A Letter to My Husband…
For every day of the year…
Happy birthday to the man who married me.
Birthdays should be celebrations of thankfulness and the joy of life and sacred moments shared. Too often our birthdays come and go as just another day as we’re too caught up in parenthood, bills, the planning, prepping, and cleaning up of meals to notice another birthday that ticks off another calendar year has passed.
Thank you for all the ups and downs of these over fourteen years of togetherness and all that means. 
You still say you love me.
Forgive me for not being that mushy, lovey, snuggly, chick movie-watching kind of girl. You know I’d rather watch Die Hard
You completed me when I didn’t know how to complete myself.
Despite those early times of me, a hiding curled-up sobbing ball in the closet, or the hysterical panicky save-me phone calls from parking lots, you stood by me and came to the rescue.
In those beginning years, when I just knew I couldn’t carry on another moment of marriage or motherhood, you encouraged me and soothed me. When I felt I was worthless and that you could do so much better with another different wife, you assured that I was indeed good enough. When motherhood overwhelmed and exhausted me, you calmly took over my duties after a long workday of your own, often staying up with wide-awake, sick, or crying babies so I could rest to begin again.
Even though we’ve been through so much, you still say you love me.
We’ve never had godly marriage or parenting role models. We knew this pioneering thing would be tough.
That’s ok because we have the Holy Spirit to teach us. We are going our own radical way.
We often get frustrated with how far we still have to go.
But look how far we’ve come!
We’re both still works in progress.
You still come home at night to an ungrateful wife in her pajamas some days. With no semblance of dinner as you stumble over Hot Wheels
But those are sometimes our best days!
Yet you don’t seem too bothered by this. I think I get more frustrated with myself than you ever do.
You still say you love me.
When we argue about how to disciple the kids and the accusations fly and the words rise up against both of us and the quick tongues lash and the eyes shoot fire. Then I’m more angry at you for forgiving and forgetting like you should. I wish I could just let it go and move on. When I snap at you and act like a spoiled teenager with the huffing and eye-rolling and silent treatment…
You still say you love me.
Even when I’m unlovable.
You’ve taught me what unconditional love is. Even though I often struggle against the idea. Even though I don’t deserve it. You won’t relinquish the hold even when I flail and fight.
Thank you for still telling me you love me.
I still need to be reminded.
I love you too.
Cool Summer Foods
Please see my suggested resources.
When it’s hot, I don’t know about you, but I don’t even really feel like eating, much less cooking or even meal planning.
I try not to use the oven in summer to further heat up our poorly insulated house. Our kitchen and adjacent dining-living room are like greenhouses, and in the warmer months, I have to shut all the blinds and curtains to maintain a semblance of coolness.
Once our garden kicks off, we eat from that often. Tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, lettuces. We eat steamed or sautéed or grilled – or just raw.
Some of my favorite summer recipes:
Grilled Romaine Lettuce. Who’d ’a thunk it?
Cut the lettuce in half lengthwise. Spritz with EVOO. Lightly grill the lettuce for just a little char. Plate it up warm with some crumbled cheese (blue is good!), balsamic or flavored vinegar, bacon bits, candied nuts, dried fruit bits. Ah-may-zing!
Caprese salad.
So simple and pow! flavor. Tomatoes. Fresh mozzarella. Basil. EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Salt and pepper. Slice it up. Cube it. Make it pretty. Mix it up. Try different colored tomatoes and flavored oils and vinegars for something special.
Ratatouille medley.
Slice or cube veggies: yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers of any color, sweet onions, eggplant. Grill or sauté with EVOO or coconut oil to desired doneness. Serve up with a spritz of lemon, and a pinch of “house” seasoning – salt, pepper, garlic powder.
Grilled pizza.
1. Any veggies of choice. I love the Ratatouille ones above on pizza! Grill veggies and then top a par-cooked pizza crust. Add goat cheese and/or sauce. Grill with indirect heat until cheese melts a bit. Voilà!
