by Erica Johns | May 2, 2016 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms, History
This week we have an exciting giveaway from Notgrass History!
One winner will receive the Uncle Sam and You Curriculum Package with Student Workbook and Lesson Review, which has a Retail value $121.85!
How do elections work? What does the President do all day? Who decides where stop signs go? What is Labor Day? Uncle Sam and You is a one-year civics course that answers these questions and many more. Designed for students in grades 5 through 8, this curriculum guides you on an engaging tour of American government. Learn about elected leaders and everyday citizens who have important roles to fill in making our country work.
Congratulations to our winner, Crystal W!
by Erica Johns | Apr 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
Affiliate links are included in this post.
Homeschool moms love the Omnibus sale, and it’s no wonder! This once-a-year sale brings home educators a huge bunch of encouragement, training, and resources that will help you with so many aspects of your life.
If you love to listen to audios while you go for a walk, nurse the baby, or run on the treadmill, this bundle sale is a perfect fit for you, because there are over 40 (!!!) MP3 audios included in this bundle that will help you with topics such as
* homeschooling high schoolers
* special needs kids
* upper level math
* marriage
* teaching music
* project-based learning
* behavior issues (yours and your kids! ha!)
* geography, science, living math
* Charlotte Mason homeschooling
* teen entrepreneurship
* and many more!
There are also lots of other types of resources included in the bundle that will help you from preschool through high school, and everything in between.
by Erica Johns | Apr 27, 2016 | Great Stuff for Homeschool Moms
Affiliate links are used in this post.
Does being a mom and homemaker ever feel a little too hard?
There’s no question that you love your family like crazy and you’d do anything for them, but we all know it can be an exhausting job.  Add in the commitment to homeschool, and it’s an extra doozy.
If you’re anything like me, I bet you wish your home felt more put together and peaceful, you kept up with housework better, you were more consistent about serving healthy, homemade meals, and you weren’t running ragged so much of the time.  We want the dream! Right?
Because these families of ours? They matter more than anything else. Our job is so important, and we really want to do it right.  But so often, we end up feeling discouraged and even like we’re failing.
Maybe you wonder how you can keep up with it all and still have the energy and intentionality to be the kind of mom, wife, and woman you want to be.
Now, I know as well as you do that homemaking is never going to be stress-free (though it sure sounds nice). But what if you had more (and better) tools to help make it stress-less?
That’s why I’m really pleased to tell you about something very special happening right now called The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle 2016.
It was created to give you a terrific collection of amazing, high-quality resources to take some of the stress, overwhelm, and difficulty out of homemaking and mothering.
To make you feel like you’re winning more often.  (I like to win, don’t you?)
And to bolster you in the work you’re doing, because every awesome, hard-working mom deserves a helping hand.
The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle includes 93 hand-picked eBooks, eCourses, and printables, on topics that matter to moms such as:
- organization, routines & creating a cozy home
- recipes, grocery shopping and meal planning
- budgeting and saving money
- motherhood (no matter what age your kids are)
- cultivating a strong marriage
- faith (for you & your kids)
- and even self-care (like exercise, weight loss, life planning and coloring books!)
- and much more…
You have a full year to download the eBooks and printables and take the online eCourses, and everything you’ve downloaded becomes part of your permanent library, so you can go back to it whenever you need it.
Plus, it comes with these FREE bonus offers from companies who know what homemakers need and want. Some are 100% free; other are yours for the cost of shipping only. You’ll get:
- FREE Mrs. Meyer’s Dish Soap, Mrs. Meyer’s Multi Surface Spray, Grove Collaborative Spray Bottle, Grove Collaborative Scrubber Sponges and FREE 60-day VIP trial with FREE shipping from Grove Collaborative ($30 value)
- FREE Online Class from Craftsy ($29.99-$69.99 value)
- FREE Kids Discovery Box from GreenKidCrafts.com ($24.95 value)
- $15 Gift Certificate to InkWELL Press ($15 value)
- $15 Credit to Hope Ink Shop PLUS Two FREE 8×10 Art Prints with Any Purchase ($71)
- FREE SPOT Treatment for Acne & Eczema OR a $15 Gift Certificate from Bloom Naturals ($15 value)
- FREE 90-Day Pro Membership to ListPlanIt.com ($30)
- FREE 1-Year MollyGreen.com Membership ($29 value)
- FREE Hand Massage Routine Videos from Melt Couples Massage ($24 value)
It’s available for just 6 days – from now until Monday, May 2nd, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. That’s why the Ultimate Bundles team can offer so much, because they only have permission to sell it for such a short period of time.
The total value is an astonishing $1000+ (plus over $300 in bonuses), but you get it for just $29.97. That’s 97% off what it would cost to buy everything individually!
Learn more or get your bundle now!
If you think getting all those homemaking & mothering helps for less than $30 sounds like a steal, then make sure to go HERE to see exactly what it includes and grab yours before this deal ends!
by Erica Johns | Apr 27, 2016 | Notebooking
| By now you probably all know that I’m an enthusiastic sponsor, parent, and affiliate when it comes to Notebooking Pages. 🙂 Today kicks off their big 10th Birthday Sale, and I do NOT want you to miss it! This is the very best price I’ve seen for this awesome resource that will serve your family well from K-12. I’m sweetening the deal by offering a FREE COLLECTION from Enrichment Studies to all of you that purchase through my link here. Simply forward your email receipt to Erica@EnrichmentStudies.com and tell me what collection you want, and I’ll set it up for you! This sale is only for 3 days, so don’t miss it. |
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Now through Friday, April 29th:
Save $47
on Notebooking Pages
LIFETIME Memberships!
The Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Membership collection
makes notebooking SIMPLE, BEAUTIFUL, and DO-ABLE while keeping busywork, boredom, and burnout at bay.
Membership Features and Benefits
- You have unlimited access to the complete notebooking pages collection. … There is NO hurry to download everything. You never lose access! Use your pages with your children AND grandchildren.
- You receive 1000s of topical pages and designs. … Your children can always find just the right notebooking page to complement their study, creative style, or mood that day.
- You receive notebooking pages designed to work with any size family. …Notebooking Pages publisher, Debra Reed, has 10 children with various biological backgrounds, traits, learning strengths and weaknesses. She designs pages with them in mind! Without a doubt, these will work for a WIDE variety of children.
- You receive pages with varying amounts and types of line styles/widths. …You can use them with your very young AND mature writers K-12.
- And probably the BEST feature and benefit …
You receive ALL current PLUS all FUTURE notebooking pages.
Your membership grows with value, options, & topics every year!
LIFETIME Membership Bonus #1
Sign up today and receive …
12 months FREE access to the notebooking web-app
The Notebooking Publisherâ„¢
Great for moms, teens and high schoolers!
LIFETIME Membership Bonus #2
Sign up today and receive …
$100+ bundle of gifts from membership sponsors . . .
Homeschool planning/planner resources, copywork, unit-studies, art & music studies, Bible curriculum, nature studies, & more!
This is a SUPER discount on
Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Memberships
… don’t miss out!
Save $47 by visiting the link below!
http://notebookingpages.com/memberships-2016bday
Get ALL current & future notebooking pages, PLUS $100+ homeschool e-bonuses, PLUS 12 months access to the notebooking web-app!
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by Erica Johns | Apr 26, 2016 | Math, Mom to Mom
Teaching math to my kids has been one of the toughest, and sometimes most frustrating aspects of homeschooling. Of the four remaining kids that I have at home, two are doing great working independently using CTC Math and Life of Fred. And two struggle to retain…..just about everything. We have tried many, many different things, and still haven’t found that magic approach that really sticks for these two kids.
Honestly, you guys, while on the one hand I worry about how on earth I’m going to get these kids through high school math, on the OTHER hand, math time is where I really shine as a paragon of patience. And actually, I’m not even kidding when I say that.
I don’t want to mess my kids up, you know? And if they don’t understand, it’s not like that’s THEIR fault, right? And if they feel jittery or upset or like someone is mad at them, how can they use their brain power to hopefully do their math? They can’t.
So, I’m calm. I speak so, so nicely. I gently remind them of what they did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before…..and show them examples.
We get out the white boards and dry erase markers. I talk them through the process. I give them fun little hints to help them remember. (ha)
In short, I’m a paragon of virtue. While the gray hairs are sprouting and inwardly I’m probably losing minutes from my life. lol (But gaining stars in my crown, y’all! Stars in my crown! lol)
Well, the other day one of my kids was just stuck. Absolutely stuck. As it sometimes happens, it was for something that really shouldn’t be too hard for him to do. For whatever mysterious reason (so many mysteries like this in our life!) the way he was trying to think of it was taking him a looooong time.
This mysterious math problem? “What is half of 34?”
I gave him space.
I gave him suggestions.
I wrote out the problem on the white board.
And after about ten minutes, I took my frazzled, frustrated self over to the couch. And pulled a blanket over my head.
Yup.
(FYI: Humor works well to diffuse frustration. And the kids won’t cry.)
I sent the above text message to my friend Amy. She’s a fellow homeschool mom who also has her share of struggles. She also used to be a high school algebra teacher. (So I complain to her about our math woes from time to time) Â You can see how sympathetic she was. LOL (So glad my suffering can bring joy to someone else! hahahaha)
Well, we got through math that day, of course. And while I was glad that I’d been able to remain calm (nobody could see the faces I was making under the blanket), there was still that lingering worry about the homeschooling itself:
What am I doing wrong?
How can I help my kids succeed?
What if I don’t figure it out in time?
Will they be ok?
Am I screwing this up?
Now, I’ve been at this homeschooling gig for a long time. This is the end of our 18th year since we began, in fact, and two of our kids are grown adults. So, I can objectively know that things will come together sooner or later, I am not screwing everything up, and they will be ok.
But those doubts and fears can creep in. In some seasons it can feel overwhelming.
I don’t have any pretty answers for this. Â This is just the tension that goes along with the responsibility of being in charge of your child’s education. Â And for those of us with kids that struggle with academics, it can be regularly daunting. Â I don’t share this in order to provide an easy answer. Â It’s only to let you know that we all have these things. Â You aren’t alone.
If you want to feel less alone, if you want to hear from a mom who tells it like it is, let’s get connected, ok? Â You can sign up to get my newsletter, which includes a bunch of stuff including regular from-the-trenches posts from me. Â You can follow me on Periscope and interact with me over there live. Â I also plan to get going on Facebook live, so if you Like Enrichment Studies over there, we can connect that way, and you’re also welcome to join the Enrichment Lifestyle group on FB as well. Â I just know it helps to keep it real with other people that are also going through the same kind of stuff.
