It’s Thursday again, and this week the 4 Moms are tackling the question, “What do you do when the children need to learn things you can’t teach (a foreign language, dissecting, trig, etc)?”

This used to be a scary question in the early days of homeschooling when many people believed parents weren’t qualified to educate their children unless they had a degree in teaching.  To some, it’s still a scary question.  Since I am a second generation homeschooler and have been that student, I don’t find it scary at all.  I hope my own experience can provide some encouragement for those who do still have these concerns.

One good answer is to learn with your children.  Many parents take this route, and it works beautifully for many subjects, but in some cases it just isn’t practical.

Another possible answer is to find another teacher such as a private tutor or a homeschool co-op.  This option is becoming wildly popular and solves the problem for many families, but there are costs and time commitments and sometimes other difficulties as well.  For one reason or another sometimes this too is undesirable or impractical.

This is the issue that drives many homeschoolers to return to the public school system for high school, but it doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker for homeschooling.  There is another way.

I was finishing up 5th grade in public school when my parents made the decision to homeschool.  My mom was terrified.  She had no college education, and 5 children at the time, 3 of them under 5yo.  She also had no confidence that she could teach a high school student, which I would be within a few short years.

I was already an advanced student in several subjects, and math was going to be an issue immediately.  Although I was just a 5th grader, I had been moved to the 8th grade math class in my school, which I finished with flying colors.  That was no surprise, since I was already studying 2nd year algebra after school at home.  Guess what?  We were already homeschooling, though we didn’t know it at the time!

When we started homeschooling and my mom was unable to help with my math, my education didn’t come to a standstill.  Instead, at my parents’ urging I learned to teach myself.  Even before the days of Google and the all-knowing Internet, I learned that with some persistence I could find the answers I needed.  If I ran into a concept I didn’t understand, I looked it up in another book.  And another.  And another.  Sometimes my dad’s old college texts provided an answer, and sometimes I had to visit the library.  Eventually, I found a teacher or author who thought like I did and the explanation  became clear – or I began to wrap my mind around the concept through repeated exposure.  Sometimes it was frustrating; I remember crying over functions, but eventually I realized how simple they were.  Either way, I was always able to advance.  Sometimes it was a struggle, but these during these times I was learning other lessons as well as the specific mathematical concept that plagued me at the moment.  In the end, I completed not just 2nd year algebra but also geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus and physics.

I did the same with Latin, completing 2 years of study even though neither of my parents or anyone else we knew had studied the language.  The first year was a breeze, but the second took more like two years.  The text was massive and dry, and I felt grammar and syntax weren’t always presented clearly.  There were times I wanted to quit, but I finished the book – and I learned to truly apply myself during that difficult time.

I’m not the only one; several of my children have already surpassed me in subjects both compulsory and voluntary, following their interests and abilities to both teach themselves and learn from other sources.

Some children are more self-motivated than others, and I may have done better than some when it came to teaching myself.  However, I believe any child can and should be encouraged to develop this ability, and the best way to do it may simply be through necessity.

Homeschoolers are sometimes criticized for not having good study habits, and this may be warranted since they often don’t have the sheer workload that a student in a more traditional school setting may have.  However, they also tend to be praised for their resourcefulness, creativity, problem-solving skills, and ability to think outside the box.  The question of how to learn a subject your teacher doesn’t know is the perfect opportunity for a student to develop and exercise those skills.

Have you faced this issue? What was your solution?

From the other Moms:

• Raising Olives 
• Smockity Frocks
• The Common Room

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• August 2 - How do you handle bossy older sisters
• August 9 - Q&A

Recent topics:

• July 19 - 4 Moms: Our early years of homeschooling
• July 12 - 4 Moms Q&A on breastfeeding
• July 5 - 4 Moms on dating & courtship
• June 28 - 4 Moms share favorite freezer meal recipes {linky}
• June 21 - 4 Moms share the secret to keeping your energy up
• June 14 - 4 Moms Q&A: teaching boys to respect girls; quick snacks; disciplining a hot-tempered toddler
• June 7 - 4 Moms: How did you know you wanted/could handle a large family?

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

This week the 4 Moms are answering the question,

What did homeschooling look like when your oldest was 5?  How much time?  What subjects?

When my oldest was 5, I had a 4yo, a 2yo and a baby.  I may also have been pregnant and suffering with severe morning sickness, depending on exactly when in the course of that year we are looking.  It was not an easy season in life, but I was a  control-freak very disciplined and organized person.  I was feeling seriously challenged, but I had not yet given up on the idea that I could do it all.

I placed a lot of emphasis on having a firm and predictable daily schedule, and this actually worked reasonably well for us in that season.  I had to build in plenty of time for diaper changes and other interruptions, but the toddler learned that school time was high-chair time, I could nurse the baby with one arm, and that just left 2 “older” children to teach, so we were able to do most of what we planned to do each day.

Part of the reason were able to do this is that we were organized and I was disciplined, but another reason is that I kept my expectations reasonable.  I didn’t try to do a full 6 course curriculum with the 5yo and a separate Preschool curriculum with the 4yo while wrangling a baby and a toddler.  Instead, we used Five in a Row, and even then we didn’t follow the instructions exactly or use every single idea in the book.  We made it fit us, rather than making our day fit the book.  ”School” mostly consisted of reading a fun, favorite, familiar picture book, followed by discussions about math, science, history and whatever other lessons might lie hidden within.  It is a learning technique that we later used with Sonlight, and still use when reading with and to little ones.

You may be shocked to learn that not one of my children has read proficiently before the age of 6.  Most have been 7 or 8 when they really take off into books.  I know most children are capable of learning to read at earlier ages, but in our experience it comes much more easily when you wait for them to reach developmental milestones.  The concept that they struggle with at 4 or 5 or even 6 can simply “click” overnight when they are ready, and I suspect part of the reason my children enjoy reading so very much is because we waited until the learning process was relatively painless.

How do I know when they are ready?  I wait until a child expresses interest in learning to read, and we start lessons.  If you are reading interesting books aloud to your children, they will want to learn to read for themselves.  If they struggle with reading lessons, we back off and wait a while, then try again.

Our oldest was a brilliant baby.  I know every parent thinks that, but she used over 150 words by her first birthday.  In 9 three-minute sessions she learned the sounds of all the letters – at the age of 19 months!  Nonetheless, she was not ready to read until she was 6 1/2.  Once she started, she was reading Tolkien and C.S. Lewis within 6 months.

I tell you this because I don’t believe that school for a 5yo needs to consist of intensive phonics, penmanship, spelling, arithmetic, history, and science every day.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it this way if it suits your family and your child, but it certainly isn’t a necessary or indispensable part of a very young child’s education. We are less structured now than we used to be, but even in our more structured days homeschooling for our 5yo more closely resembled educational play than institutional-style school.

Instead, it is important to know and remember your ultimate goal(s) in education, and self-consciously work in that direction.  We know ours.  Do you know yours?

From the other Moms:

• Raising Olives 
• Smockity Frocks
• The Common Room

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• July 26 - What do you do when the children need to learn things you can’t teach (a foreign language, dissecting, trig, etc)?
• August 2 - How do you handle bossy older sisters
• August 9 - Q&A

Recent topics:

• July 12 - 4 Moms Q&A on breastfeeding
• July 5 - 4 Moms on dating & courtship
• June 28 - 4 Moms share favorite freezer meal recipes {linky}
• June 21 - 4 Moms share the secret to keeping your energy up
• June 14 - 4 Moms Q&A: teaching boys to respect girls; quick snacks; disciplining a hot-tempered toddler
• June 7 - 4 Moms: How did you know you wanted/could handle a large family?

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

?

This week, we four moms of many are talking about how to homeschool through chronic illness or pregnancy.  If your morning sickness is bad enough, the two may sound and feel like the same thing.

If we’re talking about things that bring daily school to a screeching halt, we could also add interstate moves to the list.  We had a beautiful daily schedule when we lived in Ohio, and I had 6 children under 10 at the time, expecting #7.  Once we moved, things were never the same again.

I expected our move to change things, but I did not expect the change to be permanent.  For this reason, I spent several months waiting for our lives to fall back into order naturally.  It didn’t help that I was in the midst of my worst pregnancy ever, with non-stop vomiting, suspected gestational diabetes, little or no control over my diet (we were not living in our own home at the time), and several other major and inescapable sources of stress around us.

