Spring Cleaning for the Heart and Home: Day 16

Good morning! Today’s download has suggestions for homeschool moms. Being home all day every day with your kids plus doing school work presents its own set of challenges! This is the last download in the series. I hope you have enjoyed it!

If you have any questions you would like answered, comment below or use the “Contact Us” button and send me your questions!
Download Spring Cleaning for the Heart and Home: Day 16

 

If you have found this devotional to be helpful and would like to support our ministry at A Virtuous Woman, you can donate! As always your prayers and gifts are appreciated!

Suggested Donation: $8.95

Or you can purchase Spring Cleaning for the Heart and Home e-Book here.

 

Spring – 15 Homeschooling Freebies

Do you love spring as much as I do? It just feels like a fresh start, don’t you think? Here are some fun ideas for you to do with your kids.

Things to do this Spring:

1. Make a tree house for dolls.
2. Make a Strand of Flower Lights for your daughter’s room or the patio or the sunroom.
3. Discover the Forest
4. Fingerprint Rainy Day Craft
5. Bottle-cap Caterpillar 
6. Spring Worksheets for school.
7. Garden Lamp-scapes for  bedroom.
8. Baby Blue Bird Craft – too cute!
9. Make LifeSaver Flower Lollipops 
10. Pretzel Bunnies and Chicks
11. Painted Bunny Art Lesson
12. Paper Daffodils – make a bouquet 
13. Still Life Vases to Paint
14. Spring Nature Walk Worksheet
15. Spring Writing Prompt

Discover the Forest

Have you seen this billboard?

I love it.

We have always been a nature loving family. Backyard adventures are common place in our household. From finding snakes and turtles to digging for salamanders, to catching skinks, to feeding the birds and checking our field guides to learn about the different birds in our yard – we love the outdoors.

I’ve been seeing this billboard around our area for a few weeks now. I really, really agree! UNPLUG. We recently disconnected the internet in our house. The first week, the kids were bored during their “free time” that would have otherwise been spent on facebook or youtube. But guess what? Now that a few weeks have passed, they’ve discovered a whole new world of possibilities! My teenagers are riding their bikes again! They take walks and read books. They browse through cookbooks looking for new recipes to try. They aren’t bored.

So even if you were like us and limited the amount of time on the internet or video games, etc. perhaps your family would benefit from unplugging from technology and experiencing life again. The world is a beautiful, amazing place! Don’t deprive your children. Give them nature.

And by the way, Discover the Forest has ideas, activities, and free printables for teachers and kids! Be sure to check it out!

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Book of Stuff to Do Outside
• Become a Junior Forest Ranger
• Finding My Forest for Educators

Wired.

Or not.

We decided a week ago to cut off the internet in our house.

That’s right. Despite the fact that I run an online ministry from home, we cut off the internet.

There were a number of reasons. After only a week, I can already tell a huge difference in how I feel and I have noticed a difference in my children.

A few weeks ago, I was on facebook and noticed a “status” on a friend’s page that went something like this:

Family time: Mom’s on iphone, daughter’s on iphone, son’s on ipad, Dad’s on laptop.

That one little quip really bothered me. It sounded funny. But not really. It’s the sign of a disconnected family. Everyone off in their own little cyber space world. It’s what’s wrong with America today. It bothers me. I don’t want to be that family.

Now, honestly, we aren’t that bad. I’ve never considered computer time, family time. I monitor the kids usage daily, their devices are passworded and only I know the password. They have to have permission to get on. I’ve never believed it was healthy to have your head in “the box” for hours on end on a daily basis. But at the same time, I felt like we were missing something as a family. In our house, as busy as we are, we have a basic routine to our days. The kids do their school work then get their chores done so they can have “free time.” More often than not, as soon as their chores were done the request would come in, “Mom, can I get on my computer (or kindle, ipod, etc.)?” I realized that free time was no longer about discovering new interests, working on a hobby, learning a new skill, having quiet down time, or taking a walk. It was more and more about being wired to facebook or Messenger.

For myself, I realized that my desire to write a new article or share a new recipe often came before my desire to get other important things done. I also realized that being “wired in” 24/7 meant that I felt an obligation to provide daily material for my readers to enjoy so that my google rank stayed high. But then, it was also very easy to become distracted by a favorite blog, Pintrest, or a search for new recipes to try.

I have felt, for a long time, robbed of my time. But who was really stealing it? ME. The internet, with all of its fabulous ideas and inspiring articles draw us in, telling us that we need it. When the idea of disconnecting the internet first came up, I battled with it. I said things like, “I don’t know, I use it for homeschooling all the time. I use it for recipes, and so many things! I have a ministry and a blog! How can I give that up?”

But then, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart, whispering to me and I knew I needed to let it go. For our family. And then I felt peace. More peace than I have felt in a really, really long time.

I’ve noticed several things since disconnecting:

1. I have more time. My days feel longer. I use to complain all the time that I just didn’t have enough time. I felt stressed an awful lot.  I have my life back.
2. When I do go to the library to get on and post to A Virtuous Woman, I have a list of things that need to get done and I do them. No distractions. No wasted time. And as a bonus, we get our library things done for school while we are there. And on nice days, we walk – fresh mountain air and healthy exercise.
3. I have re-discovered my cookbooks. I love it.
4. I’ve been able to get some projects done that have been on the back burner for, sadly, years.
5. My teens, who were bored out of their minds the first couple of days, are discovering a world outside the internet. Thank you, Lord. A true blessing indeed.
6. I just feel happier. Who knew?

I can’t count the times I would read someone’s blog, thinking their life sounded so perfect, wishing mine was, and then telling myself – “Instead of dreaming about the perfect life, get up and live it.” I have always had a pretty good life. No, a really good life. A wonderful life. But now… it seems all the more so.

The simple life… is the good life.

Great Homeschool Convention Giveaway!!

I was excited when Kim from GreatHomeschoolCoventions.com  emailed me with this amazing offer. As a homeschooling mom, I know how much fun these conventions are! And just think, two of you will have all that extra money that you would have spent on tickets -to spend on books and materials for your homeschool instead! How great is that?

You could be the winner of the

GREAT giveaway of a Family Registration to the convention of your choice!

Includes: Parents, Children and Grandparents for all three days and gets you in to all of the exhibits and all of the speakers! 

Choose from FIVE Locations:

Greenville, South Carolina, Memphis, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Ohio,

Long Beach, California, Hartford, Connecticut

The Great Homeschool Conventions family registration gets a family into one of our five conventions of their choice. Our conventions are in the following locations:

March 22 – 24, 2012  –       SouthEast Homeschool Convention –        TD Convention Center (Greenville, SC)

April 12 – 14, 2012  –         MidSouth Homeschool Convention     –     Memphis Cook Convention Center (Memphis, TN)

April 19 – 21, 2012    –       MidWest Homeschool Convention    –       Duke Energy Convention Center (Cincinnati, OH)

May 24 – 26, 2012        –   California Homeschool Convention     –     Long Beach Convention Center (Long Beach, CA)

June 14 – 16, 2012    –       NorthEast Homeschool Convention  –       Connecticut Convention  Center (Hartford, CT)

Be sure to visit Great Homeschool Conventions website, read about all the fabulous speakers you could hear while at the convention, and check out all of the (over 400) exhibitors.

How to Enter:

You get two chances to win:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Give a shout out on Facebook and leave a separate comment below letting us know.

Leave separate comments for each chance. In other words, you can make up to four comments. I will draw the winner at random.org and the winning two comment numbers will win. PLEASE fill out your email address in the comment form below!

Winners will be announced on Thursday, March 1 at 9:00 p.m.! So enter right away!

I will need the winners information by Friday morning so we can get the tickets to you! Watch your email!

 

Love Bug Valentines

I found this adorable printable valentine this morning. If I had seen these earlier, I would have used them for my daughter Hannah who loves all things Bugs. However the cards she did make are super cute, and I am very happy with them. We had our Valentine social last night and it was a lot of fun!

However, if you are needing a last minute idea, these would be great for any boy or girl (in my house) who loves bugs.

Visit Dandee Designs to download the file.

Fabulous Valentine’s Day Finds

I love to make Valentine’s Day special for my family. I have found so many wonderful freebies this year! In fact, I have found so many great ideas I’m having a difficult time trying to decide which ones to use! How about Valentine’s month? Sounds like a good idea!

Here are a few of my favorite finds – the some of the ones I’ll be using this year:

The Heart of Her Husband

With Valentine’s Day approaching in just 14 days… I thought it would be fun to focus on different aspects of the marriage relationship or rather, how you and I can be better wives! Proverbs 31 tells us that the heart of the virtuous woman’s husband could safely trust in her. Does your husband trust you or does his heart lie in fear of what is coming?

1. Do you respect your husband?
2. Do you pray for your husband?
3. Are you a home maker?
4. Can your husband trust you?
5. Are you thankful?
6. Do you go out of your way to be thoughtful to your husband?
7. Do you have a habit of nagging your husband?
8. Express your love with love notes.
9. Do you manipulate your husband?
10. Do you expect your husband to be perfect?
11. Men are basically easy to please. Feed them good food, keep the house clean, and give them plenty of…
12. What do you cook for your husband?
13. You love your husband when you love your kids.
14. Are you a helpmeet?

Protect your marriage. Protect the heart of your husband!

Homeschool Freebies – Penguins

We started our Penguin Unit today. On January 11, 2012 we were blessed to have the opportunity to visit Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN while at the KYTN Conference minister’s meetings. One of our favorite exhibits was the Penguins. So, I am working on a Penguin Unit for Hannah and Laura, who are crazy about anything God has created! Below you can watch one of our experiences with the penguins at Ripley’s. They were sooo cute! In this video, my girls Hannah, Laura, and Emily had some fun with one particular penguin.

Here are some Penguin Freebies that Homeschoolers can enjoy:

1. Mr. Popper’s Penguins from the Homeschool Share Blog.
2. Arctic Animal Lapbook from Homeschool Share
3. Penguin, Penguin Early Reader from Starfall.com
4. Penguin Lapbook from Lapbook Lessons
5. Printable Book of Penguins and Penguin Craft Idea from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

For more ideas, check out my Pintrest Penguin Page!

Host a Gingerbread Party for Kids

Looking for ways to make this year’s Christmas celebration memorable for your kids? Why not host a gingerbread party? I bet this would be fun for moms, too! HGTV has some great ideas. Check them out! Not to mention the adorable invitations and recipe cards you can print for free!  Plus! More printables: a red and green banner, gingerbread party circles, fancy food labels, and more!

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