Diplomas for Homeschooled Students, a.k.a. The Diploma That Made Me Cry

(Hannah Dear, don’t read this. You’ll find out soon enough.)

Did you hear the screaming? It was me. I was asked to review a diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com, and I was so excited that I broke through my normally calm exterior (ahem) and got just a leeeeeetle bit loud. Their newest release is the Exclusive High School Diploma, which is beautiful, but I ordered one that was more suited to us, the Personalized High School Diploma. While I received a free diploma (technically, Hannah did), I did purchase a few items as well. All opinions are my own, unless someone effectively whispered their own opinions in my ear while I was sleeping–it could happen.

I’m almost embarrassed by how over-the-top excited I am about the diploma our Hannah Marie received from HomeschoolDiploma.com. 

First, let me yammer a bit. We are often asked how our kids will get a high school diploma if they don’t go to a real school, and if they don’t go to a real school and don’t get a diploma, how will they ever get a job?! I think this is hilarious, because nobody has ever seen my high school diploma, and I have had more than my fair share of jobs.

It isn’t the diploma you need; it’s the education.

That said, a diploma is a nice–very nice–way to represent a major achievement, in this case, the completion of homeschool high school. True, you can make your own, which was our plan, but I’m off-the-wall happy that we went with this beauty from HomeschoolDiploma.com.

Homeschool Diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com

Why?

First, it’s finished. I would still be tweaking and researching and rewriting and tearing out my nose hairs over the whole thing. True story.

Second, look at it! It’s beautiful and very, very professional. I’m proud to give it to our Hannah.

Homeschool Diploma from HomeschoolDiploma.com

We haven’t signed it yet, because I’m scared, but they do have a direction sheet for how to sign it, and there is a replacement diploma available at a fraction of the cost when if we mess this up.

What is the diploma-buying experience like?

There are several basic diplomas to choose from, and you build from there. You simply answer one question after another until you have a unique masterpiece. It’s all simple and self-explanatory, but there are info pop-ups available if you have questions. (I had questions–shocker!)

You can add honors stickers, seals, signatures, handwritten lettering, and all sorts of different alterations that make each diploma truly unique.

You can even create your own family’s embossing seal–very special! That is an excellent option if you do want to make your own diploma.

My favorite part of the one we chose (Personalized High School Diploma) is the choice wording. Since we are more concerned with preparing our children with a solid faith and real life skills than we are with knowing who was 15th in line to the throne of England, I felt this wording was perfect! I got choked up. (I know–I have issues.)

Homeschool Diplomas from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

We even were able to add her confirmation verse.

And the owner of the company–she is a gem! I can’t remember why I was chatting with her, but she was helpful, informative, and as enthused as I am, the poor dear.

It’s not just diplomas!

We also ordered a mortar board (funny hat, as my kids describe it) and a tassel. You can order back dates like we did since Hannah technically graduated in 2015, and we had a baby instead of a party. They are the same quality you get from the “real” schools where they get “real” mortar boards and “real” diplomas that nobody ever sees.

Here it is modeled by the lovely and scholarly Emily Rose:

Graduation Gear from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

Actually, the hat itself was a better quality than our high school and college caps. The tassel is the thin kind–I prefer the thick kind, but the cost of the tassel versus the cost of the education that gave me the thick tassel and lots of debt–well, I’ll take the thinner tassel

The announcements are very high quality, and the wording is beautiful!

Homeschool Graduation Announcements from HomeschoolDiploma.com

We are truly very pleased with our diploma from HomeschoolDiplomas.com. I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

I have only heard of this happening one time, but a fellow full-time RV family was asked to prove that their children were homeschooled before being able to stay in an RV park. Really? Yes, really. In America?! Yes, America. Crazy I know. I don’t know what else out there is like that. Perhaps some jobs or RV parks or other places of repute actually will want to see a diploma…I dunno. Crazy world, crazy people, crazy requirements.

Anyway, HomeschoolDiplomas.com offers a duplicate version of the diploma you can keep in your important papers safe, as well as the wallet-sized laminated diploma seen here, which is what we bought. For a few dollars more, it gives you peace of mind against all the crazies. That and a Colt 22.

