Homeschooling for 3

Dear Santa, I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years. Here are my Christmas wishes: I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy. If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a rad

One of the moms in my homeschooling circle sent this -- it was too funny to keep to myself! The 14 Days of Homeschooling (tune of "THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS") On the first day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Can you homeschool legally?" On the second day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the third day of homeschool my neighbor said to me, "Do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the fourth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the fifth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "YOU ARE SO STRANGE! What about P.E., do you give them tests, are they socialized, can you homeschool legally?" On the Sixth day of home school my neighbor said to me, "How long will you homeschool, YOU 'RE SO STRANGE, what about P.E., do you giv

Educating children is a time consuming venture, especially when you get stuck in a tug-of-war over an assignment that they don't want to complete for some reason. I'm sure you've also experienced the whining, complaining and the waste of time that procrastination creates. This video may help your children (and maybe even you!) to visualize the importance of tackling our biggest challenges first and not putting it off to later. My friend, Pat Crosby, sent me this really cool video. Thanks Pat!

Hi, this just arrived in my email today and I thought I'd share it with everyone: We are pleased to make you aware of CurrClick's Black Friday Freebie Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays Sale , in advance of the general public. Black Friday is about savings, this season is about being frugal and CurrClick is and always has been about helping you trim your education budget. That's why this year, beginning Friday the 28th at 10 AM EST, we're inviting you and your readership, egroups and co-ops, to our biggest Black Friday Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays sales event yet, offering 28 COMPLETELY FREE TITLES from our most popular publishers and dozens of your favorite holiday education titles up to 85% OFF! This Friday, November 28th, put on your pajamas, put away your pocketbooks and "head over" to CurrClick's best ever Black Friday Freebie Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays Sale! **Look for these graphics on our homepa

At the beginning of the year Jade and I wanted to do a fundraising project and were very happy when Agora decided to do a cyber-charter fundraiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand . Jade was quite touched by Alex's dedication and bravery to raise money for other children with cancer even as she was dying. So, this past summer we held a lemonade stand and were able to raise about $100 – not bad for a couple of novices, I guess. Jade wanted to do more and so did I so we set up an online fundraising portal at www.firstgiving.com/CherylHendersonKhalid in order to do this. To date this hasn't been much of a success, but I blame lack of experience on that. So, for I put this project on the back burner for a bit while I licked my wounded ego and tried to figure out a new strategy to contribute more to this charity. Then, about a week ago, I picked up my local "Our Town" at our local library and started reading through it. I was touched by the tribute that Mrs. Kizer gave t

While in the children's section of the library my eye fell upon a book entitled " The Dragon's Lair (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme) " As I am a fantasy reader and was looking for something light to enjoy I picked it up for myself … and fell in love. The book is set up as a restoration of archeological records and they tell the story of Ven Polypheme as he goes through his life as an explorer, adventurer, and journalist for the High King. As has been my misfortune of late, I began the series at the end – "The Dragon's Lair" is actually Book 3 in this series. The other two books are " The Thief Queen's Daughter (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme) "– Book 2 -- and " The Floating Island (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme) " – Book 1. Because I do have younger children I checked to see if audiobooks had been created for the series, but not as of today. The story itself is fast-paced, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always

Well, once again homeschooling has been an education not only for my children but for the parents as well. We listen to a lot of audiobooks when we're traveling from dance to shopping and all around the town. Since we were studying the about the Civil War figures, this book jumped out at me while perusing the shelves of the library. And I am so glad that it did. This is a story of Sarny (by Gary Paulsen ) a survivor of slavery times and the Civil War. It is told in retrospect by the 90+ year old Sarny. Why did I like this story so much? Well, one thing the person who was chosen to read this story did so in such a convincing manner that I felt as if I was sitting at Sarny's bedside listening to her relate her life. It was that gripping and real to all of us. The story itself was, for me, about how the love of one's children can make you do things that you never thought you could. Not to give too much away, Sarny's children were sold shortly before the emancipation and

My daughter has problems with spelling and I've been trying to find new and more interesting ways to help her to be more successful. Jade was in speech therapy for a little over three years for an immature auditory system and still has problems sounding out words. Ironically, she's a very advanced reader with great comprehension. Anyway, quite by accident I found this great site (www.wordle.net) that will allow you to make art out of words. Here's an example of her first spelling/art masterpiece: If you'd like to see more of Jade's masterpieces (or just play around with it yourself) be sure to visit www.wordle.net. Jade's work will be saved under "Cherbear2768" in the gallery. BTW, there is no censorship within Wordle, so you may want to just let your children play with the application without going through the gallery.

Today I received some news from my husband that brought to mind the words of Napoleon Hill. He tells us in his masterpiece "Think and Grow Rich" that "The prevalence of these fears (fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age and death), as a curse to the world, runs in cycles. For almost six years, while the depression was on, we floundered in the cycle of FEAR OF Poverty." This sprang to mind as I listened to my husband describing the scene down at Goldman Sachs last night. He works for Williams Lea, a British outsourcing agency, and they've already laid off fifteen people with more to come. Yesterday, he found out when he arrived for the graveyard shift, Goldman Sachs laid off over 3,200 people. Why? Because they had a loss this last quarter -- the first loss since 1999! And because of this momentary downswing in their profits they've now left 3,200 people without jobs or hopes of even finding new jobs quickly because other bu

Every weekend Game Giveaway of the Day has free downloads of some pretty nice family games. Every game isn't a 10, but if you have children or are a puzzle lovers you can't beat FREE! I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and a wonderful week.

What do I hate about MLM? Actually not much.because this is the best industry for the little people to get a leg up and work towards serious wealth and financial rewards. Mr. Jack Zufelt, a Mentor to Millions once mentioned in an interview with John Milton Fogg that although he's been an investor, company owner, franchisee, etc., network marketing gave him more cash flow than any of his other enterprises without the headaches that come from running a traditional business. And that cash flow is why I became a network marketer. My only gripe with MLM is that people join it thinking that the other MLM companies are the enemy. That the other companies are their competitors, when in actuality, we are all a part of the same industry. Network marketing is wonderful and we should spend our time edifying and working together rather than tearing each other apart. All it does is make the entire industry look bad and causes people not to take our chosen profession seriously. Can

My good friends over at www.fat2lean.com sent me an email that contained this very disturbing news. I encourage everyone who likes to eat to sign this petition ASAP!   Frankenfood: This Halloween trick could be for real! From www.consumersunion.org   If the Wall Street bailout was hard to swallow,  the government is preparing a Halloween trick  that just may be impossible to stomach. The Food and Drug Administration is opening the way for grocery stores to sell food made from genetically engineered animals. And the agency is proposing that these products, called "Frankenfoods" by some, be sold to you without your knowledge. Sign our online petition   demanding that food from genetically engineered animals be labeled.  We have the right to know what we are eating! Genetically engineered animals are not a far-off, exotic concept. It's happening right now. Goats are engineered with spider genes to produce silk in their milk. And pigs carry mouse and bacteria

In today’s market place it seems that thousands of people are trying to get your attention, screaming that they have the BEST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD! Who should you believe? The simple answer is look for CREDIBILITY! Unfortunately the internet is full of scammy programs and people that are trying to teach you how to do, something they have never done. I can count on one hand the number of true, credible experts, that I buy into 100%. On that short list you will find the name Robert Kiyosaki. You probably know him as the author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series. Walk into any bookstore in the world and you can find an entire section of Rich Dad Poor Dad books. You may have seen his popular Cash flow TV show. Today I have a very special offer for our readers. I am very excited to be able to offer you Mr. Kiyosaki’s best selling full length audio cd “The Perfect Business” free of charge. You can get all the details on this credible cd right here: http://tinyurl.com/65mdv8 Yo