2. My kids love grilled pizza too. They don’t care for many veggies on their pizza, but prefer meat. So, just sauté up some sausage or slice up some pepperoni. Top with bacon bits or ham. Sauce and cheese. Grill with indirect heat until cheese melts. Happy kids!
3. Fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese pizza. Insanity. Seriously. Use blackberry jam for “sauce.” I also love the figs scored, stuffed with herb goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto, grilled just a bit, then drizzled with honey and almonds. Yum!
Jalapeno Poppers.
I suggest wearing gloves or being very, very careful. Cut the stems off and halve jalapenos. Scrape out seeds (I use a grapefruit spoon). Add a little scoop of a cream cheese. Slap a lil smoky on there. Wrap it in bacon. Put ‘em in a smoker for a couple hours or grill over indirect heat. Make lots of new friends. These are insanely good and not that spicy.
Veggie Boats.
For kid snacks or to impress a dinner party! Hollow out cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, you name it…mix a cream cheese with fresh dill and top with bacon bits. You’re welcome. It’s amazing. Set out pita or tortilla chips and cut up fresh veggies for dipping.
You can also make a healthy homemade ranch dressing: plain Greek yogurt (or a mix of buttermilk, mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon, EVOO), dill, parsley, chives, minced fresh garlic, minced shallot or sweet onion, salt and pepper.
Ices, Smoothies, Milkshakes.
On a super hot day, we love making our own slushy drinks. So much healthier than that colorful chemical snow cone hut on the corner in town!
Add 1 cup ice to blender. sweetener of choice (we just like a simple syrup or honey). choice of fruit: watermelon, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, any citrus juices. Try mixing new and fun flavors!
You could add kefir or yogurt for a different texture and flavor.
We love making milkshakes too! My personal favorite is leftover coffee, homemade ice cream, a few ice cubes, homemade chocolate syrup, cinnamon. Frothy and delicious. Kate likes plain vanilla, so I just leave out the coffee and chocolate syrup. Add some milk or cream to make it go farther.
You can also freeze the mix in some fun silicone push ups for homemade popsicles!
What are some of your favorite summer recipes?
Check out some more!
Teaching a Gifted Middle Schooler
Please see my suggested resources.
When I taught public school language arts, I was also the gifted coordinator for the middle school.
I tested the children who were recommended for the gifted program and placed children in the gifted classes. I taught gifted eighth grade language arts.
Those students were my shining stars, and I still chat with several of them on Facebook today…and they’re now either in grad school or beginning their exciting lives, getting married and having babies, and some are teachers themselves!
My daughter, Elizabeth, reminds me so much of those students.
She’s in my territory now. Bwahahaha!
I was out of my comfort zone for so long teaching preschool and elementary, and now she’s twelve and learning almost at the level I used to teach when I worked in a school.
It’s a wakeup call for Liz, in a way. She doesn’t like to be told her work isn’t up to a standard.
Elizabeth has never been formally tested for IQ or gifted abilities. I don’t know if she would even test into the gifted program at a school since she doesn’t really have any experience with standardized testing, other than one required by the state we lived in three years ago. She scored exceptionally well on that one, except average in math. But that is neither here nor there. I know she has gifted tendencies. I know her abilities and potential. I saw it in many students and she compares well.
My expectations for her have shifted this school year. I now have a standard by which to judge her work, in a way. I certainly know what she’s capable of, academically. I remember the level of work my students did, and I am gradually shifting Liz more towards that level. I am changing the requirements little by little to fit. She deserves to be challenged. This is why we homeschool!
I evaluate and re-evaluate her school subjects and assignments often to make sure it’s not too much nor too little. It’s a constant worry to balance everything and make sure it’s not too challenging, yet challenging enough. She’s no longer in the grammar stage. She’s quite into the dialectic stage now, and I must constantly hold her to that higher standard.
Sometimes Liz flails about (literally and figuratively) during our weekly review conferences and “forgets” all she that memorized in the past. I have to pick the connections out of her like pulling teeth. Other times, she’s full of words and blowing me away with some of her insights.
I guess I could have worse problems than that all she wants to do is lie around and read…
She has no interest whatsoever in popular culture. I told my friend the other day that Liz was born an old woman. She’s so conservative that I might never have to worry about her wearing immodest clothing or reading, watching, or listening to something inappropriate.
We recently added a logic course and it’s challenging both Liz and me. I remember getting a C in this very class in my second semester of college. {collective gasp!} During our reading of Socrates’ Apology, Liz made this connection: “Socrates was smart. Dr. Sheldon Cooper is smart. I am smart. We should start a club for all the really smart people and no one else can join!” {Never mind that Socrates is quite dead and Sheldon is quite fictional…} It really cracked me up.
I’ve had to explain to Elizabeth that she won’t make any friends bragging about her knowledge of Shakespeare or Latin…
It’s often a challenge to me to provide appropriate yet interesting reading material for a young girl. Her lack of cultural and worldly experience make this somewhat difficult at times. Much of her being “sheltered” is by her own choice and interests, but I am glad to have a “little girl” as long as possible. She will grow up all too soon.
Gifted Characteristics:
- Gifted students are often perfectionist and idealistic.
- Gifted students may experience heightened sensitivity to their own expectations and those of others.
- Gifted students are asynchronous.
- Some gifted students are “mappers” (sequential learners), while others are “leapers” (spatial learners).
- Gifted students may be so far ahead of their chronological age mates that they know half the curriculum before the school year begins!
- Gifted children are problem solvers.
- Gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help with concrete study and test-taking skills.
- Gifted students who do well in school may define success as getting an “A” and failure as any grade less than an “A”.
Creative Thinking
General Intellectual Ability
Specific Academic Ability
Leadership
Psychomotor
Visual/ Performing Arts
Study Skills Review
Please see my suggested resources.
We reviewed Honing Your Study Skills from Hands of a Child.
I chose the note pack. What’s a note pack? From the company:
Note Packs are ready-to-go notebooking units. With our Note Packs your students are able to enjoy the same Research Guide and activities as our lapbooks, but without all of the cutting and pasting! Simply 3-hole punch the fun and interesting pages and add them to any 3-ring binder. Note Packs are available in the same formats as lapbooks.
Also available as a lapbook – eBook, CD, printed, combo, or kit. Prices vary.
When I saw this, I knew it was just what I was looking for to help my teen with her study skills and note taking. We’ve kinda winged it until now, but her work load is getting too much for her to not have a plan and study skills in place.
I printed the pages out on pretty paper and after she completed them, we 3-hole punched it all and put it in a folder for her to keep in her minioffice file.
I put the file on her iPad mini so she could read the lessons and instructions as she went along. Perfection!
Liz independently completed the note pack in just a couple days.
Then we reviewed what she learned.
I especially liked the pages on time management and reference materials. We try to do it old school and I make sure my kids know how to use dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias. Then they can search the Internet. I extended the lesson by comparing primary and secondary sources. We discussed plagiarism and the reliability of Wikipedia as a reference source. We discussed research and source citation methods for different subjects. I can’t wait until she’s ready for complex research assignments! I plan to have her complete a small literary analysis this year. I love MLA.
The note taking and study success pages were eye-opening for Liz who has never really had to study before. (I think I went until my 3rd year of college before I had to study…)
Of course, I could have gathered all these materials and taught the lessons, but Liz loved the concept of the notebooking. She read, wrote, and narrated it back to me! All keys to learning well.
The best part? I can reuse many of the pages for any subject. There are biography notebooking pages. A weekly schedule is a great tool for her to learn to manage her time. I’ve been providing her with a schedule, but now I will release that responsibility to her! A mnemonic page is useful. We did the study area evaluation and decided on how to best utilize study and learning spaces.
3 main types of learning:
- Auditory
- Tactile
- Visual
It will also play nicely into another review coming soon!
