A Simple Homeschool Thanksgiving

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Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week already! Here’s how I used to do Thanksgiving when I was homeschooling all four children:

If you’re one of those lucky people who are having Thanksgiving at their house this year, I’ve got some advice for you. Don’t do school that week!

I realize this isn’t an issue for you unschoolers out there. But there are others who are emotionally attached to our lesson plans, whether we have written them out to the tiniest detail, or just have a few goals we like to keep in mind. Ever the optimists, we think we can get plenty of school done on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving Wednesday night to get our dinner cooked in advance. That’s called dreaming.

Here’s a Thanksgiving plan for the homeschool mom that I developed after many years of running myself ragged trying to do school Thanksgiving week while planning, shopping for and cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. It’s the result of years of fine-tuning, careful consideration and a few mommy meltdowns. These days, my goal is to keep things as simple as possible. Continue reading →

Free ESV Bible

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This morning, my husband told me that an English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible is now available on Amazon for free!

I’ve already downloaded it and it’s really nice. It’s the Kindle edition, but even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download “Kindle for PC” to your pc and then get your free Bible.

Here are instructions for how to download “Kindle for PC” to your pc.

Here’s the link for the free ESV Bible on Kindle.

Enjoy!  🙂

Who’s Harder to Shop For, Boys or Girls?

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Now that we’re into November, I’m finally starting to think about Christmas gifts.

I’ve always found it easier to buy for the girls than the boys. Maybe I’m just really good at tapping into the little girl I used to be, but buying for my daughters and my niece is always fun.

But those boys….it takes more time to find good gifts for them. Of course, they’re always willing to tell me exactly which Wii game or Lego set they want. But I like to surprise gift recipients instead of just buying from a list they’ve written.

So, how about you? Who’s harder to shop for, boys or girls? Let’s have some fun with this. Leave your answer in the comments on this post and you’ll automatically be entered in a drawing for a new copy of Shovelhorns, the Biography of a Moose, and Black Bruin, the Biography of a Bear, two classic wildlife novels for boys in one book. It’ll make a great Christmas gift for your son, grandson or nephew.

Deadline for qualifying comments is this Friday, 11/12/10, at midnight.  Winner to be announced Saturday, 11/13/10. U. S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

11/13/10, 12:00 AM: end of contest. Winner will be announced later today.

Thomas Edison, Homeschooled Innovator

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I just read an article called “Thomas Edison: Poster Child for the Home Schooled.” The author shares some interesting information about Edison, for whom school did not work at all. His mother’s love and concern are what helped Edison become an inventor and scientist instead of the failure his teacher predicted.

Edison led quite a life: a millionaire before he turned 40, he earned (and lost) several fortunes in different areas of business, including electric lighting, phonographs and motion picture production. It was Edison who famously said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

I read a wonderful book about Edison while doing research for my upcoming book, Thriving in the 21st Century. I highly recommend it to adults and to young people who are interested in business and innovation. It’s called At Work with Thomas Edison: 10 Business Lessons from America’s Greatest Innovator by Blaine McCormick.