Homeschool Supplies

Today I am excited to share with you my homeschooling clean up at Target.  I was able to pick up all 22 of these items for $1 per item.  As you can see I picked up 4 workbooks 3 dry erase writing boards 2 set of dry erase sentence strips 10 box of flash cards and 2 games and 1 clock.

I saw another homeschooler had mentioned Target dollar items in their blog but did not really think I would find this many useful things.  A great blessing indeed.  These are all early elementary items.

I proceeded to Walmart where I picked up 17 cent notebooks, 20 count pencil packs for 97 cents. Markers for 97 cents , Elmer's glue for 50 cents, 24 pack crayons for 50 cents and composition notebooks for 50 cents.

I save extra money out of my budget all year to hit these deals when they come up before school.  This is the earliest I have ever seen them out.  They go fast so if you live near any of these stores you may want to act fast.

Need help with inexpensive grade school curriculum?  Check out this website: http://allinonehomeschool.com/
Easy Peasy All in one home-school curriculum.  The outlines are free to access and have lots of great links to videos and worksheets to reinforce taught concepts.  You will just need your basic supplies.

I hope you have a super year teaching at home.

Moving? My De-junking adventure.

Yep we are moving.

This is both an exciting and scary time for us to say the least.
Excitement over a grand new adventure and opportunities that have been given to us.
Scary over the unknown of what we are stepping into.

This is a huge process for me.  I save stuff. LOTS OF IT.... so needless to say in order to make this move so much smother I need to purge stuff....and Lots of it.  I have resolved after today never to save that much stuff ever again.  Yes you heard it here.  Cleaning all this stuff and pitching it is a stressful event for me.  Today I cleaned the closet under the stairs.  My kids throw every toy imaginable in there.  MY FAULT for not making them take care of it to begin with.  This little closet that is 5 x 4 feet was crammed to the gills.  Not anymore though.  It took a good 2 hours to sort stuff out.  We kept legos, lincoln logs, and metal cars/trucks/tractors.  Every thing else literally went into a garbage bag....

Pencils, pens, marbles, magz, cards, puzzles, and numerous other items gone to the garbage.  Why so ruthless you say. Well because my inability to effectively deal with this stuff caused the problem in the first place.  Most of the pieces to these things are missing or somewhere else.  I am chronicling my de-cluttering adventure in hopes that it will help someone else. I will tell you that I have ruthlessly been throwing out old clothes with rips or stains as well. I listed a couple items online for free and the people actually want me to bring the free items to them and not pick them up......garbage can as well.  Goodwill you say....hahahaha ..... nice in theory but I have several boxes in my garage that have never made it there.

So you say .... what remains in the closet under the stairs..... Some stuffed animals ( they boys were told once they are all gathered they may each pick out 5) 2 vacuums , some blankets and a toy box full of little people toys that a girl is coming to pick up when I get back from Illinois next Tuesday.

So I invite you to laugh with me, cry with me and go on this grand adventure of moving and de-junking.  I hope you can find humor in it.  I hope one day I will also.

Where are the men?

Where are the men.

This is a post I read I cannot remember which blogger posted it.  It said many young women are being raised to be Godly wives in the future but it seems to be hard for them to find that Godly young man. So they sit and wait.

I felt like this really resonated with me. I have a college aged daughter and then I have 3 boys,  11, 7 and 5.  I have been married for 22 years to a man who has been nothing short of an excellent provider and hard worker.  If I believe I deserve this why would I not want this for my future daughter in laws? I have an obligation to raise them to be good providers.  I am becoming more aware of things that are not helpful in this venture to raise them to that point.  Video games are one.  We have pretty much put the kibosh on them and have seen improved attitude.  Television is another.  The more they watch the more of a stinky attitude we have...hmmmm... seems to be a correlation there.

We have started to study Proverbs with our boys.  Not at the beginning and not in a particular order.  What we are doing is taking a few verses at a time, breaking them apart and discussing the meaning. It is 31 power packed chapters about character good and bad and what they lead to in life.  Great for boys and girls but a must do.

I have seen people we know allow the boys in there home to spend hours and hours a day on the computer. As adults these young men still are not on their own and they spend all their time on the computer or gaming. It is sad and these same mothers make excuses for the lack of training they gave their sons.  What lady wants that for a husband.  I love my young men and I am resolved to make them better by encouraging them to learn skills, practice them and even try some small business ventures to learn about how money works.  I want them to be the kind of husband I have and it is my obligation to raise them in such a manner.

I am sure to make mistakes but God has pressed upon me that this is a most important thing. Moms of boys this is your duty to carry out. Teach them to be diligent, hard working, lovers of God. Do not let them waste idle hours pursuing things that are not of value to them in adult life.  They need to know how to support themselves and not be spending hours in front of video games living in your basement.