When our lives didn’t quickly and naturally slip back into something resembling the old order, I spent several months sinking into a slow motion panic, afraid that the brains of our children were turning to mush while I watched helplessly from my miserable place on the sofa.

See?  Pregnancy isn’t always a breeze for moms of many.

But I learned something along the way.  I learned that not all education happens at the table with a pencil and a textbook.

It doesn’t even always involve a book, though it almost pains me to say so.

As long as children are not spending their days plastered to the television, immersing themselves in video games, or otherwise indulging in wanton purposeful brain damage, they are probably learning new things.

That’s not to say that you should let them quit school and do what they want for the rest of their days.  Just don’t panic if school isn’t happening the way you envision it while you are sick.

Here are some ways to keep educating your children even when you can hardly crawl out of bed:

• Read to your children, and encourage them to read.  Read together in your bed, if that’s where you spend most of your time.  That is where reading lessons happen in my house even when I’m well.
• Make sure you provide plenty of good literature and nonfiction, and not too much “brain candy.”  Children who read twaddle will quickly come to crave it just like the child who has been raised on breakfast pastries will crave that morning dose of sugar.  It sometimes takes self control and extra effort to develop a taste for what is best for us.
• Have your children narrate back to you when you read aloud to them.  Encourage them to tell the story in their own words.  Very little ones often show a desire to do this naturally, like when your toddler wants to “read” you her favorite book.  I have also let the young ones narrate to each other to help “catch up” when one misses a chapter of a book we’re reading together.
• Encourage the independent pursuit of hobbies and interests.  Urge your children to dig deeper into what interests them, and to learn fun or interesting new skills.
• Talk to your children, and with your children.  This is huge!  Explain difficult concepts, even if you think they’re too young to completely grasp what you are talking about.  You are planting seeds and concepts.  Answer questions.  Ask questions.  Include them in discussions, even if they’re too young to really participate.  Engage.  Don’t sell your children short: everything is fair game at every age.
• Use videos judiciously.  Work hard not to create an atmosphere where videos are the default method of entertaining children or killing time.  Non-fiction and educational videos abound.  Use them as a basis for discussions rather than just time-fillers.  Let the kids watch a familiar/favorite video but require them to use the foreign language track rather than English.  My kids groan, but never decline.

So much learning can be self directed and self motivated, but often our children miss out on that aspect when we are strong and healthy enough to hover over them and manage all aspects of their day.  It’s not  good to leave a child to himself (Proverbs 29:15), but I do think that we are sometimes inclined to manage their days a little too closely.  The inability to do so can sometimes provide new opportunities for growth and learning that our children might have missed otherwise.

Here’s what the other 3 moms say:

• Connie at Smockity Frocks
• Headmistress @  The Common Room
• Kimberly @ Raising Olives

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• May 3 - Cooking with leftovers
• May 10 - Favorite frugal tips
• May 17 - Q&A
• May 24 - Homeschooling when in a rotten temper

Recent topics:

• April 26 - 4 Moms Q&A: courtship, dental bills, and 40,000 diapers
• April 19 - 4 Moms: Tithing and saving on one income
• April 12 - 4 Moms: Tithing and saving on one income
• April 5 - 4 Moms: finding time/ideas for blogging

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

Since the 4 of us are bloggers, you might think this part was easy.  We’re natural writers, right?  So writing must come easily to our children as well.

Can you feel the sarcasm dripping like honey from Pooh’s bee tree?

First of all, writing doesn’t come easily to me.  I remember asking for more writing work in school because it was one subject that I never thought I was really good at.  I knew all the technicals of style and composition, and I got good grades.  I was good enough, but never felt that I really had any spark in my style.

After 6 years as a blogger, I have to admit I still often feel that way.  You know that funny lady that can make a bad day sound so hilarious you almost wish you had the same day?  That’s not me.  She may live in my head, but we don’t see each other often.  I’m the quiet, boring woman who gives an amused little snort at the funniest parts of the movie when everyone in the room is falling on the floor with laughter.  I’m always a little surprised when I review old posts on my blog.  I wrote that?  Hey, I’m good!

Learning to write takes a thorough knowledge of the technicals, followed by lots of practice.  It’s a long process, never mastered but always improving – if you continue to work on it.