Wallet-sized laminated diploma from HomeschoolDiplomas.com

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers who don’t get quite so emotional over a pretty piece of paper:

Exclusive High School Diploma Review

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Homeschool Copywork — Handwriting, Character Building, Spelling, and More

My family received a complementary Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork in exchange for this review. Normally, I’m not one for lifetime memberships, because I assume that automatically puts you on a hit list. Seriously, you know that if you win $5000 a week for life from Publisher’s Clearing House, you’re toast as soon as their budget gets tight. But in this case, we jumped on it. Homeschool Copywork doesn’t seem like the kind of place to have a hitman on the pay roster.

In fact, Homeschool Copywork is quite the opposite. Their site is a beautiful combination of copywork ebooks touching on a variety of topics for all age groups.

There are several different levels of handwriting in the ebooks. Your youngest writers can trace over the dashed letters. Older children can try various forms of printing as well as cursive. There really is something for each age level.

Homeschool Copywork Lifetime Membership Review

What I love about copywork is that it replaces the boring subjects, such as spelling and handwriting. Instead of writing “Abe ate Abel’s apples,” children are writing beautiful Scripture, quotes, historical facts, and other highly interesting phrases that stick with them throughout their lives. That’s so much better than Aa Aa Aa or spelling lists!

Here is a very brief sampling of the many available books:

  • animal alphabet
  • character building
  • Vincent Van Gogh and Monet
  • Beethoven and other composers
  • the armor of God (which is what Elijah is working through)
  • poetry of Emily Dickinson, Lewis Caroll, E.B. Browning, and others
  • hymns, such as Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go and Be Thou My Vision
  • holiday topics, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas
  • historical topics and quotes, such as the Wright Brothers and John Audubon
  • coloring pages
  • notebooking pages

There are many, many more!

Homeschool Copywork Review of Lifetime Membership

Some contain beautiful artwork for coloring which makes it even more fun to display the children’s copywork.

Elijah is currently working through this beauty:

Homeschool Copywork Review

He writes it on notebook paper, but you can print the ebook page or use handwriting paper, depending on your preference and paper availability. We use what we have…because we have it…so we use it.

Homeschool Copywork -- Review of the Lifetime Membership

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Now normally with downloadable products, I’m griping about data limits and poor internet access. In this case, I haven’t a single gripe. The books download quickly without any hitches and use minimal data.

Obviously, there are no weight issues, as the books are ebooks and are lighter than air.

The one issue you may find is with printing. Ideally, especially for the younger set, you would print the sections of the ebooks you want for each child. We didn’t do that, although we will when the four-year-old is ready to participate, so she can trace the letters.

This is how we use it:

Homeschool Copywork Review of Lifetime Membership

We choose the page they would copy and display it on the computer screen, and they copy it onto regular paper. It’s not as much fun, and we still have to have paper on hand, but it does save on printing costs and the annoying printer set-up issues that you have when you have 10 people living in a 30-foot trailer and you have to store your printer in the Cave of Wonders (or someplace equally as inaccessible).

Homeschool Copywork -- Review of the Lifetime Membership

That boy needs better lighting. We’ll get right on that.

Seriously, I can see no reason why this wouldn’t work for travelers. Can you?

To find out what stationary homeschoolers have to say about Homeschool Copywork, click here or on the banner below:
Homeschool Copywork Review

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Analyzing Literature Without Losing the Love {A Review}

It is my legal duty to tell my readers that Memoria Press sent us the four student books and four teacher guides in their Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set to review, and I always perform my legal duty to the letter…except the time I showed up for jury duty with a new baby in my arms. All opinions here belong to me and my children–Memoria Press did not influence our decision.
Memoria Press Literature Guides Review

Most of my readers know that I was an English major in college. What you may not know is that by the time I was finished with college, I rarely read books anymore. The joy of reading had been stifled by too much literary dissection and over-the-top analysis. The natural process of thinking through an author’s work and making friends with writers and characters had been replaced with trying to figure out what a professor thought the author intended to say and making friends with a syllabus.

For that reason, the majority of what my children read is not laid out on the operation table to be cut into layer by layer. It is allowed to dance in their brains and on their tongues as they share their own interpretations without my attempting to get what want out of a reading.

Memoria Press Literature Guides Review

That is why, despite my degree, this literature guide set from Memoria Press is, as far as I can recall, the first I have ever used with my kids. My opinion? I love it! My kids’ opinion? They love it! Let’s talk about why.

