Great Grace & Great Buys

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.  2 Corinthians 9:8

In Christian Homeschooling, we need to depend on God's grace constantly! Many days I try to do it in my own strength, but that always leads to failure & despair. 

We can't do it on our own. 

The same truth that the Lord told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 also applies to us believers. He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." I am SLOWLY learning that truth as it pertains to homeschooling.  With that said, please don't let the photos of smiling faces and seemingly organized lessons fool you as you visit my blog. I'm a fellow recipient of God's sweet grace. For example:

* I don't have a systematic daily plan.

* I don't have an organized schedule.

* We try to follow this general plan. However, for our USA Unit that I've been creating, I make a weekly list of activities that I would like to do.  Then as the week goes on, I plug in an activity whenever it seems to fit and cross it out as we go.  I don't have a set day or time to do any of the activities.  That system works best for our family.  For example, one day my 19 mo. old had a rough day, so after we put him to bed, we did a Science Experiment at 7:30 in the evening.  That's one of the joys of homeschooling; you can do school whenever you want.

*Make your homeschool your own!  There's no perfect rhyme or rhythm.  If you've been following my blog for a while, you know how I struggled during my first year.  This year, I'm resting in God's grace for our day and in what He wants us to do regardless of what I had planned. 

*When all else fails, we keep reading!  You can NEVER read too much!  We get books from the library each week.  Most of them go along with our Unit of study and the kids also choose a few other books of their interest.  Some mornings we just stay in our PJs and read the whole morning! 

*I do have an Elementary Education Degree so I am able to improvise a lot easier than I would otherwise.  But God's grace is sufficient for each homeschool mom with or without a degree.

Great Buys: On those days that aren't working out for anything that I had planned, here are my "go to" items that I purchased that makes homeschool life more doable.  

1) Heroes of the Faith DVDs - We have 9 of them.  They are absolutely wonderful!  We often have a great discussion afterwards about the hero and how he/she stood up for Christ in the midst of persecution. 

2) Illustrated Classics for Girls - I won a drawing at our co-op for $50 of Usborne Books!  This is one of the books I chose.  The girls really enjoy it. 

3) Brain Quest Cards - I got 5 of them at a homeschool sale for 25 cents each!  They're a great review of skills for each age level.  It's nice having another reader in our home.  Carysse quizzes Kalia while I'm busy with Caleb or preparing meals.  Carysse goes through her own cards during transition times as well.  

4) I first talked about counting bears in this post; they're still a favorite.  I turned my mini muffin pan into a sorting/pattern activity by putting colored sticker dots into each section.



5) Every homeschool of preschoolers needs magnetic letters!  I found this alphabet printable here. We like how the "J" is for Baby Jesus.

 

6) Giant Slot & Build Shapes from Lakeshore - lots of fun for all ages! Carysse made a snowflake... she's so creative. 

7) We also use pattern blocks. I used them all the time as a classroom teacher. I knew my kids would enjoy them as well. I found the printables here.

Keep calm & Homeschool on! 

Remember, God's grace is sufficient for you, for His power is made perfect in weakness. 

(2 Corinthians 12:9a)