Why I’m Teaching Creative Writing to My First Grader

Teaching creative writing as part of a first grade curriculum is not something I would have considered.  It's not really talked about much, and if it's taught at all it just a small integrated part of a language arts curriculum.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover (My Thoughts on The Books I Purchased From the Bundle Sale)

The Build Your Bundle homeschool sale has ended; however, you can still purchase these products individually through their respective publisher's websites.

I got all of my products downloaded from the Build Your Own Bundle sale and took a look through them.

Let me just say – you can't judge a book by its cover!  Just to be helpful, I thought I'd go through what I bought and tell you what I thought in case it will help you make your final purchase decisions.  Obviously I didn't buy one of everything, but I'll tell you about all 30 of the items I got.

1. Frank Webster audio collection/Petticoat Warriors/Little Pioneers

I know my kids are going to like these.  I've just got to figure out some way to get them off the computer because my kids will not want to sit in front of the computer to listen.  Probably the best way to do that will be just to burn them to a CD

Found in: Boy's Bundle (Frank Webster collection), Girl's Bundle (Petticoat Warriors), 1st-3rd bundle #2 (Little Pioneers)

2. Considering God's Creation – Science curriculum

Love!  This is written out purposely for use with multiple ages, which is exactly what I was hoping to do this year (combine the kids into one class.) The lessons are laid out for the teacher to know exactly what to say (which is great since I never was the best at science.)  They are based on Scripture, which means there is a Scripture reading each day and a discussion of what the scripture says about the particular topics.  There are the basic lessons, along with student activities, plus a number of suggestions each day for “digging deeper” – like videos to watch, books to read, or experiments to perform.  Lots of learning styles are incorporated – hands-on, auditory, visual – with suggestions for activities to do that will involve all of the different learning methods.  I'm VERY happy with this purchase.

Found in: Charlotte Mason Bundle

3. Growing in Wisdom and Proverbs People

I loved these so much I did an entire post about them.  Read it here.  In short: they're going to be just the thing my young readers need for doing their daily devotions.  They make it easy for children to understand and apply the Scriptures without being watered down.

Found in: Character Bundle

4. American Wars Volume I

My kids are not old enough for it yet, but there is a WAR GAME in this package!  How fun is that?!

“You are the leader of a four-member reconnaissance team. You receive your orders at headquarters at the beginning of the game. The orders—make your way to the destination and collect all intel on enemy troop positions and troop movements that you can—then make it back to headquarters with that intel.”

 

Found in: Boy's Bundle

5. Delightful Planning – A Unit Study planner

I actually probably won't use the planning pages from this because I work best with my own (mad scientist type) methods.  But, the first half of the book is a great resource for learning about delight-directed learning, how to make it work, how to make sure you include everything you need for a well-rounded education, etc.  It's a good resource in that regard.

Found in: Unit Studies Bundle

6. Elementary Foundations – Parenting Wisdom for Ages 5-8
Home Improvement: The Parenting Book You Can Read to Your Kids

Since these are parenting books (which means lots of words and no quick skimming 🙂 ) I haven't looked at these in great detail.  I really felt I didn't need to because they are from the National Center for Biblical Parenting.  I've read their Motivate Your Child (review here) and Motivate Your Child Action Plan books and found them both to be top-notch.  I'm not expecting anything less from these books.

Found in: 1st-3rd Bundle #2

7. Human Body Detectives

I chose the “immunity” one, but I'm considering going back for another purchase.  These just look cool.  The .zip file was LOADED with files when I opened it up.  Enough to keep us busy for quite a while.  (And I don't really know when we'll even get to it since I'm planning on the other science curriculum for the school year – this would make a fun summer study maybe.)

Found in: 1st – 3rd #1

8. Character Collection

I'm really excited about getting ALL these good books for my kids to read.  My only problem is figuring out how to get them into a format where they can read them. I don't really want them sitting at the computer to read (and I doubt they want to either.)  I've gotta get a little techy and figure out how to send them to some kind of cloud so I can at least put them on the Kindle or iPad.