I learned the technicals by taking a few short writing courses and writing endless essays for my dad.  I gained more practice writing letters to friends and family and to one young man who initially had very little interest in returning them.   Later, I practiced even more by joining the internet world in this crazy thing called blogging.

Our children have followed similar paths, each in her own way.  Some really do have a spark in their style.  They may not have mastered the technicals entirely, but you really could say writing comes naturally to them.  Even so, they have work to do.  Talent may give them the style that some of us must work so hard to gain, but they still have to work to master the basics.

I just spent a long time not answering the question, didn’t I?  But I am a homeschool graduate myself, and I think I am one example of an answer to this question.  My children are another.

We teach our children to write first by teaching them to read.  They are encouraged to read a lot.  We try to steer them toward truly good writing: literary classics and more books by modern masters of the written word.  We love to collect books and have built up a rather respectable library over the years.

Filling their heads with good examples of great literature gives them a solid start in learning to write.  I have always been fascinated at how easy it  can be to deduce a child’s current favorite author by the evolution of her writing style.

Over the years, we have also required them to write something daily.  It may be a journal entry, a letter, a blog post, or a few paragraphs on an assigned topic.  It may be a short story, summary of a book they read recently, or a poem.  It may be copywork for the younger ones.  This met with strong resistance at first, but they quickly adjusted and learned that it wasn’t as hard as it seemed.  The more regularly we required this, the better they did.

But a thorough mastery of the basics really does build both confidence and competence, and right now we have enrolled Kaitlyn and Lydia in an online interactive essay class with a live teacher.  I mentioned this in another post, and after a few more weeks they are as challenged and inspired as ever.  I know that I could probably do for them what he is doing if I took the time to create or follow a course, but I haven’t done it in such a structured way yet and it’s helpful for me to see his friendly critiques and praise of their work as well.  He does an impressive job of balancing the two.  It’s also helpful that they can see the other students’ work and the instructor’s notes on their work as well for comparison.  It doesn’t hurt that he is funny, and has quoted The Princess Bride and other family favorites in his lectures.

Kaitlyn is working on a post that details how the class works and what she likes best about it, so watch for that soon and have your questions ready for her!

How have you taught your children to write compositions and essays?

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• March 8 – (food related topic)
• March 15 – How to save memories without being overrun

Recent topics:

• February 16 - 4 Moms Q&A
• February 9 - 4 Moms eat too many sweets {dessert linky}
• February 2 - 4 Moms share encouraging verses and stories
• January 26 - 4 Moms Q&A: Life with littles, dating, happy helpers
• January 19 - 4 Moms on buying and storing all those clothes {linky}

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

This week the 4 Moms are talking about Scriptures and/or stories we rely on for comfort/encouragement as a homeschooling family.  I saw this subject on our collective spreadsheet months ago and again a few weeks ago when I added it to the list of upcoming topics.  Nonetheless, right now I’m saying, “Huh?  What are we talking about?  Whose idea was this?”

One Bible verse that I think of very often is Proverbs 14:23:

In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty

Although we all want to do things “the right way,” it’s generally not necessary to know and practice the very best method so long as we are working steadily toward a goal.  God will bless our honest imperfect efforts to serve Him.  We can take great comfort in this!  This applies in homeschooling as well as other areas of life.

Another passage that helps us keep our focus is known as the schema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

⁴Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

⁵And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

⁹And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

This defines our goal and our method.  If we are teaching them to evaluate everything they think, do and believe from a Biblical worldview – and giving them the tools to do so –  we are succeeding.

I don’t know if this qualifies or not, but I also have a little anecdote I often share with nervous new homeschoolers who wonder if they should be worried when their children are “behind.”

Deanna was an early talker with a huge vocabulary and an amazing memory.  At 12 months, she knew and used 150 words.  If you doubt me, I can provide the list from her baby book.  She didn’t start putting them together until the thoroughly typical age of 18 months, but by then she had a very nice vocabulary to work with and rapidly became thoroughly conversant.

I thought she was brilliant, and she was.  However, it slipped my attention that while she was accomplishing milestones with great fanfare and expertise, she was still doing them very much on schedule.