  1. The book selection is challenging, but not impossible by any means. The selection for fourth grade includes Homer Price by McCloskey (an old friend to most reading families or anyone who has fallen in love with the ducks in Boston), The Cricket in Times Square by Seldon, Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress arranged by Hunkin, and Blue Fairy Book by Lang (the book we started with because we already had it on Kindle).
  2. Together, the series touches on different styles of literature. Some students may not taste certain genres unless required to, and might never otherwise learn that they love it.
  3. The discussion questions are not tedious or boring. We work through most of the questions out loud, and the kids are super enthusiastic. They do the quizzes on paper, and are just as enthused.
  4. The questions guide them to think through character traits, but so far have avoided being preachy.
  5. The Bible is brought into a few of the lessons, particularly in Dangerous Journey.
  6. The vocabulary words are fun for the kids, because, overall, they are useful words the kids are now noticing or using in their everyday lives. Also, the new words per lesson are minimal–not overwhelming by any means. There are, of course, a few wonky words they will never use again, such as Genus Mephitis from Homer Price, which doesn’t pop up over pizza too often.
  7. Character, plat, setting, an other literary devices are discussed in the guides here and there, more so in The Cricket in Times Square. The kids learn the literary words without being chased down by a literary bear with a chainsaw…if you catch my drift.
  8. The books in the series complement each other, but are separate studies, so parents can begin wherever they like.
  9. Not only is it good for children to read slightly above their grade levels, but to listen as well. Sometimes I read the story aloud; other times the kids read it to themselves. The program is flexible enough to be used however it works best for the family.
  10. The appendices in three of the four guides add just a little bit extra to make the book that much more interesting, but not so much that you start drooling while reading.
  11. The study guides introduce brief writing assignments–not torturous. My first grader loved them.
  12. It’s age and grade flexible. While this is a fourth grade set, most of my kids listened in and the fourth and first graders actively participated. The other grades look equally as flexible, because the literature selections are timeless.

Memoria Press Literature Guides Review


While I most definitely will continue giving my children a selection of books to read that will require no formal written or spoken analysis, and especially no worksheets, I will also continue to work through the rest of the Fourth Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press. It’s that well done, and it doesn’t kill the joy.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

With the availability of Kindles, you all know that our libraries can come with us–praise God for that! I’m old school and prefer a book in one hand and popcorn in the other, but I’m still ecstatic about how the Kindle has expanded the roadschoolers library. The Memoria Press Teacher’s Guide and Student’s Guide are both quite slim and will likewise not take up much room on the shelf. Three of the four sets can be stowed until needed while keeping the fourth at hand.

A Lit Program Even I Love

While it’s ideal for each child to have her own student book, if you have eight kids and a limited amount of space, you can adapt as we do and as described above.

The flexibility of the program has made it simple for us to have our literary discussions and sometimes readings in the van as we drive. The quizzes and lessons are short enough that they’re not going to get in the way of hiking through Bryce Canyon.

I see no reason why this one shouldn’t make the roadschool cut! 

Read what other reviewers have to say right here:

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Demme Learning’s Math-U-See Has Gone Digital!

Please know that I was given a free year’s access to the digital pack for level Delta from Demme Learning’s Math-U-See in exchange for my and my son’s fair and unbiased review. (We did buy the student books with our own money…not stolen money.) This is indeed a fair and unbiased review. As you know, I can be swayed with cookies, but rest easy, reader friends–my son is a man of integrity. Stand strong, Boy!

Over the past 15 years of homeschooling, we have had six children use Demme Learning’s Math-U-See, and number seven is on the horizon.

We are big Math-U-See fans, and this is why:

  1. I am a disorganized, inconsistent, unstructured mess of a mama sometimes. But that’s okay…I mean, for math, because Mr. Demme teaches my kids (and me) on video. If I don’t get out of bed for three months, they can still progress in their math. (That would be super boring for me, although I’d get a lot of reading done.)
  2. As the name implies, the students can see not only how to do math, but why they do what they do. The manipulatives are part of that, as is Mr. Demme’s break-down of the process.
  3. Each level ensures mastery before moving to another topic.
  4. Each lesson reviews previous skills.
  5. There is no drill and kill–math should not be fatal.

Recently Demme Learning came out with their digital packs. Instead of a physical teacher’s guide and a DVD, you have access to video streaming, digital manipulatives, the lesson summary, and the solutions all online for one year.

So instead of my son Elijah’s Delta level Math-U-See supplies looking like this:

Demme Learning Math U See Review

…he has this:

Demme Learning Math U See Review

Phenomenal cosmic math concepts…itty bitty living space.

Here’s what I love about the digital packs:

My son does not need to be sitting in front of the television. If we are in the van, he can watch his math video on the library Kindle Fire. He loves that he doesn’t need to wait for his turn with the DVD player. My husband loves that the math lesson can be a little quieter than when it’s on the tele.

Second, the digital streaming doesn’t get scratched, broken, lost, left in Arizona and not discovered until we’re in Colorado, stepped on, or need to be put away.

Third, last year I had six students in Math-U-See. (We graduated two last summer.) That was a lot of teacher’s books, I tell ya! They took up a lot of space that could have been used for literature or history–my favorite subjects. (Do you remember we live in a trailer?)

Fourth, the digital packs aren’t ever going to be outdated. There isn’t an older version and a newer version; you never wonder if your student text will line up with the teacher’s guide. It’s all good.

Fifth, you don’t have to wait for shipping–you finish, you re-order, you click a few times and you’re on the next level, which is a pretty big deal for me, the perpetual procrastinator…or percrastinator. Re-ordering is as easy as pi. That was a little math joke there. 

Sixth, the work is still done on paper. There’s just something about paper and pencil that makes me happy…that and cookies and pie with an e.

Here’s what I don’t love about the digital packs:

I have eight students, and, quite honestly, I don’t want to be buying access year after year. I can’t pass them down, and I am totally into hand-me-downs.

I’m old school. I don’t like staring at screens; it messes with my eyes and makes me miss nature. I just want a book already. But you know what? My son is across-the-board-school. He likes screens and books, so, while I am a middle-aged, change-resistant Lutheran, he is totally hip to the digital version and even prefers it. 

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

The ongoing space issue:

We have been traveling for four years with our enormous bucket of Math-U-See blocks. It’s not enormous in a house, but in a 30-foot Passport travel trailer, anything bigger than a two-slot toaster is outrageous. The manipulative solution Demme Learning offers online is far and away more space-saving than the box of blocks. 

I (the old-school, change-resistant Lutheran), of course, prefer the blocks to the digital version, because I am not a fan of learning curves anymore and I like to hold things in my hands…like cookies and pie and babies. My son prefers the physical blocks as well. But here’s the thing–when he turns the computer off, the blocks are put away. You think Legos hurt on a trip to the bathroom at night? Try stepping on math manipulatives! Old school or not, those babies hurt.

Also, whine though I might about the learning curve, there’s a quick and easy manipulatives demo on the digital access page, so take that fellow Lutherans. We can handle change…maybe.

Demme Learning's Math-U-See Digital Pacs --space savers and very convenient

The ongoing internet issue:

As with all online curricula, there is the issue of internet connection. The digital packs do require you to stream videos, which we can only do when we have a strong internet connection or enough data left at the end of the month. (Yeah, we data budget.) My son has been flying through his lessons, so he’s been watching a video every day or two, but when he gets to the harder lessons, it will be more like once a week or so, making the access issue less significant.

The online manipulatives are not a big data hog, so he can use them for his assignments and practice whenever we are connected with no issue…although I think he may have recreated the Danish attacks on Wessex last week instead of working on his division. As with all online activity, supervise supervise supervise. Of course, he can also do his assignments without the manipulatives if there is no connection at all.

An unexpected bonus:

Just an aside, when he doesn’t have a connection, he tries to figure out the lesson himself, and then watches the video later. He owns the subject more when he struggles to think it through instead of being guided. It’s a Japanese concept that works with some of my kids. Of course, sometimes he ends up watching two or three videos at a time this way when we’re connected, but whoop diddly do, right?

Go here to read reviews from homeschoolers who fall a little closer to “normal” on the normalcy spectrum than we do:

Demme Learning's Math-U-See Review
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The Highway Prayer–Simple Faith in Practice

The Highway Prayer --Simple Faith in Action

Photo credit (Kim Siever)

The ambulance blew by, sirens blaring, lights flashing. My mom was silent for a moment, and then the conversation continued. We kids all knew Mom said a little prayer whenever an ambulance drove by—she saw a need and wisely handed it heavenward.

For years I did the same thing, only I took it one step further. When I saw an ambulance, I would pray out loud with my children. Nothing fancy—just joining with my littles to take the needs and pain of a fellow human being to the Creator.

It was always simple, like this:

Father, please be with the person in the ambulance and with that person’s family. Please take away their pain and fear. Thank you for the helpers and bless them all. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Short, sweet, easy-to-understand, powerful.

Having had three ambulance transports in our family over the past two decades, the thought that strangers—brothers and sisters in faith whom we have yet to meet—are wrapping us in their arms through prayer and asking God for help on our behalf is humbling and comforting.

I’ve since fallen out of the practice of praying out loud at ambulance or fire truck sightings, but I’m going to jump back in with both feet.

What do you think? Do you want to join in?

Adventure, Courage, and Loyalty on the High Seas with G.A. Henty

This is a non-biased review of The Dragon and the Raven, a dramatic audio production of G.A. Henty’s book of the same title, created by Heirloom Audio Productions. All opinions are my own and those of my children. There was no exchange of cookies, pie, or money to alter our opinions.

Ever since we listened to a Librivox recording of G.A. Henty’s The Cat of Bubastes over a decade ago, read in a drone voice that we grew strangely fond of, we have been huge Henty fans. A Henty novel is an education in itself–language, history, geography, human nature, character. It’s a treasure trove of Christian virtue wrapped in adventure and courage and tied with a bow of literary prowess.

While nobody can really improve on Henty, one can tie it with a different bow, so to speak. And that’s exactly what Heirloom Audio Productions has done with their dramatic reproduction of Henty’s The Dragon and the Raven.

The Dragon and the Raven {Heirloom Audio Productions Review}

What’s it like?

Using famous voices that you’ll recognize (Bilbo Baggins, anyone?) and stirring music by John Campbell that makes it hard to press pause, Heirloom Audio Productions has released a highly professional two-and-a-half-hour adventure that brings courageous Christian heroes to life.

Set during the time of King Alfred the Great, this story of loyalty and perseverance follows two boys as they follow the young Alfred as he follows his Christian virtues during the Danish attacks on England. (That’s a lot of following.) That’s all I’m telling you, because I was once called a very bad name in college for accidentally giving away part of a plot. I still have the scars. If you want to know more, however, you should watch this video. You should watch it anyway, because it’s good.

We have little patience with productions that aren’t well done. This is well done! The Henty story is spell-binding. The Christian virtues are an example I’m proud to have my children emulate. The voices and music are spectacular. The story is timeless.

Is it True to the Book?

If you’re like us, this matters…probably more than it should matter. Geek alert! The adventure is primarily true to Henty’s original novel. There is a slight shift in the main characters, however, with a previously non-existent lad stepping in and a previous main character being offed…literally.

The story is still excellent, and the variation allows for some quality discussion and compare and contrast practice…which we never call “compare and contrast,” because that takes the fun out of it.

What does it come with?

There are downloadable bonus items included with the CD. This includes the original book newly re-illustrated (which our 10-year-old boy can’t wait to dive into), the score, printable posters, making of video, and, my personal favorite, a 48-page study guide. Stick with me a minute while I talk about the study guide, because it really adds to the drama.

The downloadable guide breaks the story up into bites around 3-5 minutes long. Each section of the guide contains the following:

  • Comprehension questions geared toward helping the younger students better understand what they heard. These were particularly helpful for the 10 and under crowd who didn’t quite catch everything.
  • Digging deeper questions, including some research questions. These added depth for the older kids (like me–Mama), as well as painted a picture for the younglings.
  • Vocabulary
  • Special activities, including a recipe for Alfred Cakes, which, as you know, is right up my alley
  • Information about Henty and Alfred the Great

While we started out pausing the audio to focus on the study guide, truth be told we sometimes were so immersed in the saga that we couldn’t press pause. Seriously, it was paralyzing. Wink wink. Still, the study guide has proven very valuable and makes this Henty treasure a solid historical, character, and language study. 

Who’s it for?

My entire family listened together (although Daddy was, admittedly, in and out and would show up and say, “Is this Tolkien?” every single time). Here they are checking out the name of one of the characters as written on the disc case, so we could spell it right for our “character tree” (like a family tree, but you don’t have to be related…although you do have to be in the same book.

Heirloom Audio Production of The Dragon and the Raven by G.A. Henty

The other side of the room:

Living the Adventure with Heirloom Audio Productions' Newest Hit from G. A. Henty, The Dragon and the Raven

The four-year-old there enjoyed it, but she wouldn’t have gotten the gist of the stories without the discussion; mostly she waited to find out if there was a princess in it…which there was…sort of. The seven- and ten-year-olds benefited immensely from the comprehension discussions. The thinking questions benefited everyone, including Mama, who learned more about the Danish attacks on Wessex than most Americans, I’m guessing.

