CHRISTEPHI

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is socially acceptable to turn our attention to Christmas. (That's how it works, right?)  Don't tell, but I've been in "Christmas mode" since quite a while before Thanksgiving.  This year I'm heading up a casual chorus of Christmas carolers.  Because of that, I've had Christmas carols on the brain since early October!  There couldn't be any better timing for a book about the stories behind our most beloved Christmas carols. About the Book From Oxford professor and renowned British composer, a joyous account of the history behind our favorite carols. Everyone loves a carol in the end, even Ebenezer Scrooge. They have the power to summon up a special kind of mid-winter mood, like the aroma of gingerbread or the twinkle of lights on a tree. It's a kind of magic. But how did they get that magic? Andrew Gant choirmaster, church musician, university professor, and writer tells the story of twenty of our fa...

My dad is a computer programmer.  Like many youngsters, his passion for computers started out as a hobby.  When he realized people would   pay   him to program it was like in the cartoons: jaw dropping, eyes popping out, AHH-OOO-GAH!  And he's never looked back! My love for technology also developed in my youth.  We first got dial-up internet when I was in 8th grade...good old AOL.  Before long I was dabbling in HTML and launched my first website on GeoCities, in a virtual neighborhood with a street address everything!  How times have changed! Technology may have changed over the years, but the pull it has on the imaginations of young people remains the same.  Many computer programmers write their first programs in middle school.  Homeschooled kids are uniquely situated to excel in this area due to the ability to streamline their time spent hitting the books and allocate their remaining time to learning a coding language. ...

As a child it never occurred to me to ask deep questions about life and God and the Universe. I was content to marvel at Nature and appreciate its beauty without asking many questions about how things worked or where they came from. So when my six-year-old comes asking questions like: "Why am I here? What am I here for? How do I know I am really me?" I'm completely flabbergasted! When she recently began asking questions about how we know there really is a God, I pulled out a brand new book from Apologia Press called How Do We Know God Is Really There? How Do We Know God Is Really There? Written by Melissa Cain Travis Illustrated by Christopher Voss Published by Apologia Press ISBN: 978-1-935495-96-3 Price: $16.00 Sample pages This wonderful book by Melissa Cain Travis is designed to answer the question of God's existence in a way even small children can understand. It is the first in a new series of picture books that will introduce kids to the answers to import...

The motto of our homeschool is: " Learning to Love to Learn ."  One of my overarching goals as a homeschool mom is to teach my kids  how  to learn. I believe that if they know how to acquire and retain information, they will be able to do anything they set their hearts on, both as children and as adults. Veteran homeschool mom Debra Bell believes this too and that is one of the reasons she created The Ultimate Homeschool Planning System.  The Ultimate Homeschool Planning System is more than just a planner , it's a SYSTEM.  There's the mom's planner, the teen planner, and a younger student planner.  The system is designed to grow with your students, teaching them to take on more and more responsibility for their daily/weekly planning, scheduling, and time management.  As early as 3rd grade, students can keep a little checklist for each day detailing what they need to get done.  By the time they're in 5th grade they're able to b...

As I've already confessed, I am a plant murderer .  I have, however, had marginal success with container gardening.  The past year or two I started seedlings with my dad, which means the kids and I dropped a few seeds in pots and my dad cared for them.  Once they were established outside, I was able to keep them alive long enough to harvest a few peppers and tomatoes and have a pretty pot of flowers on my doorstep. (At least until a horrid heat-wave and drought came along and killed them all; it's hard to keep containers well-watered when it's that hot!) In spite of the 10+ inches of snow on the ground right now, it's time to think about starting seeds again and I figure if I'm ever going to develop a green thumb, I better start educating myself!  That is why I jumped at the opportunity to read Gary Emmett's book Seed Starting: The First Step to Gardening . (affiliate link) Available for your Kindle or Kindle app from Amazon. Currently priced at $2...

...things are taking off and I'm so excited about the reviews that will be coming up in the next couple months!  I'll be getting to try out some wonderful products, and don't you worry, I'll be telling you all about them! If, by chance, you're interested in joining the review team, there are still some openings!  It's not just for homeschoolers either.  Moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, single, married.  You're all welcome!  If you're interested, you can sign up here . Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...  Science Week Day 3 is coming up!

A new year is nearly upon us!  And with the new year there will be some changes at our house in the way that we are homeschooling.  Up to now, Miss M has been steadily working through Calvert's First Grade.  She started in August 2011 when she was only four and will be finishing up the math in January and the rest in February 2013.  We took some long breaks in there, but now that she's a smart-as-a-whip 6-year-old, much of the material is too easy for her.  The child is a naturally excellent reader and speller.  I love, love, love Calvert and have fond memories of it from when I myself was a homeschool student, but I'm not convinced that it is the right curriculum for our family or for Miss M's learning style.  So the first change for us will be to drop Calvert and take up My Father's World for 2nd grade.  Or...a 2nd/3rd grade combo to be exact so we'll be working at an appropriate level for Miss M. I really like the idea of a curriculum th...