Horton Hears a Who

Saturday, our family took the kids to see "Horton Hears a Who". Our theater here in town always gives free showings of movies to the kids during the month of December. We had a blast and the movie is really great for the kids. It was done very well, I highly recomend this movie for all families. So, this season while you are making goodies or making out your Christmas cards, place this video in and watch the kids have a wonderful time. God bless all of you and have a great Christmas season, from the Ross family

Pamela's Prayer

If you are like my husband and I, you want the best for your children. Jeff and I have deceided that we want Luke and Melanie to grow up waiting for their future spouse. This even involves kissing that person. A couple of years ago, we found a great movie about that subject. It is a true story of a young lady named Pamela and her father. Her Father has prayed with since she was born and he has given her to God. He wants her to wait until she is married before she kisses any guy and so she will not be














lead to do other things with a boy. It is an awesome movie. The other night Melanie and I sat down and we watched the movie together. This brought up many conversations and Melanie was very intriged with it. I explained to her that a relationship with Jesus is more important than a relationship with a boy. God already had her husband picked out. I hope this helped her to see that God is the most important and not a boy. I ordered this video from Christian books distributors or CBD.com. It is only 8.99, I am not sure what shipping is. This is an awesome video for your kids or for neices and nephews, grand children, etc.
We sure like to watch it here. I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving and I will be on and off the blog this season. If you have any question, please comment and I will be happy to help in any way I can. God bless you all From the Ross Family.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and my prayers go out to all of you. God bless you all

from the Ross Family.

Some awesome family fun

I have to admit, our family loves to watch tv, so I try to show the kids some good wholesome entertainment, and here are a few of them:

I have to admit that one of my favorite dvd's is this series from Kent Hovind. There are seven dvd's in the series and each dvd can range from two hours to four hours. There is some awesome information on these dvd's. He totally erases the opinion of evalution and he has so much information on these that it will take a year or so for you to even get through it. We have to watch one a week and only half of it, because there is so much information on them. If you want to check out the dvd's the website is http://www.drdino.com/. It is well worth it. They also give you the option of buying the dvd's seperate or the whole set. You can now buy study quides to go with it. They are good. I believe that the whole set is about 100.00. I tell you, they are worth it. And once you get your hands on the set, you can copy them for others. There is no copywrite on them. Kent Hovind just wants the word out.


This movie is amazing. It is about a man named Peter who became the minister for the senators. He is from Ireland and he comes to America. He is the husband of Cathrine Marshall and the father to Peter Marshall. Cathrine wrote the series "Christy" and Peter wrote the curriculum "For the light and Glory." Amazing movie, one that I really need to get in my collection for the kids. God is so good, and you will love the movie after you have watched it.

I use to watch this show on tv. I loved the show and I wanted to be able to share this with my daughter. You can order this whole series from CBD for only 35.00. The awesome part about this series, inside of the dvd's is a booklet full of bible studies that go along with each show. I was so excited about this. I am going to introduce this to the children during our devotions at night. It is a pretty in depth study. I really encourage you to take a look at it. I also noticed on the CBD website that there are a series of books about Christy.

A couple of years ago a company called "Feature films for families" called us and offered us some movies. They have a wonderful line of movies from toddlers all the way up to adults. I love the way the movies have question and discussions on the back of each movie. So, we watch the movie and then we discuss it. It really gets the kids involved with it. I have also seen some awesome movies that just make me cry or feel good. Most of the movies have people who are popular, there are a couple that I did not reconize any of the actors. That is okay, they are still awesome movies. A couple of movies I highly recomend is, "A song for a season", "By Dawns Early Light" and " A Gift of Love". These are all awesome movies that you will love.

Well, it was great telling you all about our family and I hope that all of you have a wonderful day.

Let me introduce myself

My name is Tanya Ross. I would like to give a little testimony about myself. First of all, I did not start my kids out on home school. This was a leading by Jesus. In 2000, my husband and I started a new church. The both of us rededicated our hearts and lives back to our Jesus. During that time our children were in the public school.

One day, my husband came to me and asked me if I would consider homeschooling. I kind of laughed this off, but I did go to prayer about it. The Lord lead me to bringing our children home. Our Son Luke was in fourth grade and our daughter preschool. She really has not had a knowledge of formal class room. Luke if asked, will tell you that he does not want to go back to public school and our daughter Melanie is not sure. I feel really blessed to be a home school mom. There has been a lot of rewards, especially being able to watch my children grow. My children are more relaxed for some reason and they have great imaginations.

They are both so wonderful and they love each other so much. I never have to break them up in a fight, they love one another so much. I hope that after I am long gone, they both keep up relationship and their families grow up together. Melanie thinks that her brother is a knight and he will protect her. How awesome is that. Homeschooling is a radical decision.

When Jeff and I thought about homeschooling, I was working full time. It was so difficult to do school and work. Now I am a full time mother and I love to be with my kids. God is so good and sometimes we never know why God does what He does. But He knows best. He has change my thinking of being a mom and how important it is to be a good example for my children. Am I perfect, no, I am human. Do I seek forgiveness through my children and repent, yes, I never want my kids to feel they have to be perfect and they are not loved. They are and I am also. I hope that my blog helps you in your seeking of homeschooling. If you have any question, please let me know. If I do not know the answer, I will find if for you. The Internet can be a wonderful place for you, there is so much on the net to help with school. God bless all of you, and good luck in your search.

Board Games

If you are looking for some new ideas to use to keep homeschooling fun, I have a suggestion. I have added board games to our daily routine and the kids love it. I bought "Rush Hour" and "Apples to Apples" for the kids. These are great games that create thinking and promblem solving. I highly suggest these two games. I have also bought a couple of other games that I will tell you about later on. We haven't gotten to them yet. I also introduced the abucus and some pattern blocks. This kids really enjoy the hands on and it seems to keep their interest. I really suggest that you look into some board games and other hands on activities. Have a great beginning to your new year.

Sincerely,



I bought these from "Rainbow Resource", they were really reasonable.

Hey, I am still around

Hello, yes I am still around. We have been so busy here. Our son left for two weeks to visit his grandparents in Washington state. Our daughter is here with us and we have been working on the house some. It has been a weird autumn and the leaves are turning, but the weather is warm. We have started school, but I have been taking time off because Luke is gone and Melanie is having a hard time concentrating. I will try to post some more websites and some offers in a week or so. I haven't really done alot of research. Hopefully once our schedule dies down, I will get a chance to surf the net.
This is my husband and I in front of our house. We will be celebrating eighteen years of marriage on Sunday. He is an awesome guy and I love him alot. Thank you so much for checking out our homeschool blog and I hope that you will find useful information on this blog. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them and I will get back to you. God bless you all from Tanya

CPI Forms for Iowa

This has always been alittle confusing for me, "What day do we put in our CPI forms?" Well, this year I have been alittle more concerned and asking more questions. I found the answer to my question through my Supervising Teacher. If you live in Iowa, you have to have your CPI forms in by or on the first day of school. Here in Red Oak, the first day of school is August 19th. If you are having trouble locating CPI Forms, here is a couple of site to get them from. Niche has forms on their website, these are the forms that I use the most. I do the portfolio, so all of the forms that I reconize are on this site. Another site to get forms is Homeschool Legal defense, they have all the forms on their site. Also, if you are signing up a child that is 6, there is a lead testing process. You can read all about it on this site. I do not have a six year old, so I am really not sure what it is all about, but I would hate to show you these sites and not say anything about it. This time of the year is really busy for me, I am getting books ordered and planning out the kid's schedule. Then I am grading this year, that is huge for me. I am also doing this while my husbands family is living with us, they moved in on the 25th of July. So, it has been a really busy new school year. I hope that you will be able to have a relaxed beginning of the year, and that everything just falls into place. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, you can leave a comment or email me at www.tanya_rss@yahoo.com. Have a great day.


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A New Search Engine

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I would like to announce that there is a new search engine for homeschoolers. Of course it is new, but it is now availiable.

Grading, UGH!

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For years, I have not graded my children because, I did not know how or I was not sure on how to grade. Yesterday, I went to a seminar by my homeschool supervisior. She taught our group from a book call "Making The Grade." It was an awesome seminar and I learned so much about grades. I highly advice you to check out this website. The book is by Lesha Myers, she compares the grades with the bible. You have to check out the book, I am going to start planning my school year here within the couple of days. I am really excited. Lesha suggest that you plan your school days and then start the grading process. If you have any questions about homeschool, please me @ tanya_rss@yahoo.com, I hope that I can help. Have a great planning.

Nature Study

"Pocketful of Pinecones" is a great book for beginning or even pro home school mothers. Karen does an awesome job taking diary entries to help you understand how to do nature studies. I really enjoyed reading this book and I encourage any mother who wants to use nature study as science to read this book. It also gives other ideas for just homeschooling your children. I highly recommend these books.

"Handbook of Nature Study" is an awesome book if you want to do a nature study with your child. I have a copy of this book and it has so much information in it. I plan to go on nature walks with my daughter and get her in the thought of God's creation. Anna Comstock really spent some time doing the research and pictures. Really worth the money.

We have had a wet summer here in Iowa and with all the dampness we have received some interesting house guest. The fruit flies have been terrible and the spiders just as much. We have also had some June bugs and some black ants. My daughter and son have been really curious about all of these bugs. So, I did some googling and found some wonderful websites I want to share with you. This is the Wild Life education site. It has wonderful pictures of insect and spiders and it even has curriculum to download. This is the Land Care Research website of New Zealand, there is so much information on this site.

This site has all kinds of information about insects and spiders, and wouldn't you know it, it is call Everything about.This is a bug guide to use with so much information. This is a website from Arizona,

Getting Ready for School

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Like many of you, I am trying to get scheduling and curriculum in order. I have noticed that some of the shipping has been aweful, in some cases as much as what I have bought. The price of gas is so crazy and has causes shipping to be high. This company is offering free shipping with the purchase of $29.00 or more and no sales tax. The company is love to learn.
Rainbow Resource, they offer free shipping after $150.00 in sales. Rainbow Resource is a huge company and they have alot of products that you can choose from. Most of the time I can get all of my school supplies through them. Another company that offers free shipping is Dover Publication, if you buy $50.00 worth of items.
I would just look around and check out all of the different sites, if anything try to order all of your items off the same site. It may be cheaper that way. I also suggest using your local library, I am going to do that this year. I plan on putting library day in our schedule. And again, if there is a company that you use and would like to share, please let me know. I am always looking for fresh websites that I can share.


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Beauty

In this world, the view of beauty is so misstrued. Our daughters are growing up and watching the models and movie stars distort beauty. In all of this, there is one company that is trying to give our daughters a chance at looking a beauty in a different way. I should reword that, there are lots of people and websites who are giving our daughters a chance, but one manufactoring company is doing the same thing.

Our daughters look up to us as mothers. We are the beauty that they see everyday, and therefore it should be us who trains our daughters to be beautiful. And Dove sees that, they have an eighteen page pamplet that you can down load and a mother's guide that you can do with your daughters. I looked throught the guide, and although I did not agree with all of it, there are some wonderful questions in it for you and your daughter. I was really impressed with what Dove is trying to do.

There is also a book, if you want the christian veiw point called " Who calls me Beautiful?" by Regina Franklin. The book has several questions that you and your daughter can go throught at the end of each chapter. Regina takes this subjects and she compares it to what Jesus says about beauty. It is a really good book. I want to do it with Melanie. In this day and age it is up to us as mom's to renforce our daughter image of themselves. They need us to tell them of true beauty. If you check out either one of these sites or the book, please give me some feed back. Or if you know of other sites, let me know so that I can post it. God bless all of you, From Tanya

New Websites

Here are some more sites that I have stumbled upon. I hope that you will be able to find what you are looking for. I know that now is a great time to shop for school. If you wait to long, you sometimes have to wait for your supplies before you start school, have fun shopping. Here is Birch Books, this is a Consumer math site, this is writing workshop site for children, this site is for math games online, I played some of the games and I had a great time. This is a free spelling course. This is a math challenge online games site, or their are worksheets that you can pull off.

Here are some history sites that have free things or you can order items from them. This is a really nice history site, This site is an animated history timeline, this site is a christian history timeline, this is another church time line, this is an American Heritage site.

This site is a homeschool planner site, I am looking for other sites that can be utilized for free. The web is full of awesome resources for your homeschool needs. I hope that you are able to use all of this information.

Happy 4th of July

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I just wanted to say a warm, Happy 4th of July and hope that it is full of fun, family and festivities. I will not be posting any more this weekend. I do have some more websites to post on Monday or Tuesday. But until then, have a wonderful day.

Incredible Websites!

I was actually looking for curriculum for my parenting class that I host on Tuesday nights. I volunteer at the local Pregnancy Center in our town. I found two sites that I really encourage you to look at. Education.com is an awesome site, it has articles on discipline and different grades. It also has a test to show your childrens learning style. Wonderful site. Another site that I stumbled upon, is a website for homeschoolers, lots of information for you and your children. Another great site was Homeschool Advisors, they had alot of information on their site. I hope that you check out these sites and find information that you need. God bless all of you.

I would like to thank Karen at karenwhimsy.com for all the beautiful victorian pictures. Please go check her site out. Have a great day.

An American Girl Giveaway

I am really sorry if you tried to get on the links and they blocked you out. Try this new link, it should take you right to the Common Sense Website. Sorry for the trouble. Tanya


Common Sense Website is hosting a contest for the new Kit Kittredge Movie, in theater July 1st. The contest is not supported by the American Girls, it is an individual contest that Common Sense is putting on. The girls have to be thirteen years of age or older to enter. But, you have to enter really soon, because the winner will be announced in next weeks e-newsletter. Melanie and I have been ready about Samatha, I am not sure who is liking it more, Mel or I. Have a great day, Tanya

Opportunity For A Give Away

God bless all of you who visited Kelly's blog and signed up for the contest. Kelly drew the name, You will have to check out kelly's blog and see who the winner was.
The give away is at Kelly's blog



The whole series is available at Vision Forum. You will have to check it out. I do not know what this particular series is about, but I trust Vision Forum. I like all the character building books and the history books. Most definitely go to Kelly's blog and sign up. It ends this Friday at midnight. Good Luck to ya all.

Handiwork

This cross stitch is from Sew Inspirations.

I really like the fact that Charlotte Mason did handiwork. I never thought of it with my children. Both of my kids are hands on, so handiwork is really awesome. I am not sure what kind of handiwork you like, I love cross stitching and I really want to teach my daughter. I went to hopechestlegacy last night and Rebekah offers a step by step guide to cross stitchen for your kids. All you have to do is e-mail Rebekah and get permission to use the lesson. I did it and she replied within minutes. Here are some other sites that I really loved. Teaching kids to cross stitch, dltk, sew inspiration, daisy design,and a wonderful blog from Becky. If you would like to see a list of handiwork go to Ambleside online.
This is also from Sew Inspirations.