The Green Ember is FREE! & Pre-order the newest book!

i pre-listened to the audiobook of The Green Ember by S.D. Wilson.  i know my younger set of kids are gonna love it!  can't wait to share it with them... and for the new book! i went ahead and pre-ordered it since it's only $4.

FREE TODAY! If your family loves a new adventure with an old soul,  get The Green Ember, for $0.  Also, check out S. D. Smith’s new book, The Black Star of Kingston.  #RabbitsWithSwords

And the ART calendar goes to...! & More reflection, anyone?

Wait, I just had a flashback. You know that awkward feeling you get when you're at a raffle or some drawing, and the winner's about to be called out and for that split second you're REALLY hoping... and then... you're not it?

I hate that.

I am so sorry. Here, I've done it again! Seriously, I want to send everyone a calendar. I even want to send a calendar to everyone of y'all who was considering writing a reflective post! Sad, how I wish I could.

At least I am not going to do it like several I've seen done here in Peru. Here, they call out THREE names and the first two ARE NOT the winners. Can you believe that? They call out the first name, and then say, 'I'm sorry, you DIDN'T win'. Then the second, 'I'm sorry, NOR did you'. Imagine. I feel like that would be almost devastating and is one reason for which I strongly dislike raffles here. I feel super sad for whoever hopes and doesn't win...

But then again, how HAPPY for Nicole! Because hers is the name I drew tonight, and tomorrow, I will be sending her the 2014 ART Calendar!! Yippee! And because you all are so generous, I know that you all are really and truly happy for her too! :)


Now, for a confession, I haven't even read any of the entrants' posts yet! I've been saving them all up! Now, I can hardly wait!

To make it easier, I'm going to go ahead and post the linky AGAIN right here in this very same post, AND, I'm hoping, that maybe, just maybe, there might be a few more of you that were hoping/planning to get around to it, so I want to open it back up for a week or two just in case there are any of you who may still be reflecting on 2013/goal setting for 2014 and would like to link up your posts. There are no more giveaways, mind you, but I'd still love it if you'd like to share your posts! I may add a couple more myself. :)

::

Please feel free to link up to your posts in review of 
or reflection upon 2013 or goal setting for 2014!





::

FREE or VERY cheap books!! (kindle & audiobooks)

Happy New Year!! & Look what I found while online today!
I just had to share, especially since a couple of them I've read and have REALLY loved.


FREE ESV Audio Bible!  On christianaudio.com during January only! I already own this and use it EVERY day!

Today's Deals on amazon.com has a few new releases & popular titles on sale:
Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day - TODAY (1/1/14) ONLY! - Scroll down for the titles I found interesting...

Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life is going on my reading list for 2014!  Only $5 for the AUDIOBOOK at christianaudio.com. I saved $4-10!
The kindle version is available here for $9


Quiet by Susan Cain made my top read for 2013!  Grab the kindle edition for only $2.99 (may only be for a limited time?)





CHECK it out. I'm sure it's only for a limited time!   Beth Moore's Amazon Page lists a number of her books for FREE or for $0.99 right now, including:
To Live Is Christ - FREE
Believing God - FREE
The Beloved Disciple - FREE (I'm s.l.o.w.l.y. working through the study version of this right now!)
Praying God's Word Day by Day - $0.99
A Heart Like His: Intimate Reflections on the Life of David - $0.99
Breaking Free: Discover the Victory of Total Surrender - $0.99
Jesus, the One and Only - $0.99
Praying God's Word: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds - $0.99


Possibly Interesting Amazon Daily Deals?!
(I haven't yet read any of these, but am contemplating a few of them)











For more titles on sale TODAY ONLY see:
Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day






*See this post for some the really good reasons you might choose to support our family through our affiliate linkage! :)

A Jolly Christmas Card! {& Reflection Extension}

The time for entering a reflective blog post is being extended to December 31st!

If you, like me, were totally hoping/planning to reflect and write and enter, and ran plumb out of time, you now have a couple of extra days, which only seems sensible as we were all pleasantly occupied with Christmas! If not, I'd be delighted to send the calendar to the only entrant so far, my dear friend Tammy!!! You may link your post any time before midnight on 12/31 in the linky or in the comments, right over here at this post!

On Christmas morning, we opened our 2014 Art Calendar as our first family gift. I'm serious. I know it might well be a silly thing, but I really love our little tradition. ;) Despite the fact that no one looks particularly interested (judging by facial expressions alone), everyone really was excited about this... really.

