEFORE they know what it is though .

So, that is what is working for us right now.

I have consistently struggled to remain consistent in blogging ~ at least I’m consistent at something:).

I have a hard time justifying my time blogging unless most everything else is already done.  Kirk and I joke about the mom who sits blogging while her kids are running around her screaming, the dishes are stacked in the sink and the bills sit unpaid.  Or the mom who creates scenarios to have great pictures and stories for her blog but not for the family experience itself.  It is a balance that I struggle with.  I think there may be a phenomena of really nice looking blogs out there with homes that suffer because of it.

I understand the draw of blogs, pinterest, and skype while being home day in and day out with little ones (and homeschooling).  I think it is important to connect with others.  It can be incredibly encouraging to be in touch with those in your same life stage.  I have one “Skyping friend” in particular.  We bounce ideas off each other and share our joys and struggles through out the day.  We share resources which is really helpful with homeschooling.  I also know that what can be a great thing and helpful to my family can also be a time waster and negatively impact our days.  It’s so easy to sit down to ”research” for curriculum ideas and not realize how much time has gone by.

We don’t have great TV reception and we opt not to pay for any services so internet is our means of getting news.   A while back my speakers went out on my computer and it has honestly been a time saver for me.  News videos just aren’t the same with no sound:).

I’m just hoping that my home looks better than my blog…not from a decorative standpoint but from an investment standpoint.  I hope that our family blog captures a glimpse of our family life instead of me creating a blog to make us look like a great family.  I hope that one day my kids can look at the blog and remember memories we’ve had togther instead of looking and wondering, “who is that family??”

Just a thought.

You know when you hear someone speak and you decide you’re going to implement every last thing that they suggested…and then you get home and you really can’t remember much of anything that was said, and you seem to have gone back to just the way things were before?

There was a speaker that I listened to from a conference we went to a couple of years ago.  There was something that I took away from her talk that we still utilize today.  Her name is Melodie Sterrett, and she spoke on “The Balance of Loving Discipline“.  I remember liking most of what she said, but I really couldn’t tell you any specifics anymore except for what she called “Whisper Prayers”.

It’s such a simple concept and yet it is something that really has been such a connection point with our children.  Basically, whisper prayers are prayers that you whisper in your child’s ear while you are in their bed tucking them in at night.  It doesn’t seem all that monumental, but it gives you a chance to be one on one with your child.  It’s the time that I take to think through the day and thank God out-loud for the things I see taking root in my child; to really speak a blessing over them.  It can also be a time that we pray for what can be worked on as well.  Sometimes apologies are made or we laugh about our day.  Many times, after the prayer, the child will ask some deep question that otherwise wouldn’t have been addressed.  Each of our kids love when we whisper pray.

I thought this coincided so well with the “Gentleness Challenge” that I’ve been following on “Women Living Well“.  Whisper prayers can be a great place to start.  A place to maybe confess some of your faults to your child and pray together.  It may be a place to have some healing begin in a strained parent/child relationship.  Or it may just be a place to strengthen an already strong connection.

With the addition of Sawyer to the family and our home-school year starting many people have asked, “How do you do it all?”  Well, the truth is, I don’t do it “all” and many days we don’t even get to “most”.  So, with that disclaimer aside, there are somethings that are working for us right now.

Quiet Time: We start our “official” home-school day with quiet time for everyone.  This allows the kids to be in a good habit of having time with their Bible, and it also gives me the necessary time alone with God before we dive in.  Right now we do that for 20 minutes.  Each child is alone in a different room with a Bible or devotional type book (except Addie who just sits on her bed).  Cade many times uses this time to work on his AWANA verses.

Day Chore: Then we move onto our “day chore”.  Each day we have 1 chore that takes us less than 15 minutes, and we all work on it together.  On Mondays it’s vacuuming (the kids do their own rooms with the stick vacuum while I do the living room etc).  Tuesdays is shake the rugs/wash floors and so on.

Time with Addie: Then it is math time for Cade, and Ella gets to choose something to play with Addie.  Then it is Ella’s math time and Cade plays with Addie.  This has been so good for Addie as she gets concentrated time with each of the older ones and they are helping to teach her how to interact positively.

Taking a Walk: Another positive for us has been taking the double jogger stroller and taking the 4 kids for a walk after lunch…even though it often takes more time to pack up than actually take our walk.  Today we counted 19 caterpillars, 4 grasshoppers, 3 butterflies and 2 snakes:).

We are usually done by lunch-time with our schooling, being Cade is 1st grade and Ella in Kindergarten.  This gives us flexibility in our afternoons and many times I’m napping with Sawyer while Addie naps and the other two utilize their free-time they’ve been waiting for all day.

It isn’t fancy or rocket science, but it’s what’s working for us right now.