Honing Your Study Skills contains:
- 5-day Planning Guide
- Related Reading List
- 15 Hands-On Activities
- 11-page Research Guide
- Answer Key
Note pack or Lapbook eBook on sale for $5.00 (orig. $12.00)!
Recommended for grades 5-10. Liz is 12.
Understanding Child Brain Development DVD Review
Please see my suggested resources.
I reviewed the DVD Understanding Child Brain Development produced by The Family Hope Center and introduced by Andrew Pudewa of Institute for Excellence in Writing.
WHERE HOPE COMES FROM.
My kids don’t have any known special needs but I thought this DVD might help me understand families who struggle with differences. I want to walk alongside them in prayer and learn and help any way I can. I thought it might help me in my ministry of being a natural health advocate. I want to learn about all the research available so I can pass on information to those who need it. God has given us amazing knowledge and resources to heal the human body!
What I learned. And some affirmations.
With the DVD comes a link to download a companion 52-page eBook with copies of the presentation slides. Super helpful!
Mr. Newell stresses the positive. They focus on abilities rather than disabilities. YES!
Their team views a child as a “whole person, not a collection of parts and specialties.” I love that.
I love this quote. Mr. Newell says to replace “society” with “parents.”
I love that they desire to treat the source of interference, not the symptoms! “The problem is the problem. The parent is not the problem.” So many parents of kids with special needs experience guilt that they did something wrong! We don’t understand God’s will. He is in control. He is driving the car.
It seems the team doesn’t want to rely on allopathic medicine to solve problems but believes that the body can heal itself with proper therapies. A company after my own heart.
Their first level of therapy is nutrition/detox. I think this could solve many health and brain disorders right there. Mr. Newell says about 85% of kids from 17 different countries who come to his center have evidence of heavy metals in their system {which causes an explosion with the CNS}.
Did you know the brain expands and contracts? Most of the kids who come to the center have no brain movement. I don’t know much about cranial-sacral therapy, but I plan to research this now! Don’t wear tight hats. Search for a cranial-sacral therapist near you! The compression of the birth canal and the expansion of birth helps the brain function normally.
He mentions the sensitivity of our olfactory system. I so agree that it’s important! Did I mention we do essential oils?
I agree that understanding and working with the child and proper nutrition and fitness are keys to brain health! He stresses the importance of a regular schedule. Structure and organization! Be consistent.
What you can expect.
The DVD progresses through the stages of brain development from
- birth-2 weeks
- 2 weeks-2 months
- 2 months-8 months
- 8 months-12 months
- 12 months – 18 months
- 18 months – 36 months
The DVD explains the development of critical life skills:
- seeing and reading
- hearing and understanding
- sensation and tactility
- locomotion and mobility
- communication and speech
- manual dexterity and writing
- emotional and social maturity
Fascinating review of how water reacts to environment. Showed water crystals from pristine locations and how it’s “happy.” Compared water crystals from home cooked food with convenience food. oh my! This affirms our lifestyles choices. I am so happy to see this.
The the slides show water next to a mobile phone. oh dear. Should there be legislation that kids shouldn’t have cell phones due to radiation exposure?
Then we see water near TVs, microwaves, computers. We rarely use our microwave and Mr. Newell recommends not using them because it changes the molecules of food and it is therefore of no value to the human system.
Recommended reading:
I cannot recommend this DVD enough – to ALL parents and care givers. It will help you understand child development.
To order the DVD for $19+shipping, please call 610-397-1737 or you can order Understanding Child Brain Development from IEW.
Also check out their program Your Thriving Child: The Essential Guide to Your Child’s Learning and Development.
Click for their conference schedule!
Reading Kingdom Review
Please see my suggested resources.
Tori and I reviewed Reading Kingdom. I knew she needed a little extra help with reading success.
I am very impressed with the comprehensive English Language Arts that Reading Kingdom supports. It’s more than just phonics and whole language that I see with other programs. I love the comprehension, keyboarding, vocabulary building, and grammar! This is great for training ears to listen.
