Painted by Jane {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
Featuring my globe trotting daughter!  I'm so enjoying seeing the beautiful things she is painting I just had to put them up on the Virtual Fridge for all to see ...

Mesmerize by Jane

Nothing Short of Eternity by Jane

Painted by Jane

This Month's Theme
Welcome to the Virtual Fridge for the month of May. If you are after some inspiration our theme is FLOWERS.

This weeks Feature

This weeks feature is a tutorial from over at Study at Home Mama.  Wow this little cake had me convinced that it was a real sponge cake.  You can find a full tutorial on how to do this Sponge Cake Craft.

Your Turn

I invite you to take some photo's of your children's artistic pursuits put them in a post and link up with me I would love to come over and see the wonderful art your children have enjoyed doing.

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Blessings
Chareen

Connect with me

 

The Virtual Fridge a weekly art meme where we can hang our children's art on a virtual fridge. This meme was started by Jennifer over at A Glimpse of our Life who kindly invited three other bloggers to co-host this weekly meme.

Your hosts are

An InLinkz Link-up

Carnival of Homeschooling for May {471 Edition}

Welcome to the 471st edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling where home school families share their home school wisdom with us from all over the world via their blogs.
This month we have over 70 links to homeschool support letters, advice, encouragement, free printables, unit studies, round up posts and much much more.  Grab a cup of your favourite beverage and take a trip around the world wide web for the best of the best encouragement and resources in the homeschool blogging world this month.


Carnival of Homeschooling was started by the Cate Family over at Why Homeschool and has been a tremendous source of home school support and information over the years to the homeschooling community.  We appreciate your support and monthly submissions.
 

This Week
 Why Homeschooling

• Life after homeschooling Henry is already starting to reminisce. 

Every Bed of Roses

•  A letter from my heart to yours:  Dear Mom Who is Feeling Overwhelmed.
•  The Year at Maple Hill Farm {Poppins Book Nook} a full unit study on farm life
•  Compost in a Bottle {Science Experiment} a step by step tutorial to create this science in a bottle experiment.
•  Artist Study {Claude Monet} a full unit study with links to FREE resources.

 Trivium Pursuit 

• A recommended intensive phonics curriculum How to obtain Hazel Loring’s 1980 Reading Made Easy with Blend Phonics for First Grade
• Free Art Curriculum Ebook for These Five Days 

 MathFour.com

• Reducing Fractions is like Folding Clothes: Have you ever thought of fractions while doing laundry? There are some interesting (and enlightening) similarities!
• Getting the Most from Your Math Book Have you ever really LOOKED at your math book? Use these discussion questions to make the most of it! 

Notes from a Homeschooled Mom

• Do black children do better with black teachers? Sure, there is some evidence that black students do better with black teachers, but teacher experience and effort can even the score. Homeschooling, however trumps both.  

Solagratiamom

• The US Preamble and Lichtenstein Art Looking to combine our fine arts with our history studies; we dressed up like the Statue of Liberty, and made some pop art using US symbols! 
• Fossil Fun Studying the science or Origins and Catastrophism, we explored the fossil layer with some hands on experiments, and had a fun animal themed dress-up! 
• Gooey Bubbly Elements Fun! Some messy, fun element experiments that are easy to do and loved by kids both young and old! 

 Petticoat Government

• "Nearing the School Year's End" 

Learning Curve

• How to Build a Solar Oven Hands on science fun as we walk you through the building of a solar oven and the results of two attempts at using it. 
• World War 2 - Unit Study A live show, survivor interviews and a museum trip are just a few of the interesting educational experiences in this unit study of World War 2. Travel back as you read about living on top of the Battle of the Bulge, George Marshall and the Marshall Plan and a host of books and video resources to enhance your study. 

