This is an organizer for recipe cards, so just put your flash cards in the pocket, instead of the recipe cards.

Use the directions for CrissCross card 

Idea & pic from splitcoaststampers.com

When you homeschool and keep up with your home, it is sometimes hard to keep up with cooking.  For some reason, my family still wants 3 meals a day

So, I will be posting some of my favorite quick & easy meals each week.  Here’s one of our family favorites.  Who doesn’t like meat and mashed potatoes???
Shepherds Pie with Garlic Mashed Potatoes
I probably finished this meal in 30 minutes…and it had ground beef that all my kids loved!

A few changes I made so everyone would love it.

1.  Changed horseradish to garlic
2.  I omitted the egg in the potatoes
3.  Substituted celery for parnsips.  I didn’t have any parsnips & my kids will eat celery.

Check back next week for another quick & easy meal for you to use . . . that your kids will LOVE!

I found some fun projects you can do with your kids this week. Take your pick. I’ll be making bridal shower invitations…as soon as my new stamp set arrives

File Folder Fun

More File Folder Fun

You can even use these projects to record what your kids learn this week in homeschool! Be sure to let your kids choose the papers they use on their file folder “notebook” of learning!

This will give you a quick idea of how to make these File Folder Notebooks:

Take one 12×12 designer paper; fold in half. Line up the fold with the fold in the file folder and use sticky strip to attach. Decorate the outside with coordinating paper (since the 12×12 doesn’t reach the outside of the folder), trim along the edge of the file folder. For the sample shown, a smaller folded piece was used in the center instead.

For the cardstock, You can use any width that you want, I cut mine either 6 or 6 1/2″ wide, depending on what size pictures I’m planning on putting in it. Then you stagger the length in 1″ intervals.

For the inside: use papers 5½” to 6” wide, and stagger the length by 1”

5½ x6, then 5½x7, up to 5 ½x11 for six panels. Score each at ¾” from the top, and use a hole punch to punch holes for the attachment.

All ideas and pictures are from splitcoaststampers.com

I’ve been in heaven today as I browsed many new sites that have really cool card ideas.  My daughters and I are hosting a bridal shower for a friend of ours and I wanted to make a unique invitation.  Sooooo….I’ve found tons of stamping and card websites.  It’s been eye-candy for me!

As I perused the sites a found a fantastic cause for moms and their kids.  It’s called Cards for a Cause and I plan to donate some cards!  All the cards go to patients at St. Judes Hospital.  You can read all about it at A Muse News  If you don’t know how to make a card, choose one of their kits that gives you supplies for 10 cards.  There are links on the same page.

Well, I just had to pass this great idea along to all of you.

Kerry

For those of you whose kids keep a notebook of their studies, this site will be of great help.

http://www.notebooking.org/

I found this article and thought it would be good food for thought. Tell me what you think.

If a store sells inferior products or a business gives bad service, most customers will not come back and that store or business will eventually go bankrupt. If public schools sell bad education, year after year, why don’t they go bankrupt? Why aren’t they shut down?

The answer is government compulsion. In private schools, if the school does a bad job educating children, parents will soon take their child out of that school. If enough parents take their kids out of the school, that school will go bankrupt. A private school depends on the voluntary consent and tuition payments of its parent-customers to stay in business.

Unlike private schools, public schools are a government-controlled education system that stays in business through naked compulsion. Local governments pass laws that give school authorities near-monopoly powers over our children’s education. Compulsory-attendance laws force children to go to these schools. School taxes force parents to pay for these schools. Unlike private schools, public schools rarely go out of business, no matter how bad they are, because they get their “customers” and their money by force.

Compulsion rears its ugly head in our public schools in many other ways. State teacher licensing laws prevent excellent but unlicensed educators or outside experts from teaching in the schools. Tenure laws make it almost impossible for school boards to fire incompetent or even mediocre teachers or principals.

Local governments force children to go to public schools for six to eight hours a day, five days a week for up to twelve years, even though these children might hate public school. School authorities force children to study subjects that school authorities dictate, even though children might find these subjects boring or meaningless. Public schools also force parents to accept teachers that parents might not like or think are competent.

Many public schools force children to learn math and reading with teaching methods that can cripple children’s math and reading abilities. Public schools often subject children to values or sex-education classes that parents object to. The list goes on and on.

Like tax-supported prisons, public schools don’t shut down because the whole system rests on a foundation of naked force. Take away compulsory-attendance laws and compulsory school taxes and it’s highly likely that most public schools would “go out of business.”

