Special Connection Homeschool

Barnes and Nobel is hosting a reading program titled 2013 Summer Reading Imagination's Destination where any elementary student who reads 8 books over the summer will get a FREE book.  There is also a FREE reading kit with fun activities and teaching tips.  Hop on over the Barnes & Nobel Summer Reading Page to start your summer reading now!  Forms must be turned in by September 3, 2013 to qualify.

Today we signed up for the summer reading program at our local library.  Now we are ready to Dig into Reading.  This will be the second year that Gess must follow the Program B reading requirements.  She mastered it last year so this should be easy.  The rules are listed below.   I actually don't let Gess choose only 3 of the categories.  I make Gess read one from each of those categories.  I want her to get a good feel for all types of reading.  We are also going to join Governor Brownback's Read Kansas Read challenge.  I love that it only requires them to log the amount of minutes they spend reading.  That means that children with special needs will have an equal opportunity to participate.  You don't have to read well or fast, just read!  I like that!  If you live in Kansas you can learn more about that by clicking on the image below.  Gess is always excited to sign up for the summer reading p...

So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler is hosting a Homeschoolers Around the World linky to sign up homeschoolers by geographical are to "promote more friendship, unity and resources for our families."  Click the link below if you want to add your blog or find other homeschoolers in your near you.  Enjoy!

I do not know if you have heard but atheists have been attacking a small Christian school in South Carolina because of a quiz that was given to the students based off of the Answers in Genesis curriculum Dinosaurs, Genesis, and the Gospel .  That is right, atheists seem to be outraged over the fact that a Christian school would teach a Christian world view about the creation of the world.  You can read the whole story at their blog Intolerant Atheists Viciously Attack Christian School . To battle this attack Answers in Genesis has decided to challenge us all to take the quiz!  Families: Let's Use the Recent Atheist Attack to Teach More Kids the Truth explains a bit more about the story and offers the challenge of taking the quiz.  However, instead of just giving us the quiz to take they are offering some of their resources FREE for a limited time so we can actually teach what is on the test!  You can get the following for no charge: View the children’s ...

I am just super excited to tell you about the latest product I reviewed for the Schoolhouse Review Crew - Simplified Pantry .  It is not actually a homeschooling product, but rather something that every family can benefit from.  I grew up in a home where both parents worked and we ate a lot of fast food for dinner. I never really learned many cooking skills and so I always had to cook by following recipes.  Every week I planned my shopping list by the menu I prepared for that week and I would buy only the ingredients for those meals.  That of course always had me running back to the store several times because I would either forget something or have a change of plans.  Many times it meant eating out because if one of the meals didn't work out I had nothing ready to fall back on.  To help put an end to all this needless planning and preparation, not to mention the waste for all those "special" ingredients you buy that are only used once, Mystie Winkler ca...

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has just announced a new and really handy resource, The Schoolhouse Library .  This library for homeschoolers lets you have access to all of it's listings right from your home!  The library consists of over 175 e-books or audio books in 25 categories from many different publishers.  You get access to all of these for a one time payment of $25! Be sure to hop on over to the The Schoolhouse Library website to see some of the listings that are available and find how you can sign up.  For a one time payment, that's a fabulous deal!

I am sure you heard about the devastating tornado in Moore Oklahoma on Monday.  Our hearts are saddened and our prayers go out to the families who suffered loss during that tragedy.  As a resident of another part of "tornado alley" in Kansas I can certainly sympathize.  We live only four hours from Moore and less than two hours from Joplin which had the most deadly tornado in modern history two years ago today.  Our community has been quick to rise to action to help in both of these tragedies and I am thankful to have been a part of that. While we didn't suffer any damage or get a major hit by the storm we did go through it and there was some wind damage in our town.  We were under a tornado watch the entire day and for us it never went to a warning.  We did power down our technical equipment, such as computers and game systems when the storm became severe so we were down to the radio for our weather updates for awhile.  Around 3:30 in the afternoon ...

Gess began taking piano lessons last fall and had her very first piano recital on Saturday.  I am so proud of how well she is doing.  What amazes her instructor is how well she reads the notes already.  Below are a few photos and the videos of her two songs. 

Last year my Gesserine made a profession of faith and was baptized in October.  We really do feel she understands what she did and was sincere in her prayer.  We have truly seen repentance and some fruit in her life.  Since then I have been trying to help her learn how to have some independent devotion and bible study time which is something important for every Christian.  When I saw that I had the opportunity to review Stepping Stones to Bigger Faith for Little People Book and Audio Cassettes by Joyce Herzog I thought it might be the perfect tool for that, and boy was I right. Stepping Stones to Bigger Faith for Little People is a family devotional that is written on a 2nd grade level but has applications for all ages. There are 37 devotionals in all that are based upon Scripture.  These are solid, essential, and doctrinally sound devotions.  I love how it starts with basic doctrinal passages such as Romans 5:8 that tells us we are sinners....

Gess will begin her horseback riding lessons again this summer.  She absolutely loves riding, can you tell from these photos her instructor took? Today I decided to check out Amazon and look for some FREE ebooks about horses.  Remember they might not be FREE for long.

Gess was supposed to attend 2 Special Olympic competitions this year but she was sick when they had the first one.  The second one was set for last week but rained out.  They rescheduled it for yesterday and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day for it.  This was the first time this city hosted an event and with the cancellation I think some teams ended up not being able to make it so the attendance was down and in most events Gess competed against only one other girl.  There were plenty of boys in their heats but there seemed to be a shortage of girls.  Well, that meant that Gess would either get the gold or the silver and she managed to get the gold in each one!  She had four events and got four gold medals! She was so ecstatic!   Here are a few pictures of her joyous day. The Tennis Ball Throw - Gold Making waiting more fun with a game of Duck-Duck Goose. 10 Meter Dash - Gold As you can see she was not a fan of the sou...