It seems that everyone is busy these days, and homeschool moms are especially so. In the midst of give-give-giving to your family all the time, it can be really difficult to find time to recharge and get your own tank filled. Right?
For those of you that find personal Bible study and prayer time to be a help getting your tank re-filled, I think you will appreciate this new devotional tool, More Than Words for Moms.
This simple ebook provides you with a structure to do topical word and scripture study with ease. Â Words such as
Blessed
Respect
Love
Joy
Forgiveness
Grief
Acceptance
Loss
and many others are included. Â You can choose the word you want to learn more about, and then use your own dictionary and concordance to learn more about what it means and what the Bible has to say on the topic. Â You’ve got ample space in the book to journal your way through your study, including personal application and prayer.
Works for anyone
What I love about this book is that it isn’t giving you the answers. Â Instead, it’s a structure so that you can seek out answers and application for yourself. Â I feel that this make it useful to people of all Christian denominations and traditions and stages.
Great for your tweens and teens, too!
The other great thing about this book is that there is really no reason to limit this to moms. Â To me this resource is ideal for those of you that want your middle and high schoolers to start utilizing a Strong’s Concordance and dictionary more effectively, to give them a practical application for journaling, to encourage the discipline of personal Bible study, and to help them develop a purposeful prayer life. Â I can also see this resource being excellent as a discussion starter between parents and their kids, talking about what they discovered, sharing their questions/understanding of the Bible verse you found, and sharing your thoughts, goals for personal development, and prayer requests together.
Whether you use More Than Words for yourself or along with your children, this is certainly priced low enough to make it a bargain tool for all that you’ll get out of it! Â Click here to learn more and purchase.
America’s foremost ornithologist, naturalist, and painter John James Audubon is featured here with 10 printable works of his art.  Combine your love of art and nature study with this collection!
We started homeschooling our six kiddos back in 1997 (well, we didn’t have six kids at that time….only 2) and in the 18 years since then, never once have I attended a homeschool convention. Shocker!!
Why? Â Oh, lots of reasons. Â Money, time, energy, distance, kids, babies, toddlers, and not being interested in feeling harried and pressured in a convention hall are just a few of my thoughts. Â Sure, it would be nice to see more of the things that I’m interested in, but I’d also be seeing a million other things and getting distracted and possibly feeling more overwhelmed than I was to begin with. Â NO THANKS!
Well, it’s mighty nice how technology has changed in the 18 years since I started my homeschool journey. Â One terrific thing is how connected I can get with other homeschool moms who have the experience and expertise to truly encourage and assist in a mom-to-mom kind of way. Â Blogs and social media are great. Â Periscope has been awesome for getting to really understand these other ladies in a more personal and authentic way, too!
I’m excited to tell you that this year you can attend a homeschool convention FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME, full of speakers that are authentic homeschool moms just like you, and…..it’s all for FREE! Â Yup!
Right now I believe there are now 40 speakers scheduled to share about everything from babies to college and everything in between!  And these will all be video sessions, so you’ll be able to see the speaker and the demonstrations without having to squint across a big room full of people!  🙂  Check out these sessions that you’ll be able to watch:
Not only are there all these great speakers (and hey!  I’m one of them!), but there will also be swag.  Oh yes!  Freebies and discounts and other goodies will be available for all participants, and I know how you love that.  🙂
It’s FREE to register, so get on over there and sign up so you don’t forget. Â Be sure to let your friends know about this, too. Â The convention is happening July 22-25, 2016, so clear some time in your schedule and plan to soak up some fresh inspiration and encouragement!
In almost 20 years of homeschooling, I think it has been an almost constant wish of mine that I could somehow get a clone of myself. Â (ok. Â Let’s face it–I’d need several clones.) Â When the kids were little, it was challenging to keep all the schooling going amidst nursing the babies, potty training the toddlers, and trying to overcome my sleepiness! Â When they were in the middle years, I still had some pretty rascally little guys running around, and the small matter of a tiny little business I was trying to breathe life into, in addition to nurturing a love for learning for the school-aged kids. Â And now that my homeschooled kids are all teenagers, I STILL feel like I could use more help to multiply my time. Â After all–I want my kids to get everything they need, but I need a few things every now and then too. Â (the nerve!)