As a side note, did you see our Christmas card this year? Since we recently took "official" family pictures when we did our BIG announcement, we decided to make this one a little extra jolly. 

So, here it is... :)

You may notice a little sheen on my upper arm. That is sweat. Keep in mind that we are experiencing HOT weather down here in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in the jungles of Peru. That explains that. I won't describe in detail the damp state of my clothing after getting out of the car in 90 degree weather without air conditioning in my pregnant condition...

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your holidays immensely!

Visual Latin {a giveaway!}

Home educating magazine is having a giveaway for Visual Latin curriculum! 

I've looked at the free lessons w/ my boys... we liked it. :) It's one I'd definitely want to look at further!

Enter here: http://www.wellplannedday.com/contest01.php

I actually have looked at this VERY recently, downloaded and watched the lessons. Here's what we liked:

• the 4 intro and 2 first lessons are free to try on their site! (I love it when businesses express confidence in their product by giving sizable free trials - a good product will sell itself!)
• there are a TON of freebies also on the site - vocab cards, worksheets, etc
• the curriculum is fully downloadable!!
• the videos are SHORT and INTERESTING.
  
• the guy in the videos is nice and subtly funny.
• it's evident that the guy loves languages.
• he makes some little mistakes, but recovers well, which just serves to make it real.
• the well organized site and professional videos are done by two homeschool families.

CM Blog Carnival - vote & win!

Well, as mentioned in a previous post, it is high time to celebrate!  After all, we are alive!  That's one seriously good thing!  We got through the last couple months and are alive to tell about it.  :)   Okay, I'll admit, it wasn't even that bad, either! 

That and this blog has reached a milestone, 100+ followers! (ahem, not that I've been counting... that'd be google's job)

Basically, I thought it'd just be a good excuse to have a little fun!  You like?

It just so happens that very soon, we'll be trying out some experimental changes with the Charlotte Mason blog carnival.  You may or may not have noticed that the carnival is in need of some rejuvenation lately?  Well, several of us have been chatting and we'd like to breathe some life into it... Go here to read about the changes.

So, are you anxiously wondering when I'm going to come to the point and talk about the whole vote & win thing?  Did I say win?!  prizes?!  On a CM blog?!  No.  Don't worry, we will NOT call it a prize. We'll just call it straight...  It's a bribe. There you have it.  I know, not very respectable.

I'm offering a really cool prize bribe to any of my readers and/or CM blog carnival participants or anyone perhaps just plain interested in participating in the carnival, mostly because it's time to celebrate!  ...well, that and I hope it will convince some of you to take the time to vote and comment regarding the Charlotte Mason blog carnival.  You see, it's not so sneaky.  Is it?

{Does it make it any better that the prize bribe is from simplycharlottemason.com?}

Click here to vote & comment to win.

What's the prize?

 From the SCM website:

Discipleship is more than a curriculum.

If you’re searching for that perfect curriculum to disciple your children, this live workshop will help you take a fresh look at what Biblical discipleship really is. Sonya explains the three facets of Biblical discipleship and how you can weave them into your home life.

How to enter to win:
Click over to this page, give your opinion in the four polls, and then leave a carnival related comment (only comments left on this page will be eligible). Comments left before March 22nd will be entered to win.  :)  Is that fun? 

Oh, and if you've already voted, don't worry, just go back and leave a comment to be entered to win.

weekly nature journal {printable}

Need a little help with nature study?  Sometimes I do.

Here we are back on the coast of Peru, and I'll just say that the coastal region is NOT as beautiful and lusciously inviting as the jungle.

not at all.




Here we are finding that we are no longer naturally drawn outdoors.  Well, that and living in an apartment on the fourth floor behind several sets of locked doors has it's deterring factors as well I suppose.  It's rather difficult to get out!

Oh, and we're supposed to be actually increasing our journal entries this term.

So, to help with this dilemma, I've crafted up some pages that will give my guys some guidelines, freedom to choose the format of their daily journal entries, as well as a list of ideas for what to write/sketch every day.

Yes, I said EVERY day.

Right. That hasn't happened yet, mind you. :)

I want us to get into the habit, at least for a time, of taking note of the glories we see outdoors, keeping our eyes open to the beautifully simple gifts of every day.