Tori saw, read, heard, and typed the symbols, letters, and words. Complete learning.
Reading Kingdom works with children at multiple levels including preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade. Each level teaches all the skills and abilities required to be able to progress to the next level. With Reading Kingdom’s comprehensive 6-skill system children’s eagerness to learn will rise significantly even as they experience the lessons as fun reading games.
When I asked 7 year old Tori to help me review Reading Kingdom, she anxiously asked me if she was the only one doing it because she doesn’t do well in reading. (sister Kate is only 6 and reading is just easy for her.) It broke my heart. I assured her that I especially chose the program for her to review because I thought she’d find it fun and Kate would have other activities.
Tori did get a little frustrated during the placement survey because she’s not that familiar with the keyboard.
The instructions say for the parent or teacher not to help the student, but I did direct her a bit with mouse use and location of keys on the keyboard so she didn’t just shut down and not try anymore.
Tori often completes two or more lessons each day. I get emailed a report of her progress. It’s been slow going since she didn’t do as well as I expected on the eval. But that also means she’s reviewing and will be able to move forward to greater success.
To ease anxiety and help her focus, I diffused brain power essential oil during her survey and lessons. She had a great attitude.
Tori was tickled by the graphics at the end of exercises and would holler what the different ones were to all of us. The bullseye is a favorite.
Alex and Kate were fascinated with the program. I didn’t request a login for either since Alex isn’t quite ready and Kate is way beyond most of it. But they cheered their sister on!
Proof of the success.
I found Tori reading to Alex on several occasions.
On morning, they got up early and I found them on the sofa like this.
Yay for tutorials to succeed using an unfamiliar program. I adjusted the reaction time and that made it better. It was too slow and cumbersome at first. I do think they waste a lot of code and space though.
Students can use the on screen keyboard or the computer keyboard. We opted for the computer keyboard since that’s more natural.
Here are some screenshots:
Students have to click the keys on the keyboard in order to match the word.
keyboard practice with top line letters
letter recognition and discrimination
We haven’t gotten this far in the program yet! I can’t wait!
See all the great resources. Check out the store for books and supplementary materials.
Levels for preschool through 3rd grade.
Purchase info: $19.99/mo or $199.99 for an annual subscription.
Homeschool Space in Utah, Part 3
Please see my suggested resources.
Welcome to our tour of Our Homeschool Learning Spaces…we did a little bit of updating from last year.
Our front room on the main level is my office. I have two overflowing bookcases. I love my desk setup! I have everything I need within reach.
We are so blessed to have a basement! We use it for our main learning space. I know we probably won’t have this luxury when we PCS in a year or so.
I keep many books on this bookshelf that we’re not currently using, but we will use again for another round of history, science, Bible, or art. The green cube holds scrap paper for crafts. I also have magazines {Nat Geo Kids, Ranger Rick, Zoobooks} in the files on the floor beside the art boxes.
I found these matching desks used and the girls’ bedroom furniture is the same design and company. I love shopping at thrift stores, yard sales, or online at ksl.com. I have buckets of school supplies on a lazy Susan on the table in the corner. Teacher books are on shelves in that table too. And new stuff is stacked on the floor ready to begin in a couple weeks – after our Yellowstone trip!
I found this amazing table and (don’t they match?) 4 sturdy chairs…at TWO DIFFERENT YARD SALES ON THE SAME DAY. Score! The girls use that cube unit from Target for workboxes. I jot down our themes each week on the pictures for each subject. Our clean new empty Tapestry of Grace Year 3 notebooks are propped on the floor for now.
We do lots of lessons in front of our All About Reading board and our We Choose Virtues board is above that.
Our messy book nook with easel and magnets. We can never have enough books!
This is the wall where Alex does his preschool magic. We keep our Montessori mats for all the kids in that basket and toys in the bins. Our calendar is on the cellar door. I found this awesome school desk at Savers and he LOVES it!
That cube unit is from Target. All About Reading posters and a U.S. map from the $1 spot with a fun U.S. magnet game. and trucks. Always trucks!