I just wanted to tell everyone about the wonderful world of The Homeschooling Lounge. I have made friends there and learned a lot about the way that parents homeschool their children around the world. I have met families from Australia, Brazil as well as the United States and I find everyone fascinating. I highly recommend every family that is part of the homeschooling world to check it out and give me a shout! The great moms who put this site together now have given us a new website called Freebie of the Day . Everyday they offer free homeschooling resources for homeschoolers . I just found out about it yesterday, but I've downloaded two free audiobooks and they offer different things on different days. I highly recommend signing up for their updates so that you can know what to expect for the week ahead. Speaking of freebie sites, Giveaway of the Day ( www.giveawayoftheday.com ) gives away free software on a daily basis. The available programs vary, but you can download

Sometimes in our quest to give our children the highest educational standards possible, we overlook really simple ways for the kids to drill that they will enjoy. My daughters of Nintendo DS systems and I've looked through the catalog of games and found a few that will end some of my frustration, while giving them the practice they need to reach proficiency in spelling and math. One of the game was an instant hit with the adult population, but also has great games for the kids. It's called Brain Age. Here's the blurb from the box: "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day for Nintendo DS is a fun, rewarding form of entertainment everyone can enjoy, as it helps players flex their mental muscles. Brain Age is inspired by the research of Professor Ryuta Kawashima, a prominent Japanese neuroscientist. His studies evaluated the impact of performing certain reading and mathematics exercises to help stimulate the brain." Another great game is Big Brain Academy

On this cloudy Sunday my family and I were busy being rock detectives. We discovered a rock that was black and fuzzy. Although, at this time, we still haven't discovered its name, we did come across a great website that helps children to identify what types of rocks they've found by answering a few questions. Enjoy! Rock Key

I've just signed my daughter up for Kidzui and she absolutely loves it. A few months ago I saw an advertisement for it on the internet and took a look. At the time there was a mandatory membership fee, and being a parent I like to see the number zero immediately following the dollar sign. So, I bookmarked it, but didn't go any further with it. Well today I got notification that the basic membership is free with the ability to upgrade if we want to later on. So, Jade and I signed up and she's been busy ever since. I love their signup process --- you create an avatar, clothe them and then pick the name. You have full creative license with the avatar since they give you the complete color palette to create realistic (or alien) coloration for your avatar. So, if you have young ones that you want to protect from the internet predators and other sickos that lurk about, you should definitely consider Kidzui. The websites and content were chosen and moderated by a panel of tea

My life is an upside down mess. For the first time in our marriage we have bought furniture for our home. That sounds strange when you take into account that we've been together for a decade, but there were circumstances. The small apartment I escaped to when I left my first husband didn't require anything more than a bed – the landlady provided a kitchen table and that's about all that could fit in there. Then we moved to our new home and lost our jobs. So, that kind of put a damper on any home shopping sprees. We bought what we needed for the children and made due with hand-me-downs and furniture left by the previous owners. But now we've bought a houseful of furniture. I am ecstatic because for the first time, before having furniture that conforms to some kind of theme, I will have the storage that I desperately need for my sanity. Homeschooling, working from home and having 3 children with 3 sets of toys can be challenging, especially when you don't real

a This has been a great week of learning for me. After listening to the many calls one of my realizations is that I need to change my "Motto" or self-talk. I adapted mine from Michael's and it has been great, but I need to work on one that is a little more personal now. I guess that shows growth. I realize that there are a few little flies buzzing inside of my head that I need to get a fly swatter (e.g., self-talk) after so that I can move forward with my goals. One thing that I have realized is that I need to reassure myself that regardless of what I do or say, love exists in abundance and if I alienate one person because of my firm stand to do what I know to be right, then so be it. I don't know how I could have forgotten so easily the words that Jesus spoke to his would-be-disciples. He told them that even if their mother or brothers renounced them for putting faith in him, they would receive a plethora of mothers and brothers exercising their right to belie

Well, this is my second trip through the book, and to be honest, I was thinking about not reviewing the book again.  Life's gotten really crazy and that just seemed to be just one more thing that has to get done.  And now I'm glad that I didn't listen to myself.  The lack of follow through would indicate that my Desire to attain my rightful place in the world is weak and subject to deflection whenever life gets in the way.  The lack of persistence would spell my doom as I allowed myself to be sidetracked by everyone else's drama and problems to once again squeeze out what I'm trying to attain.  That would indicate that I had a lack of a Definite Purpose and was just a leaf being blown from one great idea to another.  And it would mean that I am willing to throw away my future riches for a few coins today. And so, I am here and ready to review what I think I know and learn more about what I need to know to make my dreams come to fruition. The thoughts I allow to ente

  Well, if I ever had a doubt in my mind that I should continue doing the mental cleanse, Chapter 2 totally dispelled my self-delusion. I remembered the stories of Mr. Barnes, Mr. Fields and Mr. Ford without the loss of the details involved. I definitely remember the facts about their successes and struggles. What I forgot to remember (and since this is the entire point of reading the chapter) were the six steps to MY roadmap to success. Now isn't that just crazy? So, for the entire world to see (and remind me!), I am outlining the six points that are the key to my family's success. I want to generate $120,000 each year I intend to help people to achieve their goals through education and to provide assistance I want to the $120,000 by February 2009 I need to write a daily To Do List and working out a schedule that will allow me to work my business on a consistent basis. I cannot afford to allow other pressures to stop me from doing taking at least one step a day towards f

Here's an introduction to my favorite "color" subjects -- Jade, Alaya, Michael. Here's a brief introduction to the crew: Jade - 8 years old, Blue Alaya - 5 years old, Yellow Michael, 1 year old, Red Quick Personality Traits Chart ============================ Blue : Tigger Yellow : Piglet Red : Scrooge McDuck Green : Rabbit (from Winnie-the-Pooh) Enjoy the video at http://www.youtube.com/v/720TpAkafo0 !

A beautiful reminder of the importance of acknowledging those important people in our lives.

This is my favorite chapter. This was also the first chapter that I read when I started this process of mentally cleansing myself. It made me examine myself and my motivations towards life in general, and success in particular. I have spent the rest of my mental cleanse working on these fears and although I haven't completely rid myself of them, I have a better handle on my thinking process and can divert myself away from totally succumbing to these fears. The one fear that I am trying to get a handle on is the loss of love. My focus for a long time has been to have a family and now that I do I want to do the best things for them. One of those things that I must do is to generate the income necessary to provide the lifestyle that I think will help them to be well-rounded and productive people. Knowing all of this, it would seem to be a simple step to just go on with doing the business, attending conferences and the like. But I feel myself dragging my feet when the opportunity

Napoleon Hill spends this chapter discussing the sixth sense. This is our natural ability to create hunches, inspirations or flashes of insight. We all have them, but depending on our religious and cultural upbringing, may have been taught that this ability is a form of evil that should be shunned. I was brought up in one of those religions, but the one thing that always puzzled me as a child was why should I be considered evil just because I sometimes knew things that were about to happen ahead of time. I wasn't seeking the occult or doing things that were bad, so what was the big deal? I learned, however, that this is a big deal to many people, so I learned very early to keep my insights to myself and only shared them with my niece, Alisa, and my father. Many times this sixth sense has helped me out of jams that I would otherwise not have been able to escape a couple of situations unscathed. We have to acknowledge that there are things that we don't understand, but not

Our brains are amazing. It controls our every movement, contains our every thought and has a sub-system called the subconscious, that works while we sleep. Our brain also acts as a receiver for our senses – it records everything that we see, touch, hear, feel or smell. And it takes these sensations and files them away for later use. How many times has a stray scent reminded us of a person or an event in our lives? And the higher the emotional content of these memories, the easier it is to recall the event, and sometimes even re-live it. Emotion is one of the biggest factors in our lives. Negative emotions (i.e., bad thoughts, low self-esteem, or traumatic occurrences in our lives) will stop us from achieving, or even aspiring to the level of excellence that we all have within us. Being around negative people and situations drag us down and will swallow us up if we don't actively work at getting away from them. On the other hand, positive emotions will stir us to reach towa

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I've probably mentioned a few times that I learned about a really cool way to distinguish personalities and tailor my approach to the person based upon that information. I learned in my on-going training to be a Professional Network Marketer, but I'm finding my greatest practice and success with my own children. I am blessed to have the full spectrum of color in my home and it has become a new fascination of mine. I guess I'll start with myself. I'm blue (which happens to also be my favorite color). Now, to most of you, that doesn't mean a thing. But when you think about the things on our planet that are blue, can get a few clues. The sky is everywhere and "sees" everything. A person with a Blue personality is usually into everything and wants to experience everything with a side order of everything else. LOL! We are, as a group, very quick learners and happy go lucky. We're like Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh. We bounce around from place to plac

I live with a shadow Cheryl. My shadow is someone who watches my actions and records my thoughts. My shadow knows what I want before I really know myself. And although my shadow has the gift of anonymity and stealth, I am gifted with the power of intent. You see, my shadow takes orders from me. Everything that I do or say; think or wish lays the foundation for its actions. It may think that it is randomly picking its course. My shadow may think that it is really the one running things, but it is not true. Let me explain. You see, my shadow is my subconscious. It is powerful in the fact that it can lurk behind me and register information that I'm not even aware of in my day to day existence. It's a master collector and does its work automatically. Its other power stems from its ability to create whatever it perceives to be my most important goals. It works while I'm asleep and while I'm awake. It is a true multi-tasking engine. But what my subconscious doesn'

I found this to be a very interesting chapter. Some of the information was new to me, but I was surprised how much I already knew, but had never put it all together. It has long been a custom for trainers to keep their athletes away from women, warning that engaging in sexual relations would weaken or dissipate their skills. However, I never made the connection between creativity and sexual energies. After reading this, it seems so obvious that in order to achieve our goals we need to demonstrate mastery over our minds and, in this case, our bodies. As a mother, I know the power that emotions can have over you. The thought of anyone hurting one of my children gets my blood churning, ready for action. Our sexual nature works in the same way, but we have to 1) be cognizant that this energy can be utilized to create the secure financial future that we want and 2) to make a conscious effort to channel these feelings into areas that will make us successful. There was an episode on the

In order to accomplish our goals we need persistence. If we are persistent we can accomplish anything. However, we will only display persistence if our goal is something that we feel is as important as air itself. When our goal is defined, important and subjected to a laser focus it is easier to display persistence. Unfortunately, getting distracted by criticism or fear of being criticized will undermine your willpower. Also, being indecisive, spending time wishing that circumstances were different or looking for shortcuts will doom our efforts. We cannot worry about how others perceive us or our stated goals. I've found that the people who are the most critical and negative have never stretched out their hands to receive anything. So their opinions should be ranked as beneath consideration. I am working hard to maintain a persistent level of "money consciousness." I am finding this to be difficult because my mental habit has always been to desire enough to pay bills and

I learned a lot in this chapter about American History and about myself. I am pleased to note that procrastination is not one of my pitfalls. That's not to say that I couldn't do better in this regard, I think we've all been guilty of procrastinating about one thing or another. However, I would like mention a few things that struck me as important to think about. I've had the "privilege" of having a sister who takes twenty-two days to decide whether to wear a red dress or a blue dress. Watching my sister live her life in an almost perpetual state of indecision has led me to do the exact opposite. So, I'm pretty decisive about what I'm going to do or no do. That doesn't mean that I always make good decisions, but I try to stick with them as long as it is feasible. One of the things that took me a very long time to appreciate (and practice) was to keep my decisions to myself and just do what I need to accomplish. I've learned that those ou