These journaling pages are very utilitarian and will never actually take the place of our official nature journals (occasionally handcrafted, always highly valuable books that are meant to be more contemplative and artistic).

Have a look, download the pages, but keep in mind, it may be more helpful to use them to come up with ideas for making something all your own  :)




I've included a eensy-weensy bit of instruction, a list of places to begin to look for nature inspiration, and several different formats for pages. Some have more lines for writing, others have more room for the sketches. I've let my boys choose, and they both chose the same format I would have chosen (the first).

Download here:

There are two different files with exactly the same content, just different orientation, choose whichever suits best...
{landscape} and {portrait}

Joy to the World! A Christmas Carol Songbook!

Hey there friends and merrymakers!
I hope you are all enjoying the days leading up to Christmas by basking in the Light of lights...

...only 7 more days!

I've compiled a little book that might be helpful (or just plain fun) with Christmas carols and other holiday songs in Spanish and English (with chords).  My budding musicians are aspiring to actually sing with AND play for the church with their fellow Sunday schoolers this year, so it became necessary to have a chord book with both languages (the chords have different names in Spanish too, sorry English chords only).  Plus, I wanted one!  Then I got to thinking I bet there are more people out there that might be looking for this very thing... and so, here you have it!  :)




{Right click here to save .pdf to your computer}


Oh, and it's formatted so that if you print it out booklet style (or whatever your computer calls it) the English/Spanish should be face to face so that the Spanish is on the left, English on the right when you have it open. ;)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, 

and a Blessed New Year to you all!   

PS. I know it may be a teensy weensy bit late getting this posted, but hey! you'll be REALLY ready for next year!  and you can always make up for lost time by singing each song three times a day, at every meal, in both languages, in rounds and 4 part harmony... every day from now 'til Christmas!  ;)  Of course, why stop then?!  OKAY. alright. enough already...

Plutarch Study - Alexander

"Using history as a mirror I try by whatever means I can to improve my own life and to model it by the standard of all that is best in those whose lives I write. As a result I feel as though I were conversing and indeed living with them; by means of history I receive each one of them in turn, welcome and entertain them as guests and consider their stature and their qualities and select from their actions the most authoritative and the best with a view to getting to know them. What greater pleasure could one enjoy than this or what more efficacious in improving one’s own character?"

~ Plutarch

So, we carry on in our study Plutarch... last term was Caesar, which was fun as it coincided on the AO schedule with our reading of Shakespeare's Caesar AND the boys have just come to Y6 in which they began reading Augustus Caesar's World. YAY! ...for making LOTS of connections! :)

This term Plutarch's life of Alexander is scheduled. Which we are REALLY enjoying. As we're piling up several terms of Plutarch studied now, we've been excited to discover several connections between famous men of the ancient world. This time as we were reading along, the boys' ears both pricked up as they heard the name of one of the generals opposing Alexander... (you'll have to read it to find out who! ;) He was just mentioned at first in passing (later in more detail), but the mere mention of his name sparked an afternoon flurry of research! Yippee!

Now, in general with Plutarch, we've kind of just taken it as another reading. I like to encourage meaningful discussion if it comes up, but mostly I'm hoping that a lot of the lessons will sink in naturally. ;) I haven't been lucky enough to coincide our study of Plutarch with a term when one of Anne's study guides was available. I like how she puts in a few new vocabulary words to watch out for, a tiny bit of background info, etc. I really like her guides. I really would like to use them. :) So, obviously, I can't wait 'til we get to a life that we can use one her studies for!!!

In the meantime, we are studying Alexander, and alas there is no study for Alexander... so, in my zeal of trying to implement our studies of Plutarch for the purpose intended (*see quote above) - encouragement of citizenship and character training... and not having the time nor skill to do what Anne's done, I've made a character sketch printable for Alexander. Keep in mind, this is intended for Plutarch beginners! I made it to help to get my student's thinking about why we're studying these ancient guys. It isn't a worksheet to be graded. Matter of fact, I gave a copy to each of my boys at the start of the term, and they are free to fill out or not fill out whichever things strike their fancy, as they go. I'm hoping this will help them keep their head wrapped around the man as the 12 week term progresses... especially as we'll have kind of an interrupted term this time around.



Download the Alexander Printable HERE.


Helpful Links:
Ambleside Online Plutarch Rotation
Why Read Plutarch?, article by George Grant
"Plutarch's Lives" as Affording Some Education as a Citizen, A Parent's Review Article, by Miss M. Ambler.
How We Study Plutarch, by lindafay - She lists some great practical ideas...

how to go weekly...

How to make a weekly list using the Ambleside Online curriculum...

...notice I use my AO list to note groceries, and new guitar chords I'm learning too ;)

I need lists.  I need to see what needs to be done, as well as be encouraged seeing what's been finished!  Lists are wonderful!  However, if the list is too long, or too boring, or poorly organized it does me NO good.  I make lots of lists, but the one I use absolutely MOST often is my AO weekly list!  :)


Get a hold of the Term Schedules:

First of all, we are spoiled rotten because of the files AmblesidOnline is coming out with VERY SOON (*edited 4/9/2013) for EVERY AO year in both .pdf and .doc format! You will be able to find all these schedules at AmblesideOnline.org or on the forum. I print a copy of the entire year for my Homeschool Planning Day every year and use it extensively in my planning throughout the year.

The same information is available on the AO site for every year.  You'll see the pages for the booklists and the schedules for each year.  But, that long list is SO overwhelming for me... having to find my place each week, and oh me oh my...  I'm so thankful for the Term Schedules!

Here's an idea of what you'll be looking for in minuscule version :)

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Basically, what we have here is all the AO subjects/readings for year 2 plotted out by week (horizontally), and books/subjects (vertically).  In a lot of cases it even has the readings broken up.  Sometimes not, it depends on the book because there are different versions available, so you can easily just count the pages in your book and evenly divide it up over the term.

I used to just have a print out of this glued to my forehead handy at all times and crossed everything off as we read/narrated.  It has blank fields for you to add in assignments for math, language arts, foreign language, handiwork, etc.  This was a really easy way to go in year one and two even.  But increase the number of children = the result is more complicated...

SO.  I personally need to limit what I see.  Too much information leaves me feeling quite swamped and overwhelmed.  Which leads me in the direction (finally) this post is supposed to be going; the need for a weekly list.

Converting to a weekly list:

The idea is to basically just transfer all the information from one week at a time from the Term Schedule (or from the AO Schedules online), to fit our daily routine.  I fill out this weekly list each term so that I have 12 weeks done ahead of time.  This is my main task each Homeschool Planning Day.  Transferring the information to a weekly list, counting off pages, filling in the assignments for the other subjects, etc.

If you need help figuring out, or putting order to your daily routine, I highly recommend Managers of Their Homes (MOTH), which was vital early when I was first beginning juggling of days. :)

My weekly list incorporates time frames that normally (hah!) work for us... but we are SUPER flexible.  It's there as a guide, nothing more.  Mainly, I work from the following schedule as a list of what I have to accomplish that day.  Here's an example (sorry it's not super clear).



You'll notice the little checkboxes!  These help me keep track of what everyone's doing and done.  :) I'm such a listy girl :)  Basically, a LOT of the information on this list is just transcribed from Judy's Term Schedules pictured above. I put in every assignment and every reading, the exact page numbers so that not only they know what to read, but I know what they're reading (so that I can stay ahead in the readings, if desired, and so that I can know what they are to narrate).

Every 4 weeks I print off the two older boys and myself a booklet of 4 weeks worth (4 pages) of their weekly assignments.  I print it off using booklet format on my computer and it ends up looking something like this:

Imagine that middle gray as a fold ;)

Of course, I had to go and make a fun version for my seven year old girl to check off her assignments as well, here's a peek at hers (she doesn't have all the page numbers on her assignments because for the most part, we're still doing most of her readings together out loud... they are detailed out on the weekly list pictured above):



Now, I could go on FOREVER about my routine, schedule, weekly list... but I'll stop and see if there are any questions.  If there are, I'll be happy to elaborate  ;)  If not, I'll be satisfied knowing that this post covered everything you wanted to know about how to make a weekly list for multiple children doing Ambleside Online!!   heheh.  ;)

I did make a blank weekly list that someone may be interested in using as a guide in making your own weekly list... it's here:

(right click the image and select Save As... to save the full-size pdf file to your computer)
and here's a zip file of the pdf and doc version :)

Composer: Beethoven - free download

whoops!  I forgot to put this on the last post...
I made a Beethoven coloring sheet:

download it here

(right click and 'save as...' or click on the link to print it off)


Enjoy!