We have been longtime fans of audio books in our family. Â With two dyslexic kids, and with a whole tribe that also loved to build with Legos while they listened, audio books have provided hours and hours of enriching entertainment and literature exposure without adding one more thing to my To Do list. Â (except, of course, wrangling kiddos through the library, keeping track of all the discs, paying for the ones that got broken, and paying all the late fees…..) Â I’m so happy with the solution I found. Â Affiliate links have been used in this post.
Last year I decided to try out Audible. Â Audible starts out with a free 30-day trial where you can get two audio books of your choice. Â After that you can become a Gold Member (ooh la la! Â Sounds so fancy!) and pay $14.95 per month and get one audio book per month. Â They also have some great discounts and sales for members that have allowed me to get two books per credit, or add books to our membership for just a couple bucks.
Although I had heard about it before, I had never bothered to look into it too deeply. Â The books I had seen in the ads didn’t look like books I would want to read, and certainly didn’t make me think Homeschool Tool.
But then I saw some other homeschool moms talking about all the great classic literature available on audible and how they loved using it with their kids, and I decided to check it out.
Jackpot!!!
Audible has TONS of books that coordinate with Sonlight and other literature-based curricula, as well as books that your kids will just enjoy reading. Â And not only that–these books are usually read by famous actors and skilled storytellers that do a wonderful job of conveying the storyline, building suspense, adding voices and special effects, etc. Â If you aren’t a gifted out-loud reader, you and your kids will LOVE having books read to you in this way! Â (and if you’re like me and truly love reading books to your kids, Audible can be perfect for times when you’re not available or need to free up a few hours to do something else.) Â Yeah, it might be $14.95 for a book, but when the book takes 10 or 20 hours of your life to read, sister, THAT is a bargain! Â So whether you are recovering from having a baby or the flu, want to get ahead in the kitchen, or just take a nap, audible is there for you.
(And ohmyword fellow mothers–when your kids love fantasy books and you just hate to read them, or they want to listen to the Redwall series, but you don’t want to struggle through all the accents and such, Audible is a godsend!!!)
Other Audible Books that Homeschool Moms will love:
Audible has several options and benefits for you. You can start with a simple 30-day Free Trial and get 2 free audiobooks so you can see how easy it is. We mostly use the audible app on my phone for listening, but you can also listen through the computer, and share the books between devices if you have certain kids that want to listen during their afternoon rest time or whenever it works for them.
Monthly members get 1 new audiobook of your choice each month. And yes, if you don’t make a selection, that credit will just sit in your account til you’re ready for it.Â
Monthly members also get 30% off other audiobooks, plus access to exclusive sales that are often BOGO or deep discounts. (I get a lot of homeschool books this way! Very economical, and I’ll always be able to find the book when I need it!)
If you don’t like a book, you can swap it! So, for classics that have more than one version available, this is great if you find that the one you got isn’t as enjoyable as you expected. Â (however, Audible has customer reviews, which makes it really easy to choose a winner)
You can also purchase audible books through amazon, straight-up, with no membership. It’ll cost you a little more, but might work for those of you that aren’t interested in the member benefits.
Having a helper to keep my kids enjoying great literature even when I can’t personally read to them has been a huge benefit for us!  I hope it’ll be a help to you as well.
I recently told you about my experience with Italian opera and how beautiful and emotional it was. Well, tonite I discovered this wonderful video of a 13 year old girl auditioning for America’s Got Talent. WOW! So awesome. What an inspiring young lady.  I just love showing my kids what other people their age are doing, and let them be reminded that YES it is possible to do awesome things even when you are young.  Be sure to have your children gather round for this beautiful performance.
Welcome to the Enrichment Lifestyle Blog! I'm so glad you're here. :) I'm Erica Johns, and I love to encourage homeschool moms and help them enjoy more of the beauty of the arts in everyday life.
About me: I started my homeschooling journey in 1997 and graduated the last of my six children in 2021. Amidst all the hard work, crazy days, uncertainty, and lost pencils, what I think we really gained was the gift of a lifetime: TIME TOGETHER. So awesome! Click my pic to learn more.
It seems that everyone is busy these days, and homeschool moms are especially so. In the midst of give-give-giving to your family all the time, it can be really difficult to find time to recharge and get your own tank filled. Right?