Additional Thoughts for My Fellow Roadschoolers:

Because everything is available as a download, this is absolutely ideal for roadschoolers. Download when you have a good (preferably free) internet connection, and you’re all set for the entire study. If you (unlike us) have the ability to listen to CDs or MP4s while driving, you can do this in the van. (Our Bagabus lost its CD player the first week out over four years ago. Major boo. Major sore throat for this mama.)

Seriously, I see no drawbacks using this for your roadschooling family. And when they fall so immensely in love with Henty that they want more than the four currently available, download the books for free from Amazon. Just do it!

If the other dramas in the Heirloom Audio Productions’ Henty adventures are as spell-binding and character-building as The Dragon and the Raven, I can’t recommend them enough! Toss one or two in an Easter basket or slip one on the table for a graduation gift. It’s almost as good as chocolate. Dare I say better?

To find out what other homeschoolers think, go here:

The Dragon and the Raven {Heirloom Audio Productions Review}
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Mostly Measurable, Manageable March Goals

Mostly Measurable, Manageable March Goals--Do you set goals? They help you stay focused and get things accomplished. Try it!

How did you do on your February goals?

Personally, I mastered omelettes, celebrated National Pizza Day, and made peach pie, so I consider last month a success!

Time for March.

Remember the ridiculously obvious rules for our mostly measurable, manageable monthly goals:

  1. They should be mostly measurable.
  2. It’s manageable.
  3. It’s a monthly goal.

You have to write your own goals, but here are my mostly measurable manageable monthly goals for March:

Family Habits

  • Breakfast Bible: read Luke aloud.
  • Monthly family manner: eye contact. It’s definitely improving, but I’m taking one more month to practice. What’s the rush?
  • Monthly family home care habit: the entry way. Keeping the entry clean makes the whole house seem clean…for a few seconds.
  • Monthly character trait: practice finding the positives. You can never get too much practice!
  • Prayer: we’re good with bedtime prayers; time to strengthen our meal-time prayer habit.

Family Fun

  • Have one game night focused on the older group.
  • Have one game night focused on the younger group.
  • Celebrate National Lumpia Day on March 16.
  • Bake two pies. We let Emily decide because it’s her birthday month, so for March’s Year of the Pie selections we are having both a chocolate and a vanilla pie, both of which we found in my grandma’s pie cookbook.
  • Have a Filipino feast!  Lumpia, adobo, pancit. We missed this last month.
  • Cut movie night back to once a week and make it a special affair like it used to be.
  • Watch the Passion of the Christ. (affiliate link)
  • Make resurrection cookies.
  • Read the Passion in the Bible.
  • Do Sense of the Resurrection with the kids–it’s like an Advent study, but for Lent. Check it out here.

Homeschooling

  • Write two letters each…including mama!
  • Continue reading aloud The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
  • Teach omelet skills.
  • Hannah: Continue weekly goal sessions.
  • Marissa: schedule one college exam this month; order books for two tests next month.
  • Start upper level art class with Marissa, Elisabeth, and Emily (and Hannah, if interested).
  • Test the Apologia writing program with Emily (and Elisabeth if interested).
  • Continue Here to Help Teaching’s writing lessons with Elijah (10) and Rebecca (7).
  • Test Times Tales and Talking Fingers with Rebecca.
  • Study birds from Schoolhouse Teacher’s Charlotte Mason preschool with Eliana (4).
  • Continue Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready with Judah (7 months).
  • Find a new history program–maybe Beautiful Feet?

Music Mission

  • Write April 2016 newsletter.
  • Continue 2016 thank you notes.
  • Update subscriber list.

Health

  • Work dog and self up to 30 minute walks by the end of the month. (If that looks strangely familiar, it’s because we only got up to 20 minutes last month. But that’s okay!
  • Continue the two-a-week treat limit in churches.
  • Continue to expand my food options on the total elimination diet.
  • Research and purchase a digestive or pancreatic enzyme.
  • Make two family dessert night treats that Hannah can eat. (No dairy, grains, sugar, processed anything.)
  • Continue food/symptom journal.
  • Schedule a doctor’s appointment. Notice the procrastination from last month–I just can’t conquer this irrational phobia.

Writing

  • Write four non-sponsored, non-review posts here…for you lovely people! This counts as one. Hooray!
  • Write three posts at The Travel Bags.
  • Submit my article assignment for Pregnancy & Newborn magazine.
  • Mock out our June feature for The Old Schoolhouse magazine.
  • Begin research for “Old Mamas” article due in June.
  • Send one pitch. Done! 
  • Edit one chapter in my book.

Personal

What are your goals for March?