Because she was brilliant, we started working on reading early.  I made a set of flashcards, and she learned all the sounds of the letters in 20 quick sessions over the course of 10 days – before she was 20 months old.  She was going to read before she was 3.  I was sure of it!

But when we moved on to putting the sounds together, she just didn’t get it. She wasn’t ready.

I put the reading supplies away for about 6 months to work on other things, and then we tried again.  Still no progress.

We repeated this process many times over the following years.  I didn’t try very long or hard each time; I knew there was no concrete rule that a child must read by age 5, and I didn’t want to push too hard.  We had other ways to learn.  I spent a lot of time reading aloud to Deanna and her sisters.  Her vocabulary and communication skills grew.  Her memory was stunning.  She was highly intelligent, but just couldn’t put the sounds together to read.  The point:

She wasn’t ready until she was ready.

The ability to read is closely tied to certain developmental milestones, and she had to reach them before she could really make progress.  At 6, it finally clicked.  She went from zero to Tolkien in 6 months, and has been a voracious reader ever since.

Sure, the right program and a lot of time and effort on both our parts might have provided the crutch we needed to get her over that hurdle ahead of time, but she was able to cross it with ease when she was ready.  I have heard it said about potty training that you can start early and be finished by 24 months, or you can wait til the baby is 2 and do it in a few days.  Our experience with reading has been much the same.

There.  Are you comforted and/or encouraged?

The other moms are offering encouragement too:

• Smockity Frocks
• Common Room
• Raising Olives

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• February 9 - note to self: check the schedule. Oh, er…hello!

Recent topics:

• January 12 – 4 Moms: snacks and appetizers for a crowd {linky}
  
• January 7 - 4 Moms: Teaching grammar
  
• December 15 - 4 Moms: Gift shopping for a crowd
• December 8 - 4 Moms’ favorite holiday recipes {linky}

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

Welcome back to the 4 Moms weekly posts.  You can welcome me back, too, because I’ve been gone for a few weeks.  I had a lovely break from blogging over the holidays, but sadly I won’t remember a bit of it since I DIDN’T BLOG ANY OF IT.  Ironic, no?

At least I’m blogging about our recent rodential invader, so we’ll remember that story in years to come, but that’s not why you’re here today.  You’re here to learn how I teach my children grammar.  Because I am a homeschooler, and obviously I teach my children grammar, right?

Wrong.  Maybe you already picked up on that when I began a sentence with a conjunction.  I don’t teach grammar.

We are relaxed homeschoolers, so I love it when real life results in lessons learned relatively painlessly.  Texts may be better at covering all the bases in an orderly fashion, but is that approach really intrinsically superior?  Will my children be stunted in “the real world” if they don’t learn all their Important Facts & Concepts at the institutionally determined appropriate age and time?  Will they miss out on job opportunities because I forgot to teach them to diagram sentences?  Will they be less able to glorify God and enjoy Him forever?

Psst…those were rhetorical questions. The answers are “no,” “no,” and “no.”

If I’ve done my job properly, they will have the ability to crack a book (or open up google) and learn to diagram sentences should the need arise.  The same goes for conjugating German verbs, identifying the bones of the human hand, and memorizing the names of the early Chinese emperors.  While they are learning, I also want to teach them to learn. I don’t want to simply pour facts into open minds.  I want active minds that are constantly learning, growing, inquiring, and thinking critically.

I’m not saying these things are unimportant, or that none of my children have or will learn them, but they are incidental to the ultimate goal of Christian education.

I’m also not saying that there is anything wrong with a more structured approach.  We have used Saxon math for many years.  Kaitlyn and Lydia are currently enrolled in an online interactive essay class to help develop and polish their writing skills.  We have used other textbooks and formal courses on occasion, but they are not the backbone of our curriculum.

So…how do my children learn grammar if they’re not filling in the blanks of a grammar workbook 3 days/week for 12 years?

They read, and they write.  I read what they wrote, and we talk about what they read and write.  I correct their spoken and written grammar as the opportunity arises, talking about the parts of speech and explaining the difference between objective and subjective pronouns, etc.  OK, so maybe I do teach them grammar, but I don’t know why they call me the Gramminator.

Learning happens other ways, too.  We play Mad Libs.  I have a book called Eats Shoots and Leaves that I want my older children to read.

They learn in the course of real life, the way so much other learning takes place.

