Our favorite educational stuff, part one

We are often asked "How do you homeschool so many?" The Lord has given us strength as we have trusted in Him and we have gained much wise advice of those who have gone before us. We also have found some great products out there that make our journey smoother.........So I thought I'd share some of our best educational helps... I have no connections to these companies, just passing along what has worked best for us as a homeschooling family with 8 kids.

LeapFrog Phonics...the set of DVDs and the Fridge magnets and Word Whammer....The first time I saw the Letter Factory DVD and saw how simply it taught the basic phonics sounds in 30 minutes, it almost brought tears to my eyes. After teaching 2 to read and struggling to find the time with #3, I was so excited about these DVD's. We got them at Christmas and within 2 weeks my 8, 6, 4 and even the 2 year old knew all 26 sounds and were sounding out beginning CVC words without any coaching from me!!! They were asking to watch them everyday! The Fridge magnets and word whammer were an awesome hands on supplement that sealed the deal for beginning reading!

Jonathan Park Audio CD's... www.jonathanpark.com -a creation science radio drama for kids, similar style and quailty to Adventures in Odessy, but with tons of science, Bible and apologetics. After you sign up for free memebership, you can listen to the programs for free. They have just released volume 6, so there are now more than 60 episodes at 30 minutes each. We have invested in the CD's and they have been listened to many times over.

There is also a free study guide and homeschool lessons that you download from thier ¨learning zone¨. I cannot emphasize enough how well that this program is done! You can listen and get the study guide completely free. The study guide, coloring paged and activities would be great for notebooking. I´ve also learned in past years, how valubable it is to have quality audio books and drama for my kids to listen to. It´s like having another teacher around and takes off the pressure to read aloud so much. And the good stuff they listen to over and over!

Happy Birthday Karen!

If there was ever an occasion worthy of reviving this pitifully neglected blog.....then my sweet sister's birthday is IT! She never forgets a birthday and is one of the most thoughtful and giving person's I know. She has friends like everywhere! She also has an amazing blog with quite a following! She's a great wife and awesome new mom. And I must add one of the bravest brides ever.... she had 12 children in her wedding! What a happy adventure that was!

So Happy Birthday Karen! We all hope your day is super duper fantastic.......filled with fun activities like....eating brownine mix, watching the Brady Bunch, quoting all your favorite movie quotes till you laugh yourself silly, some more yummy choclate, Chik.Fil A for breakfast, lunch or dinner or all 3, singing some amazing old songs like... Mandy, The Gambler, I Love a Rainy Night, Every Breath you take, and others to be named! And of course we hope you have a wonderful day with your awesome hubby Tan the Man and precious "Baby Kake" (as Isabel calls her). We love you!

Finally a first post.....

Ok, so it's take me nearly a year from signing up for this blog to actually writing a first post! I don't know how to make that top picture any smaller. Anybody got any advice? Here is a recent picture of our family from the Bible School 2008 graduation in March.... We had a great group of students this year!

So I have some more stuff to "blog" about... like our new dog with 6 puppies and our crazy April Fool's Day, maybe I'll get to that soon. I'd like to get the kids to blog some too!