Let's Play Math

• Math Teachers at Play #85A monthly round-up of creative math activities, tips, and games from homeschoolers and math teacher bloggers. 
• Math Game: Chopsticks A counting and strategy game for all ages, accessible to young children. 
• Math Game: Thirty-One An addition game for elementary and beyond, from a classic book: The Canterbury Puzzles. 
• Math Games with Factors, Multiples, and Prime Numbers Math games for upper-elementary and middle school students.

 Journey and Destination

• A Course of Study for Homeschooling Years 11 and 12 This is a post on what we did for years 11/12 and getting into University without formal qualification eg. Year 12 certificate.  

 Fill Your Bookshelf

• Shakespeare Unit Study I talk about the resources I used to study Shakespeare with my kids. 

A Net in Time

• Missionary Monday: Ida Kahn Ida Kahn was an unwanted Chinese girl... too many children in a poor home. Adopted she was educated and became a doctor to her people. This is her story.
• Thinking Thursday: Protagoras Protagoras, a greek sophist philosopher. His way of thinking is still current today. 

The Every Day of Education

• Homeschool High School: Apprenticeships We didn’t set out to find apprenticeships - they were a natural by-product of being friendly and involved in our community. 
• Every Day Learning: Measure What Matters Part 1 What sorts of things should we measure as an accurate prediction of our child's future well-being and success?
• Why I Still Read Out Loud to My Teenagers The unexpected benefits we discovered by continuing to read out loud to our teens. 

Journey & Destination

• Teaching Children to Wonder & Admire Teaching children to wonder & admire - the use of literary books in science; some thoughts on The Story Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre 

Big Family Blessings

• 9 Fun Board Games for Kindergarten Games Mom will actually enjoy playing with a kindergarten age child.
• Tips for taking your toddler and/or preschooler to the library. Make the library fun not stressful with these great tips!
• Tips for homeschooling upper elementary- without pulling your hair out Great ideas for creating independence and less stress when homeschooling upper elementary grades.

Life at Rossmont

• Dealing With Unsupportive Relatives Regarding Your Homeschooling? Sharing encouragement in the face of un-supportive relatives about our home school journey, and research sources that may be able to dispute some of the un-supportive members' opinions.

Year Round Homeschooling

• It's Time to Change Our Homeschooling Method My children learn differently than I do, so after 7 years of homeschooling we're changing our homeschooling method.
• When the Yellow Bird of Freedom Calls The yellow bird of freedom calls to every homeschool mom, at some point in time on a homeschooling journey.

Year Round Homeschooling

• Confession: Life Still Happens When You Homeschool Life happens, even when you homeschool. How can you homeschool successfully when life seems to get in the way?

Gypsy Road

• Gypsy Road's Unit Studies This is the master list of all the unit studies we create, listed by topic.
• Speech Therapy Resources This is part one of two, and focuses on articulation.
• Overcoming Burnout Focuses on causes and solutions to homeschool burnout.

Golden Grasses

• Spring Dinner Dance Yearly spring Dinner/ Dance for area homeschool high school students with Mystery Dinner served by parents, tons of fun games and of course, dancing!
• D.D. in 5 Fast and furious trip to D.C. for dh's conference. We crammed in some awesome sight-seeing, ate a Crab shack and dipped our toes in the Chesapeake.
• 9 Ways to Succeed as a Homeschooler 9 Simple Ways to Succeed as a Homeshcooler

I Choose Joy!

• Dear Mom Who is Hesitant about Homeschooling Middle School explaining why it's wonderful to keep homeschooling during middle school
• Homeschooling With Toddlers: Tips and Resources Lots of ideas for homeschooling when there are toddlers in the house.
• Advice from One Homeschooling Mom of Many to Another Advice for homeschooling a large family
• How I Got Interested in the Classical Method for Homeschooling a summary of how and why I started homeschooling, book I read, and why I decided to use the classical method

Enrichment Studies Blog

• FREE for a limited time: Women Artists of the Renaissance Fine Art Pages For a limited time folks can get our full Women Artists of the Renaissance Fine Art Pages collection for FREE when they sign up for our newsletter! This is a $6 art appreciation product. Parents can easily print the fine art pages at home and display them around the house for pain-free, organic art enjoyment. :)

