Holidays

• How to be a Great Homeschool Grad Party Guest

  11 May 2012 / Helping Others, High School, Holidays, Social Skills, The Home / 13 Comments

  To follow up on Allison's post on how to throw a homeschool graduation party. Here's her sister, Sabrina's ideas on how to be a great grad party guest:

   

  

  These next few weeks are filled with graduation parties in most of our world. Here are a few tips for enjoying those you attend as a guest (for tips on how to HOST a fabu party, see Allison's post How to Throw a Homeschool Graduation Party):

  * Most graduation parties are "open house" style which means your arrival time is not specific. Read the invitation carefully to be sure this is the case, but if it is, plan to come right near the beginning if you can and offer to help the hostess set up last-minute items or carry food out from the kitchen. That last-minute rush is stressful for a lot of hostesses, and if you come with your sleeves rolled up ready to help her, it will also relax her!

  * When offering to help, be sure you really mean it. Before you volunteer, put your pocketbook down and use the bathroom if you need to. THEN offer. Chances are your hostess has a million things running through her mind, and she will more easily put you to work right away if she sees you are ready to jump in.

  

  * Visit with the people you know, but try to introduce yourself to a couple of groups who are new to you. Graduation parties tend to be a mix of family, friends, and church....there are always a few folks you haven't met before. It's great to spend an hour with your closest friends, but it's also great to spend 5 minutes reaching out to someone new.

  * Most graduation parties are for families....whole families are invited instead of just one or two people. So if your younger children are also partying with you, remind them of good social skills before you arrive, and keep a half-an-eye on them during the party as well. If you notice their behavior getting a little too rambunctious, take them aside and gently remind them that "This is someone's home, and you need to treat it with respect," (or "That little girl may be annoying, but pouring lemonade down her back is rude"....etc.). There's nothing more awkward than being the hostess and agonizing over a child who is behaving badly while the parent is oblivious.

  * Greet the grad, but don't monopolize his time. He has probably invited a lot of people to this party, and while he wants to thank each person for coming, he can't do that if he has to have a 1/2 hour conversation with each one about his future plans. Keep things light and brief. If he can talk to you more later, he'll find you.

  

  * Clean up using common sense. Sometimes there are plastic cups all over the backyard. You can safely assume that if the party is winding down, the hostess would love to see the cups picked up and thrown away. You probably don't have to find her and ask for plastic cup protocol. Near the end of the party, the hostess is often exhausted, and may finally be sitting down to enjoy some food herself, and if you come and ask her something as simple as that, she may feel that SHE should get up and do it. If you just use common sense, you will probably be offering real help, and leaving her tired brain out of it.

  Just like 7 Sisters blogs are more fun when everyone comments, graduation parties are more fun when everyone pitches in to keep them running smoothly. Unlike a formal dinner party or reception, a graduation party is a great time for casual fellowship and working shoulder to shoulder to set up and clean up.

  Congratulations to all our homeschool grads, and happy partying!

  For working on social skills with younger kids, check out our Social Skills for Children.

  Got any funny graduation party stories?

• An Easter Concert

  06 April 2012 / Holidays, News / 3 Comments

  Happy Easter, Friends!

  Please enjoy this little You Tube concert:

  Arise My Love by Newsong

   

  Classic Great: Don Francisco singing He's Alive!

   

• God's Will for Your Homeschool

  02 January 2012 / Healthy Living, Holidays, News, Personal Growth, Prayer / 2 Comments

  This week, we're talking about seeking and planning in our homeschooling. PERFECT for New Year, right?

  Let's start with seeking God as we plan our homeschooling adventures for 2012. How do we seek God for His will about our homeschools?

  1) Pray
  

  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let  your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6 ESV biblegateway.com

  Ask Him with thanksgiving about His plan for your homeschool. Clear, simple, easy...         

  2) Listen

  Then make a habit of listening quietly- He'll make known as much of His will as He sees fit. If you don't feel skilled at listening, here's a post from my prayer blog to get your started. (These posts, btw, often find their way into the 7 Sisters Prayer Journals.)

  Of course, the more you practice listening, the easier it gets (just like when you listen to people)!

  3) Ask God for a Bible verse

  
  Have you ever felt like God gave you a Scripture verse to guide you? Although it won't have specifics like, "Use Bright Ideas Press", (non-sponsored name-dropping, I know) a gift-verse will often calibrate HOW you look at curriculum or choose courses.

