Back to School Giveaway!

For all my homeschool readers!! 
This is an amazing giveaway that I had to let you know about.  If you know a home school mom pass this on to her.

Sponsors of our 3rd Annual Back to Home School Giveaway ~ Ready to Enter? Click here!
Prize Package Details - Total Prizes Valued at $1,906! How it works: We will draw 12 individual winners - one for each prize pack below. ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER WILL GET A COPY OF EVERYTHING - A $1,906 VALUE! Hearts at Home Curriculum Store - Hearts at Home is offering a 5-Subject Switched on Schoolhouse Complete Set. Switched-On Schoolhouse is a comprehensive, Christian homeschool curriculum that offers computer-based learning for grades 3-12. With animation, video clips, and other fascinating multimedia, Switched-On Schoolhouse is the perfect Christian homeschool curriculum for today's generation.Winners will select one grade between 3-12. Hearts at Home offers over 200 publishers at up to 30% off everyday! Super fast, flat rate shipping & great service. Owned and operated by a homeschooling family. Total Value - $450 Founders Academy - Founders Academy is an online instructional resource to assist you in your homeschooling. They provide live, interactive and engaging instruction in American Government and Free Market Economics for a variety of ages. Winners will win the following: Sensational Signers of the Declaration of Independence & Choice of ONE: Government 101 OR Economics 101. (Note: Semester of Economics or Government class must be used Fall 2013 or Spring 2014 and has no cash value if not claimed or used. If you have no high school students, you may substitute Economics or Government for the Young Patriot's American History.) Total Value - $221 Bright Ideas Press - Enter to win a year of your choice of Illuminations plus the corresponding science and history books that go with it (either The Mystery or History or All American History and a year of Christian Kids Explore Science). Tired of planning it all yourself? Do you long to teach your kids together at the same time? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all the planning you need to do? Do you ever wish you could find all your plans in one place? Illuminations is your answer! Illuminations is an all-inclusive* curriculum plan, covering Bible, language arts (grammar, writing, copywork, spelling, and vocabulary), literature, science, humanities (poetry, theater, music, and art), geography, history, and life skills. Total *does not include math - Value - $215 Cover Story - From the creator of The One Year Adventure Novel comes a new writing curriculum for mid-grade students. Cover Story takes middle school students – 6th through 8th grade – on a guided tour through the universe of Story. The program covers poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, interviews, blogs, letters, and much more in video lessons taught by a professional writer. A complete Language Arts program: Writing, Story techniques and structure, Literature, Critical thinking, & Grammar (included but optional.) Total Value - $149 Home School Adventure Co. has bundled an exciting and unique critical thinking collection which includes: Philippians in 28 Weeks™ - a simple and painless way to memorize an entire book of Scripture, The Wise Woman with Literary Analysis Journal Questions - an enchanting fable that unmasks the ugliness of pride and selfishness, and the newly released Philosophy Adventure™ -Pre-Socratics - designed to help students 6th-12th grade cultivate and defend a biblical worldview by teaching them how to write skillfully, think critically, and speak articulately as they explore the history of ideas. Total Value $148 BrimWood Press - BrimWood Press is dedicated to providing thought-rich, visually stimulating materials that enable children to grasp essential concepts of learning through pioneering methods that engage the whole child. Their package is the "Conversations Worldview Kit" - a combination of some of the most popular BrimWood Press' worldview products: Christian Theology & Ancient Polytheism, Historical Novels for Engaging Thinkers, Introduction to Worldview, & Conversations from the Garden. Total Value - $125 A+ TutorSoft - Multisensory-Interactive Homeschool MATH ONLINE (1 year Access) - Our Multi-Sensory Interactive MATH Curriculum Software makes learning MATH fun and easy by using audio, computer animated visuals and text. It is designed to keep your child's attention. Total Value - $125 Heritage History - The Heritage Classical Curriculum is the easiest, least expensive, and most enjoyable way to learn traditional history. Their "living books" reading program uses narrative histories that were popular with young people of earlier generations and features books of interest to students of all ages. This giveaway includes the following titles: Young Readers, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, British Middle Ages, & British Empire. Total Value - $125 Memoria Press - First Form Latin Set - Written by Cheryl Lowe (author of the best-selling Latina Christiana), First Form and its sister Latin products have been used by more than 100,000 students across the world to learn Latin! First Form's grammar-first approach focuses on grammar forms and vocabulary because these are the skills suitable for the grammar stage student. The First Form Series is for students of all ages because all beginners—regardless of age—are in the grammar stage of learning. Total Value - $115 NotebookingPages.com - Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Membership with 1-year bonus access to The Notebooking Publisher web-app. Your Membership includes access to ALL of their products on this page PLUS LIFETIME updates...past, present, & future products...all yours! Total Value - $100 Blogelina - The Complete Blog Set-Up/Makeover Package. Have you ever wanted a blog, but you didn't know where to start? Wonder how you can make money for your family by blogging? This complete package is for you! If you already have a blog, get a FREE makeover! Total Value - $79 Write Through the Bible Write Through the Bible is a series of copywork printables designed for an entire school year, combining the disciplines of handwriting, dictation, vocabulary, and Scripture memory into one daily activity. Prize includes The ENTIRE Write Through the Bible Collection along with The Heart of Humility: Teaching Your Kids to Put Others First (A family study of Philippians 2:1-18). The Workbooks will be in both manuscript and cursive & you can choose between ESV or KJV versions! Total Value - $54
Ready to Enter? Click here!

Sarah Update. Where Am I?

Here's our latest pic of Sarah.  We haven't heard from her in 2 days and it is driving me bonkers!  I am sure this means they are really busy & just too tired at night to contact us.  In this picture she is sitting outside a coffee shop down the street from where they are staying. This is where they can get wifi.  Keep praying for the team.  Sarah is seeing a real desperate need for the gospel to be shared & lived out in this little town of NewRoss.
Pray for their safety, the youth will be open to hearing and accepting the gospel and for strength & energy for the team.

By the way, I am blogging today over at The M.O.M. Initiative blog today.  I'm blogging about JOY...what's the big deal about it?

Review: Alpha-Phonics

Publisher:Paradigm Company
Author: Samuel Blumenfeld
Last updated: 2012

If you are looking for a simple, no frills approach to teaching your child to read then I believe Alpha-Phonics will be a great fit for you.

Alpha-Phonics is not a new company, they have been around for many years with too many success stories to list here.  They made Cathy Duffy's top 100 picks for Homeschool Curriculum. Mary Pride has given them her highest rating several times also.  This is a company with a strong, trustworthy reputation.

When you first open the textbook you will see simple lessons in an easy to read font in black lettering.  There are no colored pictures to illustrate the sounds or distract your child.  I love this book because you can go at your child's pace, there is no hurry.  You move from lesson to lesson as your child is ready. Something new they have added is a CD-rom of the book when you purchase the textbook.  This is the text book in CD-rom form.  I didn't use this because I like to do our lessons in places I would rather not take my laptop, but I can see how this would make it easy for a mom who might have a student who could do the later lessons as review on their own.

Sample lesson

This is solid phonics.  I have taught nine kids to read and this method always worked best even for my two children who were dyslexic.  Short vowels are taught first and later the blends.  By the 3rd lesson they are reading simple sentences. You can also use this book to teach cursive writing which has become a lost handwriting.

This does require a parent work through with their child, but there is no preparation.  I loved being able to pick up where we left off the day before and not have to look ahead & prepare.  That is a homeschool mom's best friend...non-prep materials.

You can also purchase the Companion Workbook with more simple pages to help reinforce what your child is learning. I personally didn't use these, but I can see how they would be a good addition.

The 10 Little Companion Readers stay with the theme of no frill, simple learning.  Each book focuses on one learning concept.  These make a great supplement to the program.

All in all, I was pleased with Alpha-Phonics.

My only negative for this program would be the price.I thought it was a bit expensive since it is all sold separately. 

Text book is $34.95 (which includes the CD-rom)
Readers are $24.95
Workbook is $19.95

You can order these at the Alpha Phonics website or click the image below.

My Irish Missionary

Dublin Airport

As I write this, Sarah is sleeping soundly at a friends house in Galway, Ireland.  She has spent the past 2 days with friends she has made over the past 3 years with each return trip.  I'm so thankful for Claire and her sweet daughters who gave Sarah a place to stay and treated her like a queen.  They took her to many places in the area that she had not been able to go to because there wasn't time on her past trips.

Tomorrow she gets back on the train and heads back to Dublin where she will meet the mission team.  They will all travel together to New Ross and minister to the teenagers in the community.  A very hard group of people to minister to in Ireland.

I would appreciate your prayers for Sarah & the prayer team.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, I often repost pictures she has posted from her Facebook page.

She messaged me tonight, because she couldn't go to sleep.  She didn't want to leave Galway, but she was also very excited to see what the Lord had in store for her in New Ross. It was 1:00 a.m. her time. I know eventually, my Irish missionary will move to Ireland.  Her passion is to share Jesus with the people there and her love of the country is obvious.  She has been happier these past few days than she has been in a long time.

The Quiet Man Bridge

Sarah & Claire