Fantastic Homeschooling Websites

Hello Friends!
 I just found some great links for you Homeschoolers and those thinking about Homeschooling!

Important note, though:  No matter what age your children are, or even *if* you have children, there is something on one of these sites for you!

The first website I have to recommend to you today is Design Your Homeschool. It is History-based and emphasizes the use of lots of "living books" ("living books" is defined by Carole Seid, of "Teaching History through Language Arts" fame, as a book that your kids beg you to read "just one more"--page, chapter, etc.)  This is similar to the way that we Homeschooled, but I will save that for a later post.

Design Your Homeschool

I totally believe in the premise that each family is unique, and therefore their Homeschool will be different from everyone else's to a degree.  So, this site helps you develop your individual approach.  Having said that, I also believe, as this site encourages, that "living books" and some of the approaches and methods of Charlotte Mason are valuable, such as reading living books, followed by "narration" by the child (where the child is retelling the story back to you).

What I liked about this site:
Its Biblical emphasis
Encouragement to use "living books" and the library
Many Creation resources (such as Answers in Genesis/Ken Ham books)
Much recommended curriculum which I recognized as being excellent
An encouragement to Homeschoolers to set goals and know why you were doing what you were doing, and tailor-make your teaching to your children and your family.

When you go to this site, get a cup of coffee or tea, because there's a ton of stuff and links to look at!  Some of what you will find at this site:
A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Begin and how to design your Homeschool. Here is one of the most important quotes from this site, and one I absolutely agree with!

"Step Two is choosing your Course of Study or Curriculum. Perhaps, the first thing you have thought about after making the decision to homeschool is, "What Curriculum do I buy?" If you want to know how to start homeschooling, you need to take it more slowly than that. You will make curriculum decisions based on what your goals are."

I felt like she really holds your hand (a good thing when you're starting out and perhaps have some fear and trepidation) and helps you, without telling you how you *have* to do it.  I really liked that.  There is also a Q & A Forum, and opportunity to ask her questions.
Curriculum recommendations in all the subjects (I've not checked these out)
Free printables including: Copywork divided by age group (both tracing and writing/with lines/ Bible verses), Dolch sight words list, Homeschool Planner Pages, and more.
Organization tips
Links to Homeschool Resources

I loved what I saw of this site!

Keepers of the Faith

Ok, what can I say...hmmm...this is one of the best links I can give you to books that will change your life as a Christian and that of your children. You think I'm exaggerating? Try them out, read some articles, read some books--Then write me and let me know how it's changed your life:)!
(Please tell them I sent you:)

What I like about this site:
Its firm emphasis on Biblical character!
The book reviews and articles on how to evaluate reading material (which will convict you--be warned!)
The Keepers of the Faith and Contenders for the Faith program
The Emphasis on Skill-building, with help and resources on how to teach skills to your children
The Books!!! (Books which have become dear friends to me, which were introduced to me by this site, e.g. Isabella Alden books)

I am very excited about these websites and believe they will be of great help to you!  I hope you'll be as excited about them as I am!  Let me know what you think!

Love and Marriage: "Happily Ever After"

Stories of  “they lived happily ever after” bring dreamy sighs from girls of all ages (from some guys, too). Movie producers know it. Book writers know it. Fairy-tale endings are big business. The fair maiden becomes a damsel in distress, and the knight in shining armor comes to her rescue and whisks her off into the sunset, where they live “happily ever after”! Why are we suckers for a story like this? What does this have to do with God anyway? Can we talk of fairy-tale endings and God’s thoughts on Love and marriage in the same breath? Can, or do, our fairy-tale stories and reality come together--ever? What does God think of Love and Marriage and our fairy-tale endings?


Many questions. Let’s go to the Bible for some answers. God is the Original “fairy-tale ending” Writer, Who began His story by placing His characters, Adam and Eve, in a blissful paradise, the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2) It was perfection on earth. There was no sin, only perfect love between the couple and between them and God. This was His idea of a fairy-tale story: perfect love between God and man living together in the perfect place, forever. Only one thing. God said, “You can have everything in this perfect world except "this one tree"--this one little thing: Don’t eat it. Everything else is yours. He gave man “free will”. You know the story. Eve looked at what was forbidden (instead of being content with all God gave), she saw that it was good for food (she thought and dwelled and focused and dreamed about the forbidden thing instead of dwelling in her thoughts on all God had given) and she took of the forbidden thing (didn’t ask God—well, He’d already told her “No,” and didn’t consult her husband, well, he was standing right there, but she obviously was putting herself  before him in leadership, and he obviously was letting her.) She ate it and then she gave the forbidden thing to her family (just a husband at that time) and he took it and ate it—and sin entered the world. (Genesis 3:1-6) This was not God’s idea—sin—violating His will and command. He knew, though, that this would happen when He gave His created beings free will. So, He had made a plan before the beginning of time to give His Son to die and pay the penalty for sin. Because whenever someone sins, well, it says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Someone had to die. God said, “I’ll do it because I love you.” This is the definition of Love. This is the original Prince on the white horse saving His beloved. God had warned Adam and Eve. But they sinned anyway, and we’ve been looking for the perfect ending ever since.

We were created for perfect union and love with God and man. This is what our souls long after. In the Garden, they had it all. But, we can never have perfection on earth again, because of sin. Even as through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, through one man, Jesus, salvation came to us. What we’re seeking after is “they lived happily ever after.” Loving, being loved, and perfect communion with God and each other. We think it’s going to happen on earth through a person. This perfection of Love and union will never happen on earth. Because now that sin and death entered the world, heaven is the only place we can experience perfection. The best we can do here on earth is present a picture of God’s perfect plan.

God obviously loves bringing a man and woman together (maybe that’s why we’re such “romantics”.) He demonstrated this in the beginning by bringing Eve to Adam. Can’t you just see the Big Grin on God’s Face watching Adam wake up to see the Woman of His Dreams before him? God sets the lonely in families. He thought up sex. God loves children and calls them gifts from Him to us. “Godly seed,” as He calls children, is His plan and purpose.


God’s goal for us is marriage and children. How do we know that? We have only to look at the meaning and symbolism that He attaches to them. He says marriage is symbolic of the union between Christ and the Church. (Ephesians 5) He says Christ comes into us when we are married to Christ (becoming Christians and indwelt by the Holy Spirit) and that once saved we are to produce “spiritual children”. (We are commanded to make disciples which we can do only through His being in us.) We are told to reproduce ourselves. New lives are born out of our union with Christ when we make disciples, which is His command and our purpose. New life is born. Our disciples are called our “spiritual children”. Bearing spiritual children is His goal for us, but we are not to try to do it (it’s impossible) without Christ indwelling us. In Malachi 2:15 