Journey to Excellence

Grab a cup of tea and snuggle under a warm blanket and soak in the soothing sounds of Jen Stanbro. Enjoy the rest of your day!   

Educents has a great FREE Fall Math and Literacy Pack available for download. It contains 8 math centers, 8 literacy centers, and a total of 104 fun and colorful printables! It is recommended for children grades 1-3. You can click HERE to get your free download. Enjoy!

In our regular life this week… Things were much calmer this week which was a true blessing! We were able to concentrate on some schoolwork, relax and get caught up on t.v. shows in the evenings, and intersperse some time with friends along the way. We realized that our central furnace is not going to be operational this winter. And, since we don't have the money to replace our entire HVAC system, we have been experimenting with electric heaters to see what will work for us this winter. Thankfully we only have a small area to heat during the day as the kids and I are pretty confined to the living and dining rooms which are combined. That allows us to shut off the rest of the house and only heat those rooms. Then at night we can switch it around and just heat the bedrooms. So far what we have going on is working great. In our homeschool this week… This was a good week of school. We got quite a bit accomplished and progressed at a nice pace. It was the perfect mix of...

I am joining Aurie at Our Good Life this week in her Counting HIDDEN Blessings linkup because I have really been meditating on the blessings in my life lately. I have many. For the past year or so I have been involved in a financial dispute. It's bitter and unfortunate. It is an ongoing situation that is likely to continue for quite some time. I could certainly get bogged down with the stress of it. And, I'll be honest, at times I let it get the best of me. But through the clouds of the situation my blessings always come shining through ... always . The kids and I have the undying support of my husband and family. It doesn't matter to me what the opposing side thinks about us because my family knows the truth and they support us in it every day. And for that I am grateful. I know that the kids will never do without, even if I am personally unable to provide at times, because Rick and my parents would never let that happen. We all do everything we can for them all the...

I had never heard of Barbour Publishing until recently. The company began as a bargain overstock seller and has grown into a major publisher and seller of Christian work, with it's first published work being Pilgrim's Progress in 1984. They now have thousands of titles from which to choose. We were given the opportunity to review a new book published by Barbour Publishing called Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story  written by Annie Tipton. I decided to preview it before either of the kids started reading it and made it through two chapters before Brynne (age 8) swiped it away. She has read it every day since she started and finished it this week. The colorful and animated jacket cover drew her in. I read several chapters of the book, enough to get a good feel for the book. But Brynne was the real reviewer. As it's next-to-impossible for an 8 year old to write a proper review, I had her prepare a book report for me to use in this review. The  Diary of ...

What was in the kitchen ... On Saturday night we celebrated Dawson's 17th birthday with his friends and family and a taco bar. For dessert we had Angel Food Cake, at Dawson's request. An activity we did away from home ... Brynne's volleyball team played in a tournament on Friday night. They placed 2nd and did so well! There are only six girls on their team, so they played every second of every game. They have grown and improved so much this season. It's been really fun to watch! Brynne as co-captain of the championship game. Receiving her 2nd place medal. Brynne's team and Coach Stone On Saturday morning, Eli and Brynne started their new bowling league. This is the same league I bowled in when I was a little girl. I forgot how much fun small town sports were. I am loving it. Then on Saturday evening Brynne went to a costume birthday party for a friend. She wanted to be a dog, so I made her costume for her. I can do just about anyth...

My husband makes fun of me because I have NO CLUE what is going on in today's world. I don't read the newspaper. I don't watch the news. I don't watch talk shows. I don't read any news on the internet. I watch all shows after I have DVR'd them so that I don't have to watch commercials. So, unless a news story pops up on the Wii while my kids are playing a game or in the middle of a Criminal Minds or Chopped episode, I don't know about it. I'm clueless as to what a disaster our country is ... and so are my children. They have no idea what is going on in the world today, or any day. And, quite frankly, I don't really want them to know. But "God's World News" has provided us with a product to review that is allowing us to read up on current events with a biblical worldview. Now, that, I like! We have been receiving print copies of News Flash from "God's World News" for the past couple of months as part of t...

In our regular life this week… the days were BUSY! I am working on my curriculum every chance I can squeeze it in, which means that a paragraph gets typed here and there in between laundry, fixing meals, teaching the kids, running errands, taking the dogs potty, and cleaning house. I am 3/5 of the way finished with it and it's due by the end of the month. I am wanting to have it done by the end of next week so that we can enjoy Halloween without extra work! DAWSON TURNED 17 YEARS OLD ON FRIDAY! It just seems impossible that so many years have gone by since I was being rushed to the hospital because of hemorrhaging getting ready to meet my ornery boy after an emergency c-section. The first thing he did, before he even cried, was to pee all over the doctors and nurses. That's my Dawson! He has been such a blessing to my life that I can't even talk about it without tearing up. In our homeschool this week… We finally had a pretty regular week of schoolwork, in...

If I have learned anything while being a home educator, it's that education sometimes happens outside regular classroom hours and does not always look like a textbook assignment. This month the kids were given a priceless opportunity to review the Starter Chess Learning Kit from Chess House and learn to play chess. They have wanted to learn to play chess for a really long time, but I certainly didn't know how to play it. Thanks to our new friend National Master Elliott Neff , our entire family knows how to play chess now. What We Received As part of the review, we received a dvd entitled Elliott's Chess School #1 PAWN Level DVD , a bonus booklet with practice positions and challenges, a vinyl mat chessboard, black and cream plastic chess pieces, and a handy carrying case (ours was green, but black is also available). How We Used the Product The dvd contains 10 lessons on the beginning Pawn Level. Each video is just a few minutes long and cover...