Found in: 1st -3rd #1 and Character Bundle

9. My Journey With Jesus Christ

This is a nice little book that teaches kids about God and their relationship with Him.  It helps them understand concepts like prayer, God's promises, and learning to let God speak to them through His word.  I would not use this for personal devotions, but I would not mind my kids going through it to grasp these concepts.  I think the strongest takeaway from the book is teaching how to pray by confessing sin, praising God for his blessings, and bringing their petitions to God.  I also wish they had a King James version of this since that is what our family uses.

Found in: Character Bundle

10. Warfare by Duct Tape – beginner

I want to love this, and I know there are tons of other people out there who do love it and their boys use it regulary — but I just have to be honest with myself.  As “cute” as it is (if I can use that term about little boys doing battle with swords and shields), I know that in our family we will probably never get around to getting the materials needed (PVC pipe and PVC foam — along with cardboard and duct tape of course!)  I think when my boys are older and able to take their own initiative to find what they need to craft their weapons they will love it, but right now I just know I will probably never help them with this (brutal honesty here!  Hey a mom can't do everything!)

Found in: Boy's Bundle and Secular Bundle

11. 28 Days to Timeliness

I actually got this because I needed a couple extra products to finish building my bundle.  It looks like a great book; I'm just not sure I will have time to read it (ha!)

Found in: Mom Bundle #1

12. Creation vs. Evoluation: Learning How Science Supports the Bible

This wasn't as in-depth as I was expecting.  It is scripture-based, which is good, but I was hoping for more detail than it included.

Found in: Middle School Bundle

13. Family Bible Bites

This contains a lot of fun hands-on activities to help make your family Bible time and scripture memorization more…well…memorable.  I'm not sure we'll use it as we already have a good system in place, but it has lots of good ideas.

Found in : Character Bundle

14. Princess Training

There are parts I like and parts I could easily skip.  If you are a mom in need of some direction with training your daughter to be a godly young lady, this could be a good resource.  I don't think I will personally end up using it, but it does have some creative ideas for moms of girls.

Found in: Girls' Bundle

15. Elementary Spelling Fun: 1-3

I couldn't believe this is 3 YEARS worth of spelling!  That's a great deal!

I like that the spelling words are based on scripture, and that it also contains handwriting practice with Scripture copywork. (Great for memorization too!)  The daily activities for practicing the spelling words are switched up every day to keep things exciting.  The only thing I'm not sure about is how well the spelling words are going to match up to the kids' phonics lessons.  I like to teach things “in order” (even though I know that's not always necessary or the best way, but it drives my brain crazy to skip around.)  If you're not terribly picky about the spelling words perfectly matching up with your phonics lessons, I think this is a great deal and a good curriculum.

Found in: 1st – 3rd Bundle #2

16. Your Business Math Pet Store

My kids aren't old enough for this yet, but this is going to be SO FUN!  Why settle for boring exercises to learn business math, when it can be so fun?!  It will probably help the kids solidify the concepts even better anyway since they are actually learning how to keep a start-up business afloat through a simulated pet store ownership.

Found in: Charlotte Mason Bundle

17. Lads and Ladies of Wisdom

This is a really good character training curriculum. It's better than I thought it would be, to be honest.  I think we'll get some good use out of it.

Found in: Character Bundle

18. Teaching Science and Having Fun

This one blew my expectations out of the water.  I almost didn't buy it, but I'm so glad I did!  It is so much more in-depth than I expected it to be.

It gives tons of suggestions for teaching based on what style best fits your family and helps you know what you should be teaching to what age chidlren.  If you like a unit study approach it gives suggestions for teaching phonics, grammar, spelling, etc. along with what you're currently studying in science.  So helpful!

Found in: Mom Bundle #1

19. People of the Bible Volume 1 and 2

I could live easily without this one.  If you've never done any sort of notebooking before and need some guidance, this could be helpful, but I didn't really find it necessary for us.

