Kisses From Katie ~ Uganda orphans

This book was first recommended to us from a friend in Manitoba who had read it along with her daughter.  I started to read it and found myself unable to put it down for too long...it was such a good book!  I finished it really quickly and then started to read it aloud with our family.

You can click on the link for a description of the book from Amazon, but I'll give you our family's take on it as well.

What our family enjoyed about this book was it's pure honesty and the view point of a teenager... a young woman who is just seeing the world for the first time.  What Katie did and does, is put her faith into action through simple things.  She does not toot her own horn, because she knows that there would be nothing to toot without Jesus helping her every step of the way.  

There were some funny stories, but more stories of just how simple acts of kindness can change a life, a family, a village.  She offers a little more insight into things like child school sponsorship programs, etc.

 We found her writing to give a clear picture of what life is really like in some other areas of the world.  Information on simple diseases that are devastating to those who can't get treatment, etc.  

We ended this book wanting to know more...and thankfully, she does have a blog and a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/amazima to keep updated.  Facebook Page They started an organization called Amazina where woman make beaded necklaces, etc and sell them to provide for their families.  Click Here to go to the Amazina store.

We read this book and often felt the sticky hot heat as Katie described it...imagined brushing the red dirt from our feet and washing little dirty hands and eating beans.  

This book made us more aware than we normally are and while our hearts have always had compassion for the suffering ones, we felt more urgency to put our faith into action.  There will always be excuses and while some excuses may be very valid, others are not.  So we don't personally have a large enough house to adopt or provide foster care ~ can we do something else to help someone?  While we had talked to organizations about adoption, we now talked to them about "what can we do in our situation?"  Sometimes it's just being willing to step out.  Turns out there are other areas to help, right here in our little town.  Imagine that!  It does seem easier to sponsor a child overseas than to love one right here in our own neighborhood.    We felt we were being selfish and a bit hyprocritical  in our actions ~ oh how I wanted to adopt a child for years, but in the mean time, what was I doing?  While our family is our first priority, we were feeling that there was more, as there is always a call to let go of "self". So for us personally, it is doing what we can at the moment, while we wait to see what other doors may open for us.

When we were about 1/2 way through the book, a friend of our daughter sent her a copy for her birthday.  Now we own a copy!  If you are local and would like to borrow it, just let me know, we'd love to share it with you.

Great Christmas Story Book ~ A porcupine in a Pine Tree and The Christmas Baby

I am striving to do some little reviews on books our children have enjoyed and am going through some older blog posts to find any that I have already shared with you.

We usually purchase 1 Christmas story book each year to add to our growing library.  My husband recalls with fondness when his own Mom would bring out the box of Christmas books... everything from Mary and Joseph to the Berenstain Bears.  They would gather around the red couch and Mom would read!  I was privileged as well to be able to join in with this tradition for many years.

 

The following 2 books were new to us in 2011 and are favorites.

 ~ "The Christmas Baby" by Marion Bane Bauer and Richard Cowdrey ~ such wonderful happy pictures and such delight over ALL babies born at this time of year.  I thought this book appropriate because in our large family, there is always a new babe to celebrate or one that we are anxiously awaiting.  A Big Thumbs Up!

 "A porcupine in a Pine Tree" the Canadian 12 days of Christmas by Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann.  Things like 8 Mounties Munching, Five Stanley Cups, Two Caribou... a delightful twist and such fun pictures!  A definite THUMBS UP to this book!

We actually did our own little spin on this book for a Christmas dinner play.  Very easy to adapt and make into a little skit!!!  Now how is that for ideas?

 

 

As always, any item you put into your Amazon Cart or purchase after you have clicked on a link from my blog, will give me a small commission ~ that I forward to Adopting Families!  No extra cost to you.  You can put items in your cart, but need to purchase them within 90 days for any benefit to go to me.  These items do NOT have to be just the items I have featured.  Just click to Amazon and go from there!  Thanks!

Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys

Classic novels by Louisa May Alcott

I am the type of Mom that reads out loud to my girls at meal times. I also read out loud while we are driving, as I am the only one who can do so without suffering the queasy consequences. I'm not exactly sure when that habit formed, but it has.  Most often it's those meals when Daddy is not at home and to be honest, when I am finished eating and my mind is turning to things other than what is sitting before me.  So, I started to read books of their choice out loud.




The latest book is "Good Wives" by Louisa May Alcott.  We had read "Little Women" and then watched the movie version with Winona Ryder...it actually covers the Good Wives book as well.  We were a little confused and had thought they made up a different ending.  So now we are reading the rest of the books and always have fun comparing the movie to the book.  These are books that my older girls could easily read on their own, but we do enjoy reading together.  This way, when more classic terminology comes up, it can be easily explained.

Most often we don't watch the movie version until we've had the pleasure of reading the book and forming our own mental pictures beforehand.  We love the freedom to imagine each character as we like.

As always, if you click to Amazon through the above links, we receive a small percentage which we pass along to adopting families in Manitoba.  Thank you!

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall Book Review

   Yes, yes, I promised more reviews and we will try our best.
I just finished reading The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall as a read-out-loud to our three girls, ages 9, 12, 15 years.   Can we say how much we loved this book?  We all laughed out loud (even Daddy) while reading this.  The pictures that form in your mind can definitely get the giggles going.  It was very age appropriate for my girls.  The characters are excellently written, personalities shine through.  Family honor, communication, and yes, fun and exploring are main themes.  The girls are being raised by their Father after their Mother has died. The tween does develop a 'crush' on the older teenager boy, but it is very innocent and has a good lesson/ending to it.

Now ~ imagine our delight when we discovered there are 2 MORE books!  We are looking forward to reading the next two.






I do have an Amazon Associates account, and if you click on the links below and place an order, I will receive a very modest commission which I pass along to Manitoba Adopting Families.
Thanks!

Homeschooling in Manitoba

We have moved back to Manitoba after being in BC for 4 years ~ thus, we need to register as a home educating family in Manitoba.  We had previously home schooled in Manitoba before moving to BC, but I needed to see what had changed.  The answer ~ nothing.

I did a quick search on the Manitoba Government website and found this info.

Manitoba Government Education Site

A child needs to be registered in a public, private or home school the year that they turn 7 years old.  This is to be completed by Sept 1st or within 30 days of your decision to home educate.

You can print out your intent to home educate forms or get them to mail them to you.  I choose to have them mailed.  I emailed this address homeschooling@gov.mb.ca with how many children I was planning on educating at home.

They sent me the welcome package in the mail and this is what I filled out

I had been told to write a minimal amount of info on these forms ~ so I figured this should do.  They want to know what books/curriculum I would be using for Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. Then there was a spot for the "others".

This is very different from our experience in BC, where I had the most wonderful home teacher / support system ever and I received $1000/child/year for their textbooks, etc.

Manitoba offers no financial support, minimal educational support (unless I can find it myself somehow) but then I am only required to send in the above notification and 2 reports for the rest of the year.  Less time consuming for me. The reports look very similar to the above as well.

If you are looking for a bit more "support" in Manitoba, try the following:

Manitoba Association of Christian Home Schools (MACHS) (they have a conference in WPG each spring) Click here

Homeschool Canada Click Here

Manitoba Association of Schooling at Home (MASH) Click Here

There is a Yahoo Group and a few Facebook groups available as well ... try 

Westman Homeschoolers

Manitoba Association of Schooling at Home (MASH)

As far as mental/social/emotional support ~ I believe in finding a mentor and having someone to talk to and vent and bounce ideas off.  Find someone with children slightly older than yours, with similar family values and ideas and let them motivate you.  ( perhaps I should also say that you could be an encouragement to them in the process as well) 

The biggest hurdle I've found with educating our three girls at home is that I feel all alone sometimes.  The best thing for myself at those moments is getting together with another family or a Mom and just chatting and maybe getting that one little idea or that comment that can keep me going. 

 Don't be shy with your own compliments ~ let people have it !  Tell them that their children are "well behaved", " clever minded", "compassionate", "quick learners", etc etc.  Let them know the good qualities you've noticed in the children or their family, etc.

Encourage and be encouraged!

My Bookshelf Review ~ One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Here is a link to the book and the authors page so you know what book I am talking about first.


One Thousand Gifts Website  


My hubby is happy I have "finally made it through that book!"  Yes, this was not an easy read for me.  I had heard so much about how wonderful this book was ~ talking about gratitude and living with thankfulness in our hearts, etc etc.  
I had nightmares for the first maybe 3 chapters.
Ann is a very vivid writer.  Having experienced similar loses in my young life, it was too vivid as I was reliving my own loses at night.  Maybe if you've never experienced such, the descriptions help you understand the searing pain. 
 My Mom and I were both reading this book.  My Mom was very quiet for days until she finished this book.  She said afterwards... "I don't need to write my book, I think she already wrote it". 
I am a no-nonsense type gal and found all the description a little overwhelming.  Don't get me wrong, I have been striving to invite more "beauty" into my life and as a family we give thanks daily for many different things.  I have many lists of what I am thankful for. I don't believe I take anything for granted ~ I know how quickly it can be taken away.
Ann is a great writer, but my brain had a hard time with the wording...I needed a dictionary to understand some words.  She also doesn't use prepositions "the, a, etc" often so the sentences didn't flow easily to my reading.   " moon glowing" , not "the moon", etc. It was written more as a musical to sound beautiful to your ear.
All in all, it was a good book.  I don't know who I'd recommend it to.  I did let a friend read it before I even got to it.  She told me "it was a hard read".  I concur.
Yes, be thankful in everything.  God is good.  All the time.  He loves us.  
That is my review.  I have given away my copy but haven't heard what she thought of it.  It is very popular.