The other moms are teaching grammar too.  See what they have to say:

• Smockity Frocks, who does it a lot like we do but makes it sound better.
• Common Room, who does it the way I envision myself doing it, but somehow we never quite get there.
• Raising Olives, who does a beautiful job of blending formal and informal grammar instruction.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

• January 12 - Snacks and appetizers for a crowd
• January 19 - How to organize, shop for and maintain ALL THAT CLOTHING {linky}
• January 26 - Q&A
• February 2 - Scriptures and/or stories we rely on for comfort/encouragement as a homeschooling family

Recent topics:

• December 15 - 4 Moms: Gift shopping for a crowd
• December 8 - 4 Moms’ favorite holiday recipes {linky}
• December 1 - 4 Moms: preparing children to share holidays with unbelieving family
• November 24 - 4 Moms: A roundup of thankful posts from the past

About 4 Moms, including a complete list of all past topics

Welcome, friends.  I missed last week’s Q&A edition of the 4 Moms series – my favorite theme for our posts – but I’m back this week to tell you how we teach history.

You have to promise not to gasp in audible shock, but for the last several years we have had no prefabricated history curriculum.  We do often focus on a particular area or period in history, but we do it with a variety of materials rather than one text or program.

We used Sonlight in the past and loved the concept but weren’t always thrilled with the titles used.  We used Mystery of History and the kids still talk about the fun they had, but it was just a skeleton and required a lot of extra materials.

Since then, we have used the principles we learned from those 2 programs to do our own thing.  We have an extensive library in our home including a wide array of history books for both children and adults, historical fiction, philosophy (which is important for interpreting and understanding history), audio and video lectures, and much more.  These materials have taught our children far more than I ever learned from my history textbooks in the highly structured Christian homeschool program from which I graduated.

While I learned history as a list of names and dates to be memorized and then forgotten, my children really feel as if they know the people whose biographies they have read, and they are beginning to understand how people and events worked together in history as God’s plan for mankind unfolded and continues to unfold.  They have a big picture view that I never grasped when I was younger, and they tend to remember all the details that I so quickly forgot because they understand the significance of those details and they have a context in which to place them.

I believe that learning this way has many advantages over a textbook, but there is another very important element to the way our children learn history: their dad.  He was a history buff from a very young age, and has confessed to sneakily reading Schaff’s 8 volume History of the Christian Church when he should have been studying other subjects.  He was that kind of a rebel.   If you’re going to be a rebel, there are worse ways to go.  :)

He has collected these resources for our family, using them himself and demonstrating a genuine, infectious love and interest for history that has been picked up by our children.  Through his own use, he has exposed the rest of us to these materials.  He sometimes has all of us listen to a series of lectures together.  He leads and sparks many discussions on the topic, teaching the children to interpret the events of history through the lens of scripture.

A few of our favorite resources:

• Bible.  Need I even say it?  The ultimate source for accurate history and a worldview to help understand the events you learn about elsewhere.
• Childhood of Famous Americans (series for young children)
• Sower Series biographies, also for children
• Joe Morecraft’s sermons on the Protestant Reformation (many other wonderful audio lectures available on SermonAudio.com)
• History of the Reformation by D’aubigne
• The Great Christian Revolution by Otto Scott
• Historical fiction by G.A. Henty
• Vision Forum’s History of the World and other resources published by VF (check out Building a Winning Curriculum for tips on using these items)

This is just a starting point.  Thanks to Ebay, Paperback Swap (not just for paperbacks), AddAll (search every major seller at once to find the best price on the internet), Christian Book Distributors (big discounts), Amazon, and Vision Forum, we have many hundreds or even thousands of books covering a variety of times, places, people and events.

The study of history in our home has largely been voluntary, because this is one area in which we love to learn.  It is so easy to see God’s hand in the larger affairs of men and nations over the millennia, and this is an important reminder to us in how we live our everyday lives: if our God  controls kings and nations, what do we have to fear?

The other moms:

• Smockity Frocks
• Raising Olives
• Common Room

Upcoming topics:

• April 14 – Eating inexpensively on the road.  Just in time for summer!
• April 21 - Large family & church, part 2: Being still and quiet during worship
• April 28 – Q and A: leave your question here.

Recent topics: