Wednesday, January 13, 2021
WRITE THE WORD WEDNESDAY
Monday, January 11, 2021
WEEKLY BLESSINGS
Continuing to count God's sweet blessings...
2870. Brunch and shopping with my husband.
2871. Dinner out with my kids.
2872. Playing word games with my husband.
2873. Exciting new projects on the horizon.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
ONE WORD 2021
For the past 10 years, I have chosen One Word to focus on for the year. I have smaller goals and things I work toward, but one big word to really focus on and grow in. The first year, I didn't take it serious and don't even remember what my word was. The next year my word was intentional, then heart, pray, water, me, marriage, joy, progress, and last year was less. All such great words! I didn't perfect my words, but I definitely grew and learned in those areas.
For 2020, my word, less, really came true! Due to COVID19 and quarantines, we had less busyness, less noise, and less spending. I cut my social media use way down and I decluttered much of my home. Less was a great help! I didn't master less in everything. I wanted to consume less sugar, that didn't happen! I wanted to work on my attitude, have less of a bad attitude, that didn't always happen either. So while I didn't master less, I did work on it and feel great about how my year with less went.
On to my One Word for 2021....
A tree's roots grow deep. When you see a tree, often the roots underground are just as big as the tree. Sometimes bigger. Those strong, deep roots are what hold the tree. They help the tree bend in the wind, yet stand strong. I want to grow my roots so when the wind (life's struggles) blow, I can can stand strong.
In order to dig my roots into Jesus, I have set some daily action plans. Some of my action plans I have been doing for quite some time and some are new.
In the morning
1. I start and end my time each morning with prayer.
2. Next, I read one chapter in the Bible, following the Woman to Woman Bible reading plan.
3. Then, I use my Write the Word journal from Cultivate What Matters. I started this year with Cultivate Faith, Grow Roots in the Word.
4. Finally, I read a daily devotional. I started this year with Take Heart: 100 Devotions to Seeing God When Life's Not Okay.
It sounds like a lot, but depending on my prayer time, it only takes thirty minutes to an hour so it really isn't long at all!
At bedtime
1. I write down two or three things from my day that I can praise God about. This is a practice I started when my grandfather passed away a year ago to help me find the good even on bad days.
2. Then I read a daily devotion from God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women.
1. I joined Chrystal Evans Hurst for a 28 day prayer journey. This is an online study to help grow my prayer life. I am so excited about this!
2. I got the Search the Word collection from the Daily Grace Co. Search the Word is an in-depth study on the Bible. This study is a six week study, however I want to take my time. If it takes me six months or even the whole year, that is totally fine.
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
3 Cross-Curricular Activities To Improve Your Homeschool Lessons
Contributed post
If you want to keep your kids engaged with your homeschool lessons, you need to think outside the box. Sitting them at a desk all day long and getting them to do worksheets isn’t that exciting and they will respond much better to hands-on activities. You will also get more out of your day if you can encourage them to get involved in cross-curricular activities. These are activities that help with lots of different lessons and improve skills naturally, without necessarily feeling like a lesson. These are some of the best cross-curricular activities to incorporate into your homeschool day.
Cooking
Cooking is an important skill for all children to learn and it’s also a brilliant cross-curricular activity to try. Alongside teaching them how to cook, you also get them to practice their math skills by weighing out ingredients. They improve their vocabulary by learning new ingredients or the names of new cooking techniques (you can get them to write these words out as an added bonus lesson too). You can even introduce a bit of science if you spend some time talking about exactly what is happening to the food as you heat it up or how the different nutrients will affect your body. Creativity is also very important in cooking, so encourage your kids to experiment with their food and create something new.
Creative Writing
Creative writing is obviously a good way to improve reading and writing skills and also to encourage creative thinking skills. However, it can also be used to make any other subject a bit more exciting. For example, if your kids find history lessons boring, why not have them write a story about an event or a historical figure? You can get them to write stories about any subject and it will really bring things to life, while also working on their literacy skills. There are even companies like Studentreasures Publishing that will make a class book from their creative writing, which is a great keepsake for the family. Next time you’re struggling to keep your kids engaged with a boring topic, why not turn it into a creative writing exercise and see if that gets them interested?
Sports
Exercise is an important part of any child’s routine but did you know that it’s also an effective way of getting them excited about school? Most people underestimate the educational value of sports, but there are actually a lot of great opportunities for learning. For example, most sports involve quite a lot of math to work out the scores. You could use it as an opportunity for teaching science as well if you give them a lesson on the forces acting on a football as it flies through the air, for example, or the different muscles that are worked as they play. Getting outside and doing something active engages the brain and improves concentration, so you should definitely use sports as an opportunity for learning whenever you can.
Introducing these cross-curricular activities to your homeschool day can make your lessons so much more engaging.
JANUARY POWERSHEETS
I absolutely love the beginning of the year! I know there is nothing magical about January 1st, yet, I love the day so much. The fresh start, the turning of a page, it makes me giddy!
Before we move on to January goals, let's recap December. Unfortunately, December found my family very sick with COVID19. So many things we planned and normally do were cancelled or postponed. We normally decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving night or the day after, this year we didn't decorate until a week before and instead of going all out, we only put a tree up. And I didn't even touch my Powersheets or planner until late in the month, I was just too sick.
December progress: