Learning Letters

I just can't say enough good things about Handwriting Without Tears. I was desperate when our son was learning to write his letters. He had very weak fine motor skills, and is a left-handed boy. Through some research, and time spent talking with other homeschooling moms, I learned about Handwriting Without Tears. This program has not just benefited my son. My two daughters have used this program also.

The above picture is of my youngest child (age 3) taking the wooden pieces and forming the letter D.

I'm thankful this handwriting curriculum worked for us. We needed something fun, interactive, hands-on, and multisensory. We also needed just basic manuscript letters, no frills, because that just frustrated my son. I also wanted a program that taught manuscript first, and not cursive.

I don't work for HWOT. I don't even know anyone who does. I just wanted to share how well this has worked for our family. It brought back a lot of memories when I got out the wooden pieces for our youngest child.

Christmas Recipe

My Aunt Connie is famous (in our family atleast) for her Peanut Butter Fudge! Give this recipe a try for your holiday baking this year. I highly recommend name-brand marshmallow creme. Don't skimp on the off-brand stuff. It truly does make a difference.

Aunt Connie's Peanut Butter Fudge
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups evaporated milk
Cook until it forms soft ball stage.
Add 1 cup of peanut butter
1 cup of marshmallow creme.
Pour into a baking pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Cool, cut into squares, and enjoy!

Young Children Coming to Christ

During my pregnancies, I begin praying for my children’s salvations. I pray that at young ages they will understand they’re sinners, understand their need for Jesus, and ask Him to be their Savior and Lord. I also pray that my children will walk closely with the Lord all the days of their lives.

When our oldest child accepted Christ at the age of six, I knew he understood he was a sinner and needed Jesus. It wasn’t just the answers he gave to my questions, but it was the questions he asked that gave me peace his decision was genuine; the same for our second child when she accepted Christ at age five. But, since that time, I have struggled with wondering if the children were sincere and understood what they were doing; or if they just prayed a prayer to make their parents happy. But that’s when the Lord led me back to various prayer journal entries, and also reflecting back on the children’s growth and training in His Word.

Heath and I are not perfect parents. But, the greatest desire in our lives is to see our children be mighty warriors in God’s army. We pray our children will choose godly mates, and have godly children. I like how Voddie Bauchum, jr. uses the term, “multigenerational faithfulness” in his book, "Family Driven Faith." We desire to begin a strong lineage of authentic and passionate Christians with our family. We desire for our children to not be afraid or ashamed that they belong to Christ and are servants of His. For many generations may our children and children's children, be faithful to our Savior.

Many people know Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. One of my favorite passages about parenting is found immediately following this passage in verses 6-8. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (ESV)

I firmly believe the order of these verses are important. Before you can teach your child anything about the Lord, you must FIRST “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” That’s how you capture your child’s hearts for the Lord! If they see you completely in love and satisfied in the Lord, they too will want what you have: a personal, meaningful, life-changing relationship with Jesus!

God instructed the Israelites to teach their children about Him. It’s not the church’s job to teach your children for you. God desires you to teach your children “diligently.” When are you to teach them? You are to teach them when you’re at home, when you’re walking (or driving), when you lie down (naptime and bedtime), when you rise (early in the morning), and there should be reminders of our mighty God all around your home. Does God only want parents to train their children on Sunday mornings? No. Does God want anyone else except for parents to be the primary spiritual trainers and teachers of their children? No.

In time the fruit of my children’s lives will be revealed. In the meantime my husband and I will continue praying for our children, and do whatever it takes to help them grow and mature in their relationships with Christ.

Favorite Fall Recipe

When the weather starts to get cooler, my family starts asking for Chicken and Dumplings. I like to use Paula Deen's recipe, but I never have bay leaves, so I've never used a bay leaf in my recipe.

Do you have a favorite fall recipe you'd like to share? Just post it on your blog, then go to Today's Housewife and link up!

Avocado Wrap

Avocado Wrap
1 whole wheat tortilla
1/2 avocado, mashed with fork
Seasoning Salt
Cucumber Slices
Deli Meat (turkey or chicken)
Spinach Leaves or green leaf lettuce

Take smashed avacado and spread down center of tortilla. Sprinkle on a little seasoning salt. Next put on cucumber slices, deli meat, and spinach leaves. Roll up and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite sandwich or wrap you'd like to share? Post your recipe on your blog, and then go to Today's Housewife link up with Mr. Linky!

School All Around the Home

T and K were enjoying playing a concentration game. This game helps teach them their sight words (you, say, day, etc..).
While I was taking pictures of them, I realized that we really do use just about every room of our home throughout the week to do school work. Most of the time, we are upstairs in the loft. Sometimes we are on the couch reading. Sometimes we are at the kitchen counter or table. Sometimes we use Tyler's room to play a concentration game.

Art Around the Home

I've been spending some time the past couple weeks researching ways to teach art to the children. K will spend HOURS in her room just drawing. So, for her birthday I'm going to put together an art tackle box for her. I got the idea from this blog.

I asked some "online friends" for some help in helping me teach my children art. This is what an art educator shared with me. Just wanted to pass on some of these helpful tips.

I would encourage you to let him explore his interest in art, not only in making art but by looking at art. Developing observation skills and becoming visually literate is, in my biased opinion, one of the keys to a good education. Even medical school are now having courses taught by art educators to help improve the visual diagnostic skills of physicians. But, I digress. Here are some resources I would recommend:

1. your local museum or art center. many will have tours specially geared for home school groups (I've lead many of them!) and/or classes your child can take.