A Peace of Mind

• Worth Neglecting! What really matters? What do I need to focus on most in this season of life? Do I have a goal for my home and family? Do I have one for myself ? I cannot tell you how many things have come my way recently telling me to list those things that really matter – to relax and ponder and pray more – to seek after joy and peace no matter the mess. And who doesn’t have a mess when you are a homeschoolers with a bunch of eager and creative children?
• What About Miss Mason Charlotte Mason says “Education is a discipline, education is an atmosphere and education is a life.” She encourages us to see our children as born people — when nurtured on a feast of noble ideas through “living” books, picture studies, nature studies (those things typically considered to be “extras” ) our children are better able to develop their own ideas utilizing all around them: God’s world in nature, art, literature, history, music and, of course, God’s written Word. Surely we want our children to have a worldview with the Bible at the center of it all :-)
• Do My Kids Hear Joy in the Lifestyle We Have Chosen ? I admit it, if you have been reading lately, we are struggling a bit right now. The passion is waning; the time I put into this ~ our own homeschooling days just aren’t so full of joy. In fact, I’ve been feeling sort of burnt out on the whole homeschooling thing. There are days I really do want to toss my kids on a bus to someone else.
• Book Nook - Folk Tales I think my son wants to be a lumberjack when he grows up now; I do know that he cannot wait to try some of this out himself one day! yikes. Even I had no idea about some of this; the things these guys do ~ Its amazing!

The Arrowood Zoo

• Dyslexia Myths & Tips" As I have watched 2 boys (one dyslexic, one not) have learning issues and them personally give there all these are myths and comments from various sources that have really bothered me at some point and time. They are lazy. Oh, they will grow out of it. They really should try harder."
• Dyslexia Reading Stages "In order to become a good reader, a child will need to first learn to decode words and have word recognition skills. Some children naturally progress easily with minimal help and guidance, like my daughter however both of my boys have been totally different. A child with Dyslexia will not be able to learn easily and they will need lots of assistance and instruction tailored to their need."
• DIY Whisper Phone "Whisper Phone... Your probably doing just like I was - What in the world is a whisper phone? Like we need more phones - right? Whisper phones are used so that the child can HEAR what they are saying. The phone supports and helps build phonemic awareness, which helps build their reading skills. My son has a problem saying one sound and thinking it is another and actually just not being able to hear himself has caused him a lot of trouble while reading and spelling."
• Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Homeschooling... "I have been homeschooling 9 years this August and time and life has changed so many times over the years. When I started homeschooling my family didn't even have internet! Learning the ropes was extremely hard and unforgiving.
  Here are a few things I've learned over the years:
  1.Don't worry about what everyone else is doing.
  2. You don't have to answer the phone in the middle of a lesson - Nor feel guilty about it.
  3. A meal plan is your friend."

Counting Our Blessings

• How To Homeschool When Life Happens A few tips on homeschooling even during medical emergencies.
• Free Unit Study Resources To Study The Human Cell A round up of links to websites, interactive tools, and videos for use in studying the human cell and mitochondria. For grades K5 through 12.
• Homeschool Mom vs. School Teacher Discusses the difference between a large homeschooling family and the large public school classroom.
• Rethinking Homeschooling At the end of the day, this is the most important thing we can teach our children.

In All You Do

• End of the Homeschool Year Certificates {free printables} End of the year certificates for Homeschoolers - from K to 12, two designs available for boys and girls.
• FREE End of the Year {Preschool} Certificates End of the year certificates for PreK3, PreK4 and PreK - Two designs for boys and two designs for girls.
• 5 Reasons I HATE Homeschooling While I love homeschooling as a whole, there are 5 things I absolutely HATE about homeschooling.
• Lemonade Stand Coloring Pages {freebies} Some fun Lemonade Stand Coloring Pages and Emergent Readers just in time for Summer.