Found in: Notebooking Bundle and Character Bundle

20. WriteShop

This is another product that I feel like I got a really good value from! I never dreamed I could teach my 1st and 2nd grader creative writing!  I also love how this is going to integrate language arts as well as penmanship.  They're learning what I consider the absolute essentials (language and penmanship) as well as getting some great practice on the “extras” (creative writing.)  I plan to use this curriculum this coming school year.

Found in: 1st-3rd Bundle #2

Time is running out to make your final decisions!  I hope my thoughts on what I bought will help you out a little bit!

Purchase a Pre-made bundle here.

OR

Mix and Match to Build Your Own Bundle here.

Helping Young Children Develop Their Own Relationship with God

It has been the desire of my husband and I to instill a habit in our children of spending time in the Word of God and prayer daily.

I want them to grow in their knowledge of and trust in God, and I want them to get to know him in a personal way.

Before they could read, I would invite them to join me as I spent my own time studying the scriptures and I would read aloud to them.

Now that the older two can read, I want them to start spending personal time alone with God.

But the question I had was how to help young children understand what they were reading!

I started out by jotting down questions from the day's passage for them to answer.  Then I found that I needed to explain certain words for them.  Trying to get all this written down ahead of time for them was becoming time-consuming and I often didn't have it ready for them when a new day began and they were ready to start on their Bible reading.

I found a couple different options that I recommend for parents who are trying to help their children develop their own quiet times with God.

Option one:

Exploring the Bible: A Bible reading plan for kids

I didn't want a children's devotional that was basically a cutesy story with a Bible verse to go with it.  I wanted something that would actually help my children understand how to study the Bible for themselves, and this book fits the bill really well.

Exploring the Bible takes children on a tour through the Bible, laying a foundation for their knowledge of God and the gospel.

It contains:

• Daily Bible readings
• Prayer points
• Memory verse
• Discussion questions
• Space for sermon notes and reflections

This particular book says it's for ages 6-12.  My children started using it when they were about 8 years old, and it was a tiny bit challenging for them even at that age.

Option 2:

Once children are a little older, they can start studying out a passage for themselves without specific prompts.

This Quiet Time Journal helps kids learn how to ask themselves questions as they read.

This journal is not a Bible reading plan – it is meant to be used with whatever passage of scripture your child chooses to study. This is a great option for older kids or teens who are becoming more and more independent.

I love to see my kids pick up on the blessing of having access to scripture and getting to know God better from it! I hope these tools will help your kids do the same!

There is no reason to wait to get started teaching your children to spend time developing their own relationship with God!

10 Ways to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum

Every homeschooling mama knows how quickly curriculum can add up!

If you're like me, you're always trying to pinch pennies and make your homeschool dollars stretch as far as you can!

Here are 10 ways to save on homeschool curriculum, in no particular order.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.

Disorganized Homemakers Rejoice! Get Pre-made Menus in Your Inbox

Have you heard about the new feature from Build a Menu?

 

Helping Small Children Manage Big Emotions

As far as I can remember, I was not a highly emotional child. (Maybe I was and just forgot what it was like.) But when I had children of my own, I was in for a bit of a surprise! I had one child in particular whose big emotions were a regular part of our family life.

She would erupt into screams at the drop of a hat. And as the saying goes, she would drop the hat.

If she even imagined that she stubbed her toe, she would cry as loudly as if she’d broken it.
If her brother was being mean to her, she could deliver quite an intimidating speech.
If she was disappointed, there would be weeping and wailing.

I was rather surprised by all this drama, and for a long time I didn’t know how to handle it. My knee-jerk reaction was to tell her that she needed to stop overreacting. But my efforts to stop the emotional outbursts in their tracks almost always made her cry all the harder.

I'm not a perfect parent, but I've at least learned since then that shutting someone's emotions down is not wise.

Below are some of the ways I've attempted to help my children

• Use their feelings as information
• Learn strategies to calm themselves
• Learn to respond appropriately to how they're feeling

I came up with three different aspects that go into helping my children mange their big emotions.

1. First, I've learned to view their big emotions with a compassionate heart and a curious mind.

Children's big emotions can be driven by many, many factors, such as hunger, tiredness, frustration, or simply from feeling the intensity of navigating a confusing world while their brains and bodies are rapidly developing.

We as adults can find ourselves experiencing unpleasant feelings that seem to have no logical origin. We can feel a nagging sense of worry, or we can feel a bit weepy, or we can feel crabby. Most adults know better than to push those feelings outward onto others. We know that to be snappy with others would not be right even though our bodies might feel grumpy. We'd be socially embarrassed to let tears start flowing in front of everyone when there's not really a logical reason to cry. But that doesn't change the fact the fact that we do feel those emotions. And the reasons behind those are often the same reasons behind what are children are feeling in their bodies too – hunger, tiredness, hormonal shifts, or simply the intensity of navigating the daily stresses of the world.

Sometimes the things we feel do overpower us, and we do find the tears flowing over nothing in particular. We do find ourselves being short with others when our bodies are tense with stress. We are more likely to have compassion on ourselves at these times, though, because we understand where those behaviors are coming from. We recognize our hormonal cycles and know that even though there's not a “reason” to cry, the hormonal changes are reason enough. We should apologize when we've spoken to others out of our grouchiness, but we also know that the issue was more about the weakness of our body than it was intentional wickedness.

Helping a child with their big emotions is no different. To tell them to stop overreacting is to discount all the tiny, real feelings that have built up inside their body. When our child's emotions start spilling over onto the people around them, a compassionate hug will go a lot further to calm them than a stern word.

As Christian parents, the fruit of the spirit should be spilling over from us onto our children. Are we showing them the gentleness of the Holy Spirit?

2. Proactively teach children how to respond to what they're feeling.

When a child is already upset, they will not be able to engage the rational, thinking part of their brain. The heat of the moment is not the time to teach my children how to respond when their siblings are rude or when they didn't get the biggest helping of dessert.

Some of the emotions I've tried to proactively teach my children how to handle are

• anger
• disappointment
• frustration

So for example, we can have a conversation like this, “If someone does something you don't like, what can you do? Should you scream at them? Or can you ask them nicely to stop? And if they don't stop, what can you do? Can you come ask mommy to help you?”

We can teach our children how to use words rather than screaming or hitting when they're feeling angry or frustrated.  Then in the moment, when their big feelings rise to the surface, we can remind them of what they've already learned.

3. Teach children additional calming techniques.

Help them take deep breaths to calm themselves when they're upset. Teach them how to leave an upsetting situation rather than engaging with it. Teach them how to be in tune with their physical needs like food, water, and sleep, which will greatly impact how they're feeling emotionally.

All of these things take consistent practice and teaching, and that is why the gentleness and compassion mentioned in point number one are so important. Compassion does not excuse our children's bad behavior, but it does investigate whether there are underlying needs that have gone unnoticed (blood sugar, hydration, sleep, emotional connection, getting away from overstimulation.)

Children need to understand that emotions are normal and that they haven’t done anything wrong by having those feelings. But they also need to be taught what to do with those emotions.

As parents, we need a lot of wisdom to know how to help our children with their big feelings. Thankfully, God promises that he will provide it (James 1:5).

Here are some resources that have helped me as a parent to understand a little more about my children's big emotions:
affiliate links below

1. The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping Our Children Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them

2. Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children's Behavioral Challenges

3. 10 Mindful Minutes: Giving Our Children — and Ourselves — the Social and Emotional Skills to Reduce Stress and Anxiety for Happier, Healthier Lives

(These books are not written from a Christian perspective, but I have learned many things from them about the way the brain works that allow me to be a more understanding and gracious parent.)