2. look at museum websites. most any large museum has a child-geared website from their education program. you can see art, get started on art projects, and play art-based games. I like Denver Art Museum's site, the Museum of Modern Art's Destination site, and the Dallas Museum of Art's page isn't as flashy, but has good info.

3. Some books for your child:
The "How Artists See...." series by Colleen Carroll
(there is also a great parent/teacher guide to this series with activity ideas)
Squeaking of Art: The Mice Go To the Museum
"Art Is..." by Rackza
"Art Up Close" by d'Harcourt

4. Some books for you as the teacher:
"Art in Story" by Saccardi (really lovely whole lessons in here that integrate writing, history, art, and more!)
"Teaching Art with Books Kids Love" by Frohardt
(this one covers all the basic elements of art)

Show and Tell: How to...

Over at Today's Housewife they are having a Friday Show and Tell.

I want to show what I use as a fruit and vegetable wash, and tell you about it.

I use a great product called Nature's Sunshine Concentrate.

After each grocery shopping trip, I soak all my fruits and veggies in my kitchen sink for 15-20 minutes. After soaking, washing, rinsing, and drying, it is ready to be stored in the fridge. When the children want an apple, they can get it on their own and eat it without me worrying about if it is clean or not.



For a DIY system to help train your children to work...click here. Last night I shared over at our family blog how we get chores in our home done each week.

Heath's Pancakes

This weekend's "Please Pass the...." at Today's Housewife is all about passing your favorite breakfast or brunch recipe. In our house, it's my husband's pancakes. He can't cook many things, but he sure can cook pancakes. Even the children prefer his pancakes over mine.

Heath's Pancakes
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp. oil
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Heath's secrets (shhhhh...don't tell him I shared this with you)........
1 cap full of vanilla AND use a good quality baking powder.

Enjoy!

Visit Today's Housewife and share your favorite breakfast or brunch recipe today!

Poetry and Art

Holding Hands
by Lenore M. Link

Elephants walking
Along the trails

Are holding hands
By holding tails.

Trunks and tails
Are handy things

When elephants walk
In Circus rings.

Elephants work
And elephants play

And elephants walk
And feel so gay.

And when they walk -
It never fails

They're holding hands
By holding tails.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

These are pictures the two older children drew in response to the above poem.

Kaitlyn's Artwork


Tyler's Artwork

Stuffed Crust Pizza

Today's Housewife's weekend edition of "Pass the..." is all about passing Dad his favorite. The dad in our house likes all kinds of pizza, but his favorite is when I make stuffed crust pizza. I don't really have a recipe for it. But, I can share the basic instructions.

Roll out your pizza dough, arrange string cheese around the edges, and roll the pizza dough over the cheese, and seal up. Then add your sauce, cheese, and favorite toppings. Bake according to your pizza dough recipe.


This was actually on our menu for tonight. When I cook pizza, I cook a lot of it so we can have leftovers. My favorite day to make pizza is Saturday afternoon, so we can have leftovers when we come home from church.

I just googled "stuffed crust pizza recipe) and got tons of hits. So, if you want more instructions, you can do a search:-)

New School Year, New Home, New Curriculum

I was talking to my husband tonight and telling him how many blog entries about cooking I've done since we moved to Pennsylvania. I said I think there are a few reasons for this: 1. I really like our new kitchen. 2. The children are really into cooking right now. 3. We are surrounded by wonderful local farmer's markets and orchards!

Believe it or not, we do more than cooking around here. We spend a lot of time reading, writing, and learning new things. We are enjoying our new school year. We are trying out a new curriculum and are very satisfied! I have blog entries in my head that I hope to enter soon. Some will contain poetry, creative writing, and artwork from the children.

Today, I'm going to share a couple pictures we took today. The girls enjoyed making necklaces out of cereal. No one was eating it, so we decided to use it for a craft project.



I spent some time today cuddled up on the couch with the boy listening to him read. Actually I spend time doing this everyday with both of the older children. Next to teaching the children God's Word, watching them learn to read is the next best thing I get to do as their teacher.

Fall Pumpkin Goodies

On Tuesday, we cooked an entire pumpkin and pureed it. It made 10 cups of fresh pumpkin, and had 1-1/2 cups of seeds to roast in the oven. From oven to freezer, this process took around 4 hours. I know this sounds like a lot of time. But, the pumpkin spent one hour in a 400 degree oven, one hour cooling, and once it took a spin in the blender, it sat in a colander lined with coffee filters for two hours to let excess liquid drain off.

So far, we've made one batch of pumpkin bread, and one pumpkin pie. We have 6 cups left in the freezer. We're trying to build relationships with our new neighbors, so we delivered a loaf of pumpkin bread to each of them.

The following recipe is from a very special person in our lives. She and her family were members in the church Heath and I were married in, and the first church Heath served in vocational ministry. She is a mother to seven children, and she is one of the best cooks I know!

Marilee's Pumpkin Bread
3 1/2 cups flour
3 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
2 cups pumpkin
**My husband LOVES when I add half a bag of chocolate chips**
Sift together dry ingredients including sugar in mixing bowl (I never sift...LOL). Mix well and add all other ingredients. Mix until smooth. Divide batter into 3 loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool on wire rack. Freezes well.