Here’s Liz’s setup in our sewing/craft room. Also a cube unit from Target. {yeah, I love em!} She has one cubby for each school subject {history, foreign language, Bible, math, science, and ELA} and a thrifted basket for art. Notebooking binders are propped in between.
See what curriculum we’re using this year.
Middle East Unit Study
Please see my suggested resources.
We learned about the Middle East with Books, Movies, and Notebooking.
History Series:
American Revolutionary War
Civil War
World War I
World War II
Vietnam and Korea (coming soon!)
Iraq and Afghanistan
Too few Americans only know about the Middle East from Fox News, Breitbart, and other news outlets. They don’t know any of the history.
They don’t understand. Some don’t even want to understand or learn.
There is beauty in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other Middle East countries.
People are not our enemy. God loves all of us in this world. The moms and dads love their children in the Middle East just like we love our babies here in America.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12
Please pray with me for a more peaceful world.
This is a difficult concept. Our children have never known our country to not be at war. I remember when Desert Shield and Desert Storm took place when I was in high school. My parents worked for the U.S. Army and provided support for our forces in Iraq.
CNN and other news channels show their biased accounts of what’s going on “over there” but history is written by the winners.
The children aren’t winning.
9/11 disrupted the world and brought many Americans together but tore many others apart. Sides were chosen. America is the world’s police.
The children aren’t winning.
My husband deployed to Kandahar Air Field in 2011 for almost 8 months. He protected me from many stories and that’s probably best. I know he saw many horrors there. He worked in the medical facility there and in the blood bank. The medics cared for all injured, no matter whose side they fought for. My husband’s team collected and provided blood from UN Coalition personnel for injured Afghani civilians and soldiers (and even child soldiers) from both sides of that country’s conflict, in addition to our own.
The children aren’t winning.
My husband has those memories forever.
Will the war ever end?
I have to admit that we haven’t really exposed our kids to these events much yet. We are protecting their innocence as long as possible. It’s such a scary world we live in. The news is full of terrorist attacks and we just don’t discuss it much. We are diligent to be aware of our surroundings when we travel. We realize we are very American in a very hostile environment.
We’re losing much history, art, and culture with war in the Middle East.
Resources
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies – lots of lesson plans
- War and Terrorism
- Oil and Water in the Middle East
- Daily Life in the Middle East
- Rebuilding Baghdad from Scholastic
- Teaching the Iraq War Lesson Plans from PBS
- Refugees
- Iraq (PBS Nature video)
- Iraq in Transition
- Iraq in Pictures
- Nat Geo Iraq
- The Changing Face of War
- Afghanistan (PBS)
- Women on the Rise in Afghanistan
- Teaching a People’s History
- The Homeschool Mom Resources
- Eclectic Mom Resources
- Middle East Lapbook
- Afghanistan Unit Study
- 8 educational resources to better understand the refugee crisis
- Productive Homeschooling $
Movies
(use discretion)
- The True Story of Charlie Wilson
- Restrepo
- The Battle for Marjah
- Rendition
- Zero Dark Thirty
- Hell and Back Again
- Hurt Locker
- Osama
Books
(use discretion)
- Nasreen’s Secret School
- I See the Sun in Afghanistan
- A Refugee’s Journey from Afghanistan
- A Refugee’s Journey from Syria
- A Refugee’s Journey from Iraq
- Lost and Found Cat
- My Beautiful Birds
- Stepping Stones
- The Sky of Afghanistan
- One Green Apple
- Tasting the Sky
- Balcony on the Moon
- A Little Piece of Ground
- Persepolis
- The Breadwinner Trilogy
- Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban
- Kabul Beauty School
- Ghosts of War
- The Kite Runner
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- And the Mountains Echoed
- Waiting for the Owl’s Call
- Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad
- The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq
- Four Feet, Two Sandals
We are very respectful of the military and very patriotic.
Recently, my eldest joined Civil Air Patrol and you can read about it here: My Civil Air Patrol cadet.