Homeschool Coffee Break

• Middle School Monday - Looking Ahead to Grade 9 We're nearing the end of our Grade 8 year, so we've started plotting out the course for high school.
• The Real Homeschool Mom The truth about this homeschool mom - the longer answers to questions or comments such as: "You must be so organized" or "You must have a lot of patience"
• Don't You Have a Life? (The Real Homeschoolers) They might not use the "s" word (socialization) but people still wonder if homeschooled kids have a life. Real questions and comments we've heard - and the truth!
• Flashback Friday - Arts and Crafts for Kids A round-up of arts and crafts ideas we've used in our homeschool - suitable for elementary and middle school age students.

Puddle Jumping

• How Did I Get Here Homeschooling Mom of 3 A personal story of how I came to homeschool through life, miscarriages, self employment, musician husband and honoring Christ through it all!

Tales of a Homeschool Family

• Make Your Own Jamestown Fort Replica After studying early American History, a great hands-on project is to make your own Jamestown Fort Replica! Here's how we did it in our homeschool.
• How does an Introvert Survive Homeschooling a Houseful of Extroverts Out of the 6 members of our household, I'm the ONLY introvert. How does an introvert survive homeschooling a houseful of extroverts? Here are some tips that have helped me!

Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

• Littles Learning Link Up: Panda Bear Fun {Free Printable} We have been learning about pandas and along with sharing our muffin tin meal and some of our activities, I am sharing a free printable for our Panda Bear Shape Craft.
• Berry Berry Fun with the Poppins Book Nook {Free Printables} For our last Poppins Book Nook post we read a book called Farley the Ferret of Farkleberry Farm. We focused on berries and I created a few printables to share, including a memory match game, Montessori 3-Part classified cards, and a word scramble for older children.

Daily Life

• Free Printables for 30 Days In honor of turning 30 I am posting a new free printable on my blog every day for 30 days. There will be different subjects and age ranges. This is the first post and will have links to each day's printable.

Our Worldwide Classroom

• Simple Game To Improve Your Homeschool Mood A qucik easy game that helps out on days when things aren't going so great!
• Plants - Experiments, Puzzles, Collage & More An overview of a plant life unit we have completed.
• Japan Unit Study A unit study of Japan with lots of hands on activities!

Some Call It Natural

• How Do You Decide When Your Kids Get a Day Off? Lots of quotes from homeschool moms on when they take days off from school and what their homeschool schedule looks like.

Carnival of Homeschooling for June {472 Edition}

Next months Carnival will be hosted over at Notes From a Homeschool Mom

--oOo--

Submit your links for the June edition of the Carnival on Google Docs Carnival of Homeschooling June 2015 Submissions: .

OR Email submissions to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)  

When: by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Monday evening of the week the carnival is due to go live.
 It is greatly appreciated when the submissions come in earlier.

What: Please send the following information

1. Title of Post
2. URL of Post
3. Name of Blog
4. URL of Blog
5. Brief summary of the post

Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course {Review}

As a veteran homeschooling mom of sixteen years I'm always on the look out for excellent support material for new Mom's beginning their home education journey's.  Recently Stephanie Walmsley from Successful Homeschooling Made Easy blessed the Schoolhouse Review Crew with her Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course for review.

Stephanie's goal with this e Course is help show that you can successfully home school, that it is easy, stress free thing to do with your family that you will enjoy homeschooling and avoid burnout.


What we received
Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course which consists of twenty six weekly emails with a download link to a .pdf document ready for you to download.  Intermittently she sends bonus material to enrich your homeschooling.