CHEC Homeschool Convention Kelowna 2011

Yes, I get to mark something off my bucket list!  I attended my first ever homeschool conference and will now be clamoring to go to them every year!  My hubby may want to go surfing, but attending a conference was on my bucket list.

The guest speakers were Scott and Marcia Sommerville ( I hope I got that right).  He was a Harvard Grad attorney and they homeschooled six children.  We have a great privilege in Canada that we can legally home educate our children.  What a blessing.

The whole weekend was a tremendous blessing that has been difficult to break down into bloggable chunks.

We stuck our neck out and asked if we could be billeted.  With finances the way they are, we could not afford the motel.  Me being the planner I am, it was so nice to have a billet host to email back and forth with and guide me through the basics.

The girls had a wonderful time at the kids activities and even though Mei had an earache in the night, she cried when she thought she couldn't go the next day.  That means so much to my "sheltered" girls...they loved it!

Our 13 year old quiet  but relational teen also stuck her neck out and went all by her lonesome to the youth activities.  She zoned in on another girl with a horse sweater on...typical.  She even got one girls address and was writing her a letter today.  She went bowling.  She listened to a speaker and talked in groups.  She sat on the grass visiting with another girl when she could have snuck into our session with us.  Oh what joy for her parents to see!  We even got to take her shopping and found her some nice outfits.

Our hosts were wonderful.  They were relaxed, they were hospitable, they had Advil Kids.  It was so nice having a home base and we thought how often it wouldn't have been as relaxing in a motel.  She happened to be a fertility expert/counsellor/natural family planning and I wished I had met her a few years ago.  The kids got along and the youngest sweet little man was very entertaining and gave us a good nephew type fix.  We even got to meet one of their friends who had also come to the conference and I was so blessed by meeting so many kindred spirits.  What a joy it is to add some of their requests to my prayer journal.  So many wonderful people in this world, and sometimes I need to be reminded of that.  If you need a little reminder, I'm going to jot down some of our experiences in Kelowna.
~ Host family blessed us beyond measure
~ Value Village employees happy and helpful, and esp. when I asked if some shirt sayings were "bad"
~ Little Grandma in V.V. trying to find capri's that weren't pants...laughed at K and I being silly, then gave us a 30% off coupon
~ Random Mom's at conference helping other Mom's with choices on curriculum, directions, anything
~ Man with parrot at park.  Let K hold it and girls pet it.
~ M. at Superstore parking lot~ fancy old mustang car and cute 11 mth. old puppy with goggles.  Great conversation.
~ East Indian woman in Superstore who told us how to find a good mango and threw us one that would be good to eat in 24 hours
~ 2 ladies in park who accepted our offer to have some of our watermelon
~ 2 wonderful sales women in a shop helped us find many wonderful items

We felt like we were walking on clouds and found it so easy to go the extra mile and be "nice" to strangers.  These were just a few examples.  I saw many cute little Mama's sporting adorable baby bumps and tried hard to beat them to doors in order to open it for them.  How easy is it to pass along a mint or chocolate.  To smile and point the way ...

The thing with going to this conference, I had heard and have now experienced, is that it was dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ.  The opening worship was wonderful, everyone who was there WANTED to be there and WOW, God was there.  I get teary just thinking about it.

The speakers were all common sense folk with great encouragement and good challenges and admonishments.  WOW.  I am still digesting it all.  My hubby has said over and over again "thank you for arranging this.  We need to make this a priority every year.  I needed this too, thank you for doing this."

Not once, even with all the hassles and all the time crunches, was I greeted rudely! I was always greeted with a smile and helpful people.  I have never been bumped into more with more laughs and "oh, sorry!" and I, yes I, struck up conversations with perfect strangers.  We have a common ground!  Not only did most of us believe in God as Saviour, we were willing to sacrifice or advocate for our children and families...no one looked at me strange for our choices.  No one questioned me, they got me!   They understood our life out on the ranch.  THEY GOT ME!

Jewish traditional feasts and celebrations

Walk with Y'shua through the Jewish Year

This is a great 1st resource if you'd like a brief introduction into the Jewish feasts, history and celebration.  We do these with our girls and it brings an appreciation and depth to the Bible stories because we can understand more of the traditions and customs. 

It gives good suggestions for crafts, foods, celebrations all

geared towards children.

We have just passed "Purim" ~ celebrating Queen Esther and the rescue of the Jews from Haman's plot to destroy them all.  We personally read the story of Esther to our girls from "Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories".  It is really good and we have been working our way through the whole Bible that way.

The next celebration is Passover (Easter is the "pagan" celebration name, but for ease of conversations, we will refer to it as either Easter or Passover so as not to confuse others).  Passover celebrates how the angel of death passed over the Israelites and then Pharoah let the people go!  Jesus celebrated Passover (Lord's Supper) with his disciples and then Jesus became the lamb that was slain for the sins of us all. For the Jews, they searched for the "afikomen" instead of eggs...we have celebrated a traditional "seder" meal with a Rabbi and it has forever changed my view point on communion, etc.  The children often search for little gold wrapped coins.  You can easily search "Passover" on the internet and find some great activities that you could add to your own special gatherings in April!

"Living with less so your family has more"

If I were to write a book, recommend any book, this would be it.  I'll quote from a foreward of this book by Kevin Leman

"First, what vision do you have for your family? What do you want your family life to look like?  Second, what attitudes do you need to adopt to successfully live this out?  And third, what actions do you need to take as a fmaily to simplify your life?  Specifically, are there ways you could live on less money to allow you more time for what's really important?"

 

This book redefines what MORE in your life is.  Less stress, more family connection.  It is meant to be read with your spouse or have each other read it separately.  They don't give answers, they give suggestions.  They ask questions.  They made me think. 

 The short years we have with our children go by so quickly and do we want to spend most of it in a car, hustling from event to event just because everyone else is?  Or do we want to pick events that will really grow our children?  

Don't let society pressure you into anything that makes your heart ache for simplier times.  If you find yourself maxed out on patience and not happy with how your day's have been going.  STOP and think...what do you really want?  I am still reading this book and talking about it with my hubby at night. We have chosen to live with less money ourselves sometimes just to be available to our children.  It is difficult, we are sometimes misunderstood.  We don't care, we love our girls and keep thinking "boy, in 11 years we could have no children left at home!"

More books! Yeah for reading!

 

One of my dearest Manitobian friends got me onto the Mitford series.  Well, I mean that I've been wanting to read them.  So I got the first book from the bookmobile.  I have started, but found my mind has been so busy that I was having difficulty remembering characters, so I stopped until I can read for a few hours uninterrupted.  I am loving the flavour of the book and feel like I want to live there!

 

The other book is a new one completely to me!  By Heidi Ashworth, I "won" the 2nd book about Miss Delacourt.  Well, that would NEVER do, so I borrowed the 1st book from a new friend in BC.  I am laughing my way through and can see this book as a great movie akin to Sense & Sensibility, Emma, etc.  It is a fun read!  UPdate:  I just finished Miss Delacourt and did giggle to myself and often thought "I hope they make this into a movie, or I will!"

These 2 authors "Beth Wiseman" and "Ann H. Gabhart" have MANY good books out, I have been reading too many to post on here.  I have a weakness for the Amish lifestyle and the purity of these books.  All have faith type stories and I personally love the pure love stories intertwined within them.  No smut!  Every book makes me appreciate my woman-ness and the manliness of my beloved.  They all inspire me to be a better person.  To love and accept.  To cherish moments...easy reads, little bit of mystery thrown in, little bit of Amish culture thrown in...

You can also "search Amazon" through the right side of my blog ~ there is a little "widget" there.  Anything you buy through clicking through my blog will help us as we homeschool and come back to my blog readers as well.  Thanks to you!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine 1st Review

I'll start my homeschool curriculum reviews with a magazine.


http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/

There's a little bonus in that link...it is the link to the magazine and their curriculum reviews ~ aren't I the sneaky one?

This magazine gets read cover-to-cover in my household.  I get 4 issues/year, they are big issues, on nice glossy paper,  for $7.95.    They are set up for the seasons.  One season usually deals more with homeschooling high schoolers, one is more for younger, etc.  A full year gives you a nice rounded out look.  I just wish it was Canadian.  They do offer some Canadian content occasionally and are working on that.

There is a lot of advertising in it, which I actually love, as I can shop!  By the by, this is all Christian centered and geared for the whole family.  There are articles to encourage the Dad as well as the Mom.  There is so much in this magazine, my only regret is that us Canadians haven't made our own....anyone anyone?
If you are in BC/Alberta, your home school funding should pay for the subscription.  If you are not, it is affordable and would be a great resource to pass around.  

Homeschool Curriculum

Well, I'm thinking about doing some "reviews" of sorts of some homeschool curriculum I have experience with.  There are so many options out there, it is hard to decide.  Besides, I usually decide then change my mind anyhow.  It has been incredibly helpful when other Mom's have let me look at their "stuff" so I don't have to decide blindly.  I am very visual in that respect.  
Yes, I think I will start in on that.  Every week I will do one review on something educational and relating to homeschooling.