Please join me in praying for our world.
How we do history…
You might also like: Raising Readers and How We Study History
We use Tapestry of Grace for our main history studies.
My girls especially love the living books and literature selections. They have a government supplement that is wonderful for high school. Four learning levels means the whole family learns together. Each unit has Internet links to relevant sites (most I’ve never heard of). The Revolutionary War begins at the end of Year 2 (from Byzantium to the New World) and the beginnings of our new nation is in the first unit of Year 3 (from Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt).
Follow Jennifer Lambert’s board US History on Pinterest.
Follow Jennifer Lambert’s board Modern History on Pinterest.
You might also like: Raising Readers and How We Study History.
Do you have resources to add? How do you teach this difficult time period to your kids?
World War II Unit Study
Please see my suggested resources.
We studied World War II with Notebooking, Books, Videos, and Trips.
World War II Unit
Travel
Resources
- WWII Lapbook and Notebooking Pages
- Homeschool Share Holocaust
- Free Unit from Something 2 Offer
- Unit Study from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
- Remembering the Holocaust {Scholastic}
- Productive Homeschooling $
Movies
{use discretion}
- Swing Kids
- Hart’s War
- The Pianist
- Schindler’s List
- Life is Beautiful
- Paradise Road
- Come See the Paradise
- In Enemy Hands
- Saving Private Ryan
- Red Tails
- The Thin Red Line
- Windtalkers
- Memphis Belle
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Books
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- The Hiding Place
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
- The Devil’s Arithmetic
- Number the Stars
- Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust
- Yankee Doodle Gals
- Early Sunday Morning
- Meet Molly
- Catch-22
- World Wars
- A History of US: War, Peace, and All That Jazz: 1918-1945 A History of US
- Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust
- Baseball Saved Us
- Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust
- Jars of Hope: How One Woman Helped Save 2,500 Children During the Holocaust
- The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark
- Star of Fear, Star of Hope
- The Butterfly
- Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
- The Little Riders
- The Harmonica
- A Father’s Promise
- The Cats in Krasinski Square
- The War That Saved My Life
- War Boy: A Wartime Childhood
- When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
- Benno and the Night of Broken Glass
- The Bracelet
- The Whispering Town
- Six Million Paper Clips: The Making Of A Children’s Holocaust Memorial
How we do history…
You might also like: Raising Readers and How We Study History
We use Tapestry of Grace for our main history studies.
My girls especially love the living books and literature selections. They have a government supplement that is wonderful for high school. Four learning levels means the whole family learns together. Each unit has Internet links to relevant sites (most I’ve never heard of). The Revolutionary War begins at the end of Year 2 (from Byzantium to the New World) and the beginnings of our new nation is in the first unit of Year 3 (from Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt).
Follow Jennifer Lambert’s board US History on Pinterest.
Follow Jennifer Lambert’s board Modern History on Pinterest.
You might also like: Raising Readers and How We Study History
How much is a mom worth?
Please see my suggested resources.
How do you balance it all, Mama?
I know I struggle! with homeschooling my 4 kids, meal planning, a house cleaning schedule, blogging, an essential oils business, church commitments, heart training and discipling my children, and trying to find a moment to spend time with my husband…there’s nothing left. I am drained.
Check out this fun {not really} infographic.
I {heart} infographics. What are you worth? Look at all our job titles!
Now, tell your husband to take you out to dinner. You deserve it!
Resources:
- Motherwhelmed by Beth Berry
- Jesus, the Gentle Parent by LR Knost
- Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson
- Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman
- The Mother Dance: How Children Change Your Life by Harriet Lerner
- The Highly Sensitive Parent: Be Brilliant in Your Role, Even When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D
- I’m So Effing Tired: A Proven Plan to Beat Burnout, Boost Your Energy, and Reclaim Your Life by Dr. Amy Shah, MD
- Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld
- Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
- Good-Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting by René Syler and Karen Moline
- The Mom Gap by Karen Gurney
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