1. Start Homeschooling Today - this is a course introduction and overview along with how to make a workable schedule, samples and two ideas to put into your daily schedule so you can begin home educating. {26 pages}
2.  Math Made Easy {15 pages}
3. Welcome Home! This chapter is especially for the Mom who is bringing her children home from school.  It is full of beautiful letters from Home educating mothers who have done so and the things they wish they had known. {17 pages}
4. Fireproof Your Homeschool - this chapter is a little more about your home school schedule. {14 pages}
5. Three Key Ingredients for Success - this one is a little more introspective and great foundations.  Stephanie recommends some great resources. {11 pages}
6. Fulfill Your Dreams -This one is all about taking care of Mom. {13 pages}
7. Why Curriculum Doesn't Matter - It's all about curriculum {12 pages}
8. Why you Might Need to Let Go of Good Things - Time Management {12 Pages}
9. Housework and Homeschool - Let's get practical {16 pages}
10. Make a New Full Schedule {21 pages}

How we used it
Signing up was very easy.  I was very impressed with how fast and smooth the process was.  I instantly received my welcome email from Stephanie. She writes in an easy conversational manner of a long time friend encouraging you.

The initial email you receive is a welcome letter comes with a note from Stephanie explaining how the course works and what to expect on your journey with Successful Homeschooling Made Easy {SHME}.
Each new email arrives around the same time each week and uses the following format..

The lessons opened in One Drive and .pdf format which I saved to my computer  I prefer reading from paper so I printed each lesson.  Once I have all 26 lessons and all the bonus material I will be taking my papers to have them ring bound at our local stationary store.

Each lesson follows the same pattern

• 10 - 15 pages.  These are an easy read 
• A Preface
• Lesson for you to read
• Questions for you to meditate on and anser
• Lesson Summary
• A 5 minute assignment
• A note on what next weeks lesson will be on.

The 26 week time frame seemed a little long to me at first glance but as I have progressed through the course I can see it's value.  The pace means I am not overwhelmed and I feel as though I have a long term mentor walking the journey with me. 

It's gradual pace means that I'm implementing small changes which are having a lasting impact upon my home educating and there have been no sudden and dramatic changes here at home.  I am really looking forward to the remaining 16 lessons.

Often in homeschooling, we focus very much on the children and the teaching, and in particular, the teaching of academics. This is back-to-front thinking!- Stephanie

I just received Lesson ten this week and so far I am feeling encouraged and inspired as a homeschooling Mom.  Looking back over my home educating journey I wish I had had something like this to work through when I first started home educating it would have put many of my fears to rest and I would not have felt like I was groping in the dark.

Cost of Successful Homeschooling Made Easy

• You have the option of once off payments or monthly installments.
• One off Payments can be made in
  US dollars $48.50
  Pounds Sterling £30.60
  Australian Dollars $48.50
  New Zealand Dollars $48.50
• SIX Monthly Payments are currently:
  US dollars $9.50
  Pounds Sterling £6.50
  Australian Dollars $9.50
  New Zealand Dollars $9.50
• All payments go through PayPal
• After payment, you will see a page asking for an email address for the course lessons and a button to get your first email sent immediately. You will then receive an email every week with a download link for your weekly PDF lesson 

Recommended Age Range

• This course is for homeschooling parents.

Connect with Stephanie

Stephanie blogs over at Homeschool Family Life. You can find some FREE things, Homeschool products to purchase for your homeschool and other courses written by Stephanie. She has some amazing book lists in her Book Shelf section. You can also read a full Q & A section on Homeschooling Made Easy.

When you are feeling calm, peaceful and in control, you will have a calm, peaceful homeschooling family. - Stephanie

I love how this course is simplified and gives you concise information without overwhelming you.  Stephanie empowers you with her suggestions and add one small thing approach. 

You never feel overwhelmed and finish each weeks reading feeling refreshed and encouraged. I love how her approach is to help you find your own personal style and what works for your family.  She does not follow a cookie cutter approach to homeschooling.

As a veteran homeschooling Mom I have found this course valuable in that it has helped me return to basics and is helping me find balance again. I highly recommend this course to both Veteran home school Mom's and new Mom's alike.

Blessings
Chareen