Another Giveaway Winner!

All week long, I’ve enjoyed the scent of this hyacinth as I worked. (It’s also a welcome distraction from the messy desk, don’t you think?) Spring is finally here, and not a moment too soon.

Congratulations to reader Jacqueline H., whose name was drawn in this past week’s Giveaway. If you haven’t won yet, keep trying. There are three more giveaways; this coming week’s winner will receive a copy of my first book, Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. You can enter that drawing here.

Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

Giveaway #5: Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers

For the past month, I’ve been giving away materials recommended in my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. Now let’s give away a copy of the book itself, which is a curriculum for teaching teens values and skills for the adult world they’re about to enter.

But first, a question: what do you think is the biggest blessing that comes from homeschooling a teen? Leave your answer as a comment on this post by Friday, April 9 Sunday, April 11 at midnight, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for a free copy of Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers.

Giveaway #4: “Preparing for the Challenges of Adulthood”

life-on-the-edge-video

If you’ve ever heard Dr. James Dobson speak to a group, you know how engaging and informative he can be. In this video, part 1 of the “Life on the Edge” series, Dobson talks with teens about how to make decisions within God’s will once they become adults.

What are the toughest decisions we have to make as adults? Leave your answer as a comment on this post by Friday, April 2, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for this video, “Preparing for the Challenges of Adulthood,” part of a video series I recommended in my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, where I wrote:

I highly recommend this video series for its common sense and Christian attitude about the issues and decisions our teenagers will face as adults.

Stay tuned for more giveaways!

Inspiring Story for Teens

This month’s issue of Money Matters magazine (page eight) has an inspiring story for all teens. If I were still doing Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers with my daughter, I’d add it to her assignments for the week.

It’s the true story of a young newlywed couple who has been married for less than two years, has no debt and has $50,000 in savings, all due to their joint effort to manage their money responsibly.

He has a college degree, and she has a one-year technical degree. Both worked their way through college and graduated without debt. Their goals for the future include a large family, a paid-off house and ample donations to missions. What a great example for all young people!

Money Matters is published by Crown Financial Ministries, the organization that Larry Burkett helped start. Listening to Larry Burkett’s Christian financial radio show helped encourage my husband and me as we worked toward becoming completely debt-free, a goal we achieved (not on our own, only with God’s help!) in 2002.  Do check out Crown’s site while you’re there.

Great Tools for Financial Literacy

 

I’ve been using Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers with dd17 for the past 18 months or so, and we’re almost finished. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the projects.

Funny how using Life Prep has been a different experience with each of my children.

Our eldest was very eager to get out on her own, so we emphasized the rent, food and utilities projects over the others. Our son was completely college-minded, so we stuck to more reading and less projects. Dd17 is not in a big hurry to be out on her own, but she’s not sure about college either (she’s already racked up a few credit hours and isn’t sure if she wants to keep going), but she really gets into all of the projects.

She has run a couple of small businesses, so she understands the need to watch your expenses and make prudent choices. She seems to really get into studying how loans work, and how you can save a lot of money by prepaying them.

While working on the projects from the book, she enjoyed playing with some online financial calculators at Bankrate.com. They’re wonderful! I plan on adding mention of them to the next edition of the book when we update it again in a few years.