But parents don’t have to wait for the highly unlikely event of public schools going out of business in their lifetime. Luckily, parents in America, unlike those in Germany or many other countries, have the right to homeschool their children. Parents can also take advantage of new, low-cost education options available to them right now, such as low-cost Internet private schools. I go into detail about these new education options in my book, “Public Schools, Public Menace.”

Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
About the Author Joel Turtel is the author of “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children.” Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.

I just read an article that might encourage your homeschool endeavors, as you decide what route and curricula is best for you and your own kids (not the public school kids). Pour yourself a cup of coffee and get some Coffeecup Wisdom
(click title to go to article)

Do you have any “coffee cup wisdom” to share?

Kerry

I have been using a new idea to teach grammar to my 13yo. This week he is writing in his reading journal about his daily readings. There is no pressure to make it perfect, just a way to write down his ideas about his readings.

I type out one of his entries (double-space) and give it to him to edit. It looks like an Editor in Chief paragraph, but it is actually his own writing. This helps us tie together his reading, writing and grammar. Yesterday, we spent about 5 minutes going over his corrections.

It was interesting to note that he found most of his mistakes when he read it aloud. I think kids can “hear” their writing mistakes. The same thing happened earlier this week when my 16yo read aloud her research paper to me. She would say, “Oh, that doesn’t sound right”, and then correct it.

What I like about this activity is the way it involves the ideas of read-write-discuss from Leadership Education Homeschool Curriculum.

Kerry

Why offer a Christian Education to your children? Sounds like a great question to contemplate. Many parents believe a Christian Ed allows you the opportunity to avoid pagan education and they are right. But, there is a much deeper reason for giving your children a Christian education.

Let’s look at two reasons to provide a Christian education for your children. It ensures the future of the Christian church. If you do not raise your children to understand their faith, they will probably tube it. If they don’t tube it, their children probably will. This past Sunday evening I heard an address about this very issue while we visited a church in Seattle. The pastor reminded us of a flourishing Scottish church at the end of the nineteenth century. Many of the nation’s important dignitaries attended this church regularly. A century later the church has a small congregation and a liberal perspective on Christianity. How could this happen?

Parents did not ensure that their children understood their faith. Their children only mentally assented to their parent’s beliefs. When this happens, Christianity won’t continue with your young people. Their faith does not penetrate their heart. It does not affect the goals and objectives they have for the future. They are simply a shadow of their parent’s faith. And we all know that a shadow can not produce another shadow, thus no passing on of faith.

The second reason to equip your children with a Christian education is to develop leaders who think Biblically. We need Christian leaders who can out-think the unbelieving world. I believe Christian leaders, entrepreneurs and statesmen will make a difference in the future. It is our responsibility to teach our children how to make Biblical decisions in a variety of life’s issues.

It is imperative that you instill a Scriptural worldview in your children. A worldview that is foundational in their life and equips them to respond Biblically to music, news, studies, jobs, art, business and all areas of their lives. If you are not preparing your children to make decisions based on the Bible, you should re-think your homeschool objectives. A worldview based on Scripture should be top priority in educating your children.

No matter how or what you do in your homeschool, there will be gaps; no question about it! My question to you is which gaps will your children have in their education. Which gaps can you live with? For me, I can live with some grammar and math gaps. If my children don’t know what a gerund or polynomial is, I am not going to fret.
If my children don’t know how to make a decision based on Scripture, I most definitely will fret. I do not want any gaps in their Christian maturity and character development. I can live with academic gaps, but I can’t live with Biblical gaps. Thus, our homeschool’s top priority at the younger ages is character development. At the older ages, our highest priority is developing a Biblical worldview in ALL areas of life (research, family, jobs, business, music, entertainment, news, and so on).

What are your priorities in your homeschool? Which gaps will your children have? Are you sure your children will continue in their Christian faith?
Blessings,
Kerry

(c)Kerry Beck, 2007

Kerry Beck is a wife, homeschool mom and business educator. She authors books such as Raising Leaders, Not Followers; Hop Off the Conveyor Belt; Teach Your Child “How to Think” with Mentoring, and recently published her first multi-media course, Secrets to Online Auction Success. She wants to give you a free report, “How to Get It All Done” at Christian Homeschool Curriculum

Most homeschoolers realize the abominable failure of the public schools. The article below highlights David Stossel of ABC and his documentary on the public schools. Don’t stop reading too early. The conclusion offers the strongest reason for Christians to pull their children from the public school NOW.

http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/article.php?ArticleID=285