Posts in Resources
Fall 2010 Circle Time, Part II
So, here we are. We just spent ten days traveling with our three oldest children, spent a day getting unpacked and settled back at home, started school today, and will tear out our kitchen next week. At the same time, God has been sending those BOLD but GENTLE warnings He's so good at, and this time we are hearing two words repeated: GIVE GRACE. GIVE GRACE They pack a punch, don't they?

The highlight of our Fall 2010 Circle Time is our Lamp and Quill Bible Study on the books of Acts, Romans, Galatians, and eight more of Paul's epistles. God has seen fit to move our family out of one church and into another, so we thought it appropriate to study the early church this year. I love the layout of Lamp and Quill studies. Each age level has their own book with questions and activities geared especially to them, so while my junior higher is answering questions about the text, my three-year-old is coloring a picture of what happened in the chapter that week. There are crafts if you want that option, and the study is meaty enough for me. We're also still (still! Year three, I think) working through Notgrass's Draw to Learn the Book of Proverbs, but we remain with it because my four who are doing it love it so much. Maybe one of these years we'll get to move on, eh? But the reason it has taken us so long to get through the whole book is that I tend to toss it into the mix only a few days a week. They literally squeal when I pull it out, though. Lamp and Quill will take up the bulk of the 45 minutes we have set aside for Circle Time, so last on the list for the fall is A Young Scholars Guide to the Composers. I pretty much like everything Maggie Hogan produces, and this one promises to be a good fit for us, too. Coloring pages, links to sample pieces, chronological so I can major on the composers in the time period we're studying this year. And if I'm lucky, we'll actually memorize some poetry from First Language Lessons. Really, we will. I printed out the poetry pages posted at Homeschool Creations and at least they look cute in my Circle Time binder :)

I love it when big brothers read the Word to us

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Circle Time, Educating at Home, ResourcesKendra Comments
Fall 2010 Circle Time, Part I
Leah recently sent me a link to her post about their family's Circle Time.  Great ideas there (thanks, Leah!) and it got me to wondering if more of you have posts about Circle Time up on your blogs.  Would you consider sharing with us? I have lots of fun Circle Time plans in the works, but boy howdy are things looking different for us this year.  Our oldest son has a job detailing cars and taking care of the shop at a car dealership.  He is gone three days a week, and on the other three days he studies (he takes a day off).   This means he's only around for our morning Circle Time two days in the week. Our next-in-line son is going to a friend's house three days a week for Algebra tutoring (God bless willing friends!), and his at-home mornings are different days than his older brother's.  We have ONE day when we're all home together. Makes for major schedule tweaking! On our one day together, we're reading Britt Merrick's Big God.  Oh, yes He is a big, big God!  Does it go over the littlest one's heads?  Probably.  Is it simpler than my oldest guys or I can handle reading?  Yup.  But the simple truths of God's love and grace and mercy and BIGness can never be outgrown or under-heard.
We have guests from San Antonio here this week, then we're off to Washington D.C. with our oldest three.  Yippee!  When I return we're starting school whole-hog then tearing our kitchen out.  I want to post more about our fall Circle Time soon, but in the meantime if you're looking for resources, check out the Circle Time page on our Amazon store. I'll also be giving away some Circle Time ebooks soon!  If you like free stuff, be sure to become a fan of Preschoolers and Peace on Facebook.  I like to sneak little giveaways in there :)
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Circle Time, ResourcesKendra Comments
Exercise and Preschoolers: An Interview with Christy
Awhile back I wrote about losing 60 pounds and how I'm keeping it off.  I've actually lost 65 now, and would like to drop at least another 10.  We'll see.  I feel great- strong and healthy and energetic, but I've put in a lot of hours and said no to a lot of junk food.  It takes work and time to really get into shape, and I know many of us struggle to add one more thing on top of preschoolers, older kids, homemaking, and homeschooling. I'd still like to encourage you, though.  Taking the time to do this for myself has been one of the best decisions I've made as a homeschooling mom. I have had the help of two wonderful coaches from Beachbody (Beachbody coaching is a free service, by the way) who've helped me choose the right workouts for me and who've been excellent cheerleaders.  Today I'd like to introduce you to Christy Henry, Beachbody coach and homeschooling mom:

Hi, I'm Christy.  I'm a Christian, Navy wife, Beachbody Coach, and homeschooling mom to three kids under the age of eight (four kids in October!).  I'd add that I'm a blogging mom and scrapbooker, too, but the cycle of deployments and moving and then pregnancy started sucking up my time over a year ago, and I'm just starting to get my mojo back (just in time to lose it again when the baby comes!).  I still blog occasionally at After a cup of coffee...or two. Have you always been fit or is this something you've eased into as a mom? Growing up I was never very active, as I preferred to sit and read and be air conditioned instead of sweaty.  I wasn't overweight, just soft.  But that caught up to me once I graduated from college and the natural activity of youth suddenly ended.  I slowly and steadily gained weight, but didn't really realize it.  I'd think things like, "I should really stop drying my pants.  They keep shrinking."  It wasn't until after I had my first baby and three months later still weighed over 200 pounds that I faced the fact that I was plus-sized, and taking the baby out for a short walk in the stroller wasn't getting me very far! Are you working out now that you're expecting? Doctor's orders are no working out for me right now.  But in the beginning I was doing Turbo Jam.  It's one of my favorite home workouts.  The music always gets me into it, and I love that every move can be modified for people with injuries, newbies and even pregnancy. What does a typical workout look like for you? Being a busy mom means that I really like to keep my workouts less than hour, and I like to do them in the house where I don't have to worry about childcare or naptimes.  I've wasted too much money on gym memberships that didn't get used enough.  I usually do weight training three times a week and cardio two to three times a week.  Beachbody has all of my favorite workout videos, so you can usually find me doing one of their 90-day programs, or mixing and matching their programs to suit my goals and time limits. What kind of motivation do you find works best for you? The best kind of motivation is to find your soul mate workout!  If I don't enjoy it, I'm just not going to stick with it.  I can make too many excuses.  Finding support, whether from a workout partner or online is also a huge motivator for me.  Once I became a Beachbody Coach, I found that helping others with their fitness journeys also helped me on mine! How do you think homeschooling moms of preschoolers can practically make fitness a part of their lives? I think we really have to schedule it in, because there's always something that comes up to suck up your time!  I've always loved using naptime for a workout.  There are less interruptions and less chance of accidentally kicking a child in the head while kickboxing (oops!), and a baby will usually take at least one 45 minute nap each day.  If that's just not possible, then finding a partner to work out with can help.  The ONLY way I get up at 5:30am to work out is when I know that my friend is going to be knocking on my door to work out with me! What are the workouts you'd recommend to a mom who's just starting to make fitness a priority? Walking is always easy when you're new and you can dig a little deeper by using wrist and ankle weights.  For workouts to do in your home, I LOVE Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire from Beachbody.  Both have great music that make the time go by faster and push you to work harder, which means more calories burned in less time.  Both include a 15 or 20 minute workout that helps you to burn max calories in almost no time, which is great for those days when you know you just can't fit a full workout in. What are your favorite grab-and-go snacks? My go-to grab and go snack is the P90X Protein Bars from Beachbody.  It's actually good for you and not just a glorified candy bar, although it hits the spot when I have a chocolate craving!  If I have a minute to make something, then I like to top a brown rice cake with natural almond butter, sliced banana and a few drops of honey.  It's a balanced snack but still filling and just the few drops of honey are enough to satisfy my sweet tooth without adding too many calories. My Beachbody page is at beachbodycoach.com/afteracup, and I love to support moms (and others) on their fitness journeys!  I have plenty of space to coach anyone and it's absolutely free to get me as a coach.  You can sign up at my Beachbody page, or email me with questions at afteracup@beachbodycoach.com ♥ Thanks, Christy!  I appreciate you :)  By the way, everyone, if you watch the little promo video on the Turbo Fire page, note the very first brunette in the dark blue top.  She's a mom of seven!
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Nurturing Moms, ResourcesKendra Comments
Books We Read Aloud This Spring
In keeping with the time period we were studying in history this year, many of our read-alouds were about the Renaissance and Reformation. All were a delight, all I would recommend. The children who were in on our read-aloud sessions (and actually paying attention ;) ) were 12, 10, 8, and 6. If you're reading this post in a reader, you might want to click over to the Preschoolers and Peace site to see the book link buttons.
Set in 1587, Red Hugh, Prince of Donegal is a fast-paced, exciting story of warring between the English and the Irish. Definitely a worthwhile read.
We've enjoyed the Building on the Rock series very much, and How God Stopped the Pirates didn't disappoint. Used in our morning devotions/Circle Time, the readings are short and to the point. Memorable, too.
Soldier Fritz and the Enemies He Fought is a story of the Reformation. Set in 1525, young Fritz learns what it means to live like a Reformer and be a soldier for Christ.
Bartholomew’s Passage is part of the wonderful Advent series written by Arnold Ytreeide. Favorites here: we've done the series twice now.
Before the Dawn follows Wycliffe and Huss, and brings us into the life of a young man named Conrad who must choose between the church he's always known and the words of Scripture.
We read The Year of Miss Agnes because we needed a light-hearted little break from the heavy topics of our history studies. A delightful story of an itinerant school teacher in Alaska and the sweet and funny children under her care.
And then we jumped into King Solomon’s Mines, where adventure loomed large. Got any Indiana Jones fans in your house? King Solomon's Mines' Allan Quartermain was the original Indy. And we laughed out loud, too! My Brother’s Keeper is a series of letters from an older brother to a younger one, writing on various topics. I read it to all the kids because I felt we could all use reminders on being in the Word, serving others, and choosing friends wisely. I highly recommend it as a read-aloud for the youngers, but high schoolers can read it on their own.
From out of the Renaissance and Reformation we headed into the New World. Voyage to Freedom is the story of the Pilgrims' journey on the Mayflower, and in particular focuses on a brother and sister and their point of view. We all liked this one because it didn't soft-sell how difficult the journey actually was, and the story had nice little ups and downs. Hands That Hold the World: the Biography of M.A. Thomas has been an inspiration to me, personally. I see my kids pondering the faith of M.A. Thomas, and I love the discussions we've had around the table about the man and his work in India. I want to inspire my kids to break out of the mold and serve God, no matter the cost. M.A. Thomas has done so in such a way that his steadfastness is awe-inspiring. You can click on the link and download the book for free.
The Shakespeare Stealer is a romp through Shakespeare's London. If this is the time period you're heading into next year, put The Shakespeare Stealer on your list. Orphan Widge learns to write in a remarkable shorthand that takes him into the Globe Theater and changes his life!
...and Shakespeare’s Scribe, every bit as good as it's predecessor!
I've read The Witch of Blackbird Pond twice now to my kids, and I find myself pondering different elements of the story often. That's the sign of good writing, isn't it? Thought-provoking, historically representative, and compelling story-telling.
My adventure-loving ten-year-old daughter adored Island of the Blue Dolphins. The story of a young native woman left stranded off the coast of California, this one will inspire your kids to get out into the backyard and try to start a fire with two sticks ;)
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Books to Read Aloud, Educating at Home, ResourcesKendra Comments
Grace-Based Parenting

My favorite book on the subject of Christian parenting, revisited. I read through Grace-Based Parenting several years ago but I am seeing it and hearing it and taking it all in a different light after the trials of these past two years. Balance. Grace motivates us to a higher holiness, but legalism demands we maintain a relationship with God through obedience to a standard. Truth here: "The graceless home requires kids to be good and gets angry and punishes them when they are bad. The grace-based home assumes kids will struggle with sin and helps them learn how to tap into God's power to help them get stronger. Grace understands that the only real solution for our children's sin is the work of Christ on their behalf." I'm not sure why, but those of you reading my posts in a reader can't see the Amazon button for books that I post. Sorry about that.
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Nurturing Moms, ResourcesKendra Comments