  4) Look back over last year, where did you feel "in your zone" homeschooling?

  These are times that you said to yourself, "I LOVE doing this, I could keep at it for hours!" Maybe this is part of what God is blessing in your homeschool- maybe it is something to invest in even more.

  5) Here's the GUARANTEED Know-You're-Doing-God's-Will idea: Give thanks!  

  

  by: Positive Outlooks

  
  

  In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. - I Thessalonians 5:18 KJV biblegateway.com

  That's His will for you: In everything give thanks! No kidding- how simple, clear, and difficult. But there it is!

  Thank God for this New Year, for all our 7 Sisters buddies we've met this year, for all our homeschool community! May this year be the best one yet!

  ============

  You'll be delighted with Sabrina's help in her FREE article "Scheduling Backwards- get your homeschool time under control!

  AND to help with your praying and listening, we've dropped Prayer Journal and Prayer Journal 2 to $2.49- good stewardship of time (prayer) and money (lost cost).

  ===============

  AND just for fun: Poor Pastor Joe (of poor hermeneutics fame) is at it again- trying to keep his son, Little Joey, from putting more into his Nativity Scene than Scripture supports. (And my sons, Ezra and Seth re-enacting a scene from LOTR while they're's at it...)

• 5 Tips to Beat Post-Christmas Blues

  26 December 2011 / Healthy Living, Holidays, News / 0 Comment

  "Christmastime is here, happiness and cheer..."

  Soon it will be gone- and time to clean up, pack up, and get back to homeschooling. Back to normal life...

  Blah, blech. Holidays are so much more fun...

  How do you beat the Post-Christmas Blues?

  1) Praise God!

  C.S. Lewis explains that we do not feel complete love until we express it in praise. The more we love, the more we praise, the more complete we feel (and thus, the less we feel blue).

  2) Get outside and move.
  

  Take a walk: the sunshine and fresh air truly helps! There's a growing body of research that shows that exercise and sunlight are both important in overcoming depressed moods.

  3) Eat something healthy.

  Christmastime is fun, in part, because we get to eat all the junk food we've been avoiding all year! The downside of all that fun is that later there can be grumpy moods and feeling lethargic. I often challenge my counseling clients to compare depression/anxiety levels when they are eating junk and then after eating healthily for a week. I haven't seen a failure of improved mood on a healthy diet.

  4) Get back to healthy sleep routines.

  There is good research that suggests that sleep deficits increase feelings of depression. ANY mom knows that! How do your little ones act when they are tired? We grown-ups aren't all that different (hopefully we can control ourselves better than a child).

  5) Laugh, laugh, laugh.

  Proverbs 17:22 says: A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Amazing, but true. When we laugh, our bodies release endorphins- a "feel-good" chemical! We physically feel better, which makes us emotionally feel better! SO, read some corny jokes out loud, watch a silly movie, or a silly You Tube and feel better.

  Blessings to All!

  (And don't forget our free downloadable study guides and helpful articles.)

   

• Asleep in the Inn - A Christmas Song

  24 December 2011 / Holidays / 3 Comments

  Merry Christmas, everyone!

   

  This video is a song I wrote in 2005.  The Lord uses these lyrics to challenge me at Christmas and throughout the year.  I don't ever want MY expectations of what God will do to interfere with my ability to RECOGNIZE Him in action.

   

  From all of our homeschooling families to yours......Merry Christmas!

   

   

  ==================================

  Get ready to "Pray in the New Year" with one of Vicki Tillman's 1/2 price Prayer Journals. 

  Only$4.99 will give you new passion and focus in your prayer life.

   

• Celebrations

  17 December 2011 / Healthy Living, Holidays / 1 Comment

  What do your family's holiday celebrations look like?  Are they rich with old traditions, passed on from previous generations or your own childhood, or are they new and individual, created by and for your own nuclear family?  I have grappled with the idea of holiday celebrations in the past, fearing that I might shortchange myself or my family if I did not "do it right."  Now, though, after being married for 25 years and raising our three children almost to adulthood (the youngest will be 18 this coming year), I think I have finally settled on the answer for us.  We have our own special blend of old and new, traditional and unique traditions, and they are changing and evolving as time goes by.

  Holiday celebrations are most assuredly linked to memory and nostalgia.  Most obvious are the events these celebrations commemorate - Christ's birth for Christmas, a year of blessings for Thanksgiving, Christ's Resurrection at Easter, etc.  We celebrate in part to keep those events from slipping from our memories and to focus on their significance

  

  Winston gets Christmas, too

  at a set time every year.  But let's face it, the original cause for the celebration is only a small part of the memory associated with it.  We remember the celebrations themselves, the events, the people, the joys, and sometimes even the sorrows associated with that celebration.

  Repeating traditions is a strong part of this memorial.  Maybe we participate in the same events like going out to cut down a tree or attending a Nativity play.  Maybe we decorate with the same decorations, even placed in the same location in our house.  Maybe we eat certain foods prepared according to an old family recipe.  All of these things serve to link us to the past celebrations providing a sense of stability, a comfort in the familiar, and a way to remember and honor loved ones from older generations, whether still with us or not.

  But creating new memories also has a place in this celebration mix.  We recognize what God has given us and incorporate it into our celebration.  My home and family are not identical to the one I grew up in or the one my husband grew up in.  They are extensions, something new made by God as he combined different pieces and added new life.  It only makes sense

  

  Allison's family tradition- Gingerbread Houses

  for there to be a new version of tradition that grew out of the past but also incorporates the unique new family that we have.  Creating new traditions gives us the chance to use our own creativity and let our children make it their own.

  This idea doesn't stop once we have made some new traditions for our family either.  My own family is changing and these changes will lead to new traditions incorporated into our celebrations.  With children away at college, I now find that we are creating new traditions associated with their return home.  Some day when daughter-in-law and sons-in-law are added to the family, along with grandchildren, we will most assuredly be evolving again.

  I'm comfortable with my picture of celebrations now.  It seems to me that it fits with our God who "is, and was, and is to come" and gives us the only hope, joy, and reason to celebrate.

  ================

  Visit our product page and check our FREE Downloads to help you with your homeschooling!

• You Don't Have Time to Read This Post

  12 December 2011 / Healthy Living, Holidays, News / 0 Comment

  It is 2 weeks before Christmas and life is hectic for homeschoolers. Still doing schoolwork, decorating, choir concerts, errands, baking...

  But here are some quick reminders to remember today:

  1) Breathe (it will help keep your stress hormones down and you will feel like a nicer person)

  2) Notice something beautiful (it will keep your stress hormones down and you will feel like a nicer person)

  3) Listen to uplifting music (it will keep your stress hormones down and you will feel like a nicer person)

  4) Hug someone (it will keep your stress hormones down and you will feel like a nicer person)

  5) Say something encouraging to a loved one(it will keep… got the idea?)

  

  Sabrina's daughter has a heart for the little things...

  May you glorify God in your home and homeschooling today!

  ======================================

  Oh, and 6) Pray! (and if you're tired of the prayer routine, try our Prayer Journal 1 and Prayer Journal 2-  30 prayer activities. Good way to handle the Holidays. Download today!

  Don't forget in December, our Study Guide for Dickens' A Christmas Carol is FREE. Don't let another day go by without adding this to your collection.

  Lots of other FREEBIES in the E-bookstore. Download some today, Homeschoolers.

  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

• How to Celebrate Christmas Using the Advent Wreath

  02 December 2011 / Holidays, News, The Home / 1 Comment

  The Advent Wreath has always been central to our family’s celebration of Christmas. It helps keep us constantly focused on Christ and the Christmas story.

  There are as many ways to do the Advent Wreath as there are families.

  We make our Advent Wreath with 5 candles- 4 red and 1 white. We place the red candles in a circle with the white candle centered in their midst. (When I was a child, my parents had a Styrofoam circle with holes carved out for the candles. When I got married, my husband made a permanent wreath with carved-out holes in a circle of pine.)

  On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, we light the first red candle, read the scripture passage that goes with the candle, ask some questions about the passage, and sing Christmas Hymns.

  Each Sunday after that, we light a new red candle (plus the previously lit ones), repeating the appropriate activities. On Christmas Eve, the white candle is lit, along with all the red ones.

  The lovely thing about this tradition is that our children learned the real meaning of Christmas in their earliest childhood- but the actual ritual is never outgrown. Even though 4 of my kids are adults, if they are in the area, they will join us to do the Advent Wreath.

  

  One way to make an Advent Wreath

  There are many different ways to do the wreath- and the cool thing about homeschooling is that we are comfortable adapting things to our families’ needs. There have been busy years when most of the candles were lit on successive nights the week before Christmas. One way or the other, it gets done. Good memories are created and we have respect for our Savior’s birthday.

  Here are some Scripture passages for each candle along with some questions:

  Week 1: The Prophesy Candle

  Messianic Prophesies: Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2

  For young children (you will probably have to coach them through some answers):

  1) What is a prophet? (He is a man chosen by God to deliver messages for him.)

  2) What is the basic idea of the prophesies? (God would send a baby who would grow up and do His work. That there would be an important star.

  3) Whose birthday is Christmas?

  

  At different ages, they need different questions

  For middle and high schoolers:

  1) Why do you think God gave the Isrealites prophesies about the coming Messiah? (various answers- it is a rhetorical question)

  2) Why did (do) people need a Savior? (Read Romans 3:21-28, John 3:16)

  3) The manner in which prophets spoke is different than the manner in which the writers of the gospels of Matthew and Luke spoke. Tell some differences in their style. (various answers- Prophets spoke with metaphor, poetry, and apocalyptically

  Week 2: The Angel Candle

  The Annunciation: Luke 1:26-38

  For young children:

  1) What did the angel tell Mary? (That she would have a baby.)

  2) Why was that baby important? (He would be God’s Son.)

  3) What was Mary’s answer?

  

  Another version of Advent Wreath

  For middle and high schoolers:

  1) How did Mary feel she saw the angel?

  2) How did the angel explain that the baby would be God’s son?

  3) Discuss verse 37.

  4) How did Mary reply to the angel’s announcement?

  Week 3: The Shepherd Candle

  The Celebration: Luke 2: 1-21

  (Follow the rhythm of questions above. Young children need concrete, information-based questions. Older kids can begin to do some inferring.)

  Week 4: The Wise Men Candle

  The Gift-Giving: Matthew 2:1-12

  Christmas Eve: The Christmas Story                                                                                         

  

  Reading the Bible stories of Christmas helps children develop a love of Scripture and of the story

  
  

  Christ’s Birth: All of Luke 2

  Some favorite hymns (don’t rigidly keep the hymn to its suggested week):

  Week 1:

  Good Christian Men, Rejoice

  Hail, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

  Joy to the World

  Oh Come, All Ye Faithful

  Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel

  Week 2:

  

  Many churces don't sing hymns anymore- so learning Christmas hymns at home is a special tradition-building exercise

  Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

  Week 3:

  Angels From the Realms of Glory

  Angels We Have Heard on High

  Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

  It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

  The First Noel the Angel Did Say

  While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

  Week 4:

  Away in a Manger

  Go Tell It on the Mountain

  

  Merry Christmas!

  O Holy Night

  O Little Town of Bethlehem

  On a Bleak Mid-Winter

  Once in Royal David’s City

  Silent Night

  There’s a Song in the Air

  What Child is This?

  Christmas Eve

  All the Christmas hymns

  Do you do the Advent Wreath? If so, how many candles? What does each candle symbolize?

  --------------------------------                      

  Don't forget to download all the FREEBIES: Today is the last day for Study Guide for A Christmas Carol!

   

• 5-Minute Friday: Tired

  02 December 2011 / 5-Minute Fridays, Holidays, Personal Growth / 6 Comments

  On Fridays, we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com for her 5-Minute Friday prompt word.  No over-thinking, no editing allowed.....just blog for 5 minutes and share it with the world!  Today's prompt word - TIRED.

  I am TIRED of watching people I love attempt to fit themselves into the cookie-cutter they think should define their lives.

  Don't get  me wrong...I love cookies!  And cookie-cutters are fun when you're making cookies.  (If you want a smile, you can read about my cookie-day tradition with Kym and see how much I love  cookie-dough and all the festivities that accompany it.)

  But people are not cookie dough.

  (That was profound, yes?)

  People are flesh and blood.  They are spirits, and souls, and brains, and bodies, and emotions, and relationships, and talents, and fears.  They were designed by God to be the shape they are, and when they become convinced (as I have so often at various points in my life) that they must look a certain way, fit a certain expectation, match the folks around them, they just get so TIRED trying to simply live.

  Life is exhausting when you are trying to live as a shape that doesn't fit you.

  Save the cookie cutters for the cookie dough, friends.  Be the shape you were made to be.

   

   =====================================

  Scheduling Backwards is a FREE article for you to download; it will help you discover how to keep the important things in your schedule while taming the things that scream, "Urgent!" at you every month.

  Don't forget to check out the other FREE downloads available in our EBookstore, including a literature study guide to go with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and a mini-musical for kids at Christmas, The Christmas Carol War.

• Keeping the Focus on Christ at Christmas

  29 November 2011 / Healthy Living, Holidays, News, The Home / 6 Comments

  Allison's husband, Wayne, share with us on keeping our focus where it belongs:

  

  Wayne having a fruitful Christmas morning

  With the celebration of Christmas almost completely given over to commercialism, it’s hard for anyone to keep their focus on Christ. This is especially true of families with little children. A determined effort must be made in the home to counter the blatant consumerism that waits outside the door. Here’s what my wife and I did to help our three children (all now young adults) not only understand the ‘reason for the season,’ but also stay focused on Christ always.

  Start with the Nativity Whenever we started hauling out the Christmas decorations, the first thing we did was to set out the Nativity set. Doing this shows children that we’re always thinking of Christ first. Setting up the crèche in a prominent place also lets guests know where He stands in your family.

  Nativity with a twist When we do (yes, we still do this) set up the Nativity set, we do so only partially. The building is set up and just a shepherd, sheep and other animals are placed there. Mary and Joseph are set out someplace in the house. Each evening, after the kids are in bed, they are moved to a new location. Each morning, the kids have to find them. This makes the Nativity story active and real to the young ones. They get a better understanding of the idea that it was a journeyfrom Nazareth to Bethlehem. The couple move from room to room, including bedrooms, gradually getting closer to the manger scene; until they arrive there Christmas morning. [More on the arrival later.] Children get a little excited too at finding the couple: who’s gonna find them first, who’s found them and who hasn’t. And it’s not just for little kids either. Our youngest is a college freshman and when she found them for the first time this year, she sent us a picture text to inform us!

  

  Allison's morning was fruitful, too

  Advent Growing up, my mother always had an advent wreath on the dining room table. She used red and green candles and read scriptures pertaining to the people involved in the advent adventure: Mary, accepting God’ will for her life; Joseph, following God’s command; Shepherds, rejoicing in the news; Wise Men, bringing gifts to the newborn king. We have been using the more traditional purple and pink candles and focusing on the God-qualities displayed at the First Advent: Love, Hope, Peace and Joy. A simple look on the internet will get one going in the right direction, you can choose your own. One thing we do that Mom always did: put a taller white candle in the middle to represent Christ. This candle is lit Christmas morning.

  Christmas morning Before rushing into the living room to dive into gifts, our children come into our room first thing Christmas morning. There, all gathered on the bed as a family, I read the biblical account of Christ’s birth. Although I can almost quote Luke chapter 2, I purposely read from the Bible to show my children that THIS is where we get what we know about God. We then proceed to the Nativity set and the children place Mary and Joseph, who got close on Christmas Eve, into the building along with the manger piece with Baby Jesus. After this we light ALL the candles on the Advent wreath and sing to the Christ child. We sang “Happy Birthday” when the kids were young, we sing a carol now that they’re older. Then we hit the gifts!

  

  Christmas Winston, the dog

  Ignore Santa We don’t believe in lying to our children. We never let them think that Santa Claus was a real person. All our gifts to them (unless they were too big) were wrapped and placed under the tree well before Christmas. Each gift was tagged as being “From: Mommy and Daddy” so there was no question as to who left them. We don’t have Santa decorations in or in front of the house and they never had their picture taken while sitting on some strange man’s lap. This is important because at some point in time the child will realize the truth behind the hoax. At that moment two questions will form in the child’s mind: “What else have my parents been lying about?” and “If Santa is false, what about Jesus?” Our children never felt deprived at not believing in Santa – you can ask them yourself!

  Keeping your children’s eyes on Christ during the busy holiday season is well worth the effort. It will help them see past the glitz and stay grounded in eternal truth of God’s love for us. There’s also an added benefit: it will help you to stay focused too!

  How do you keep the focus on Christ at Christmas?                                                                      
  

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Don't forget FREE DOWNLOAD of A Christmas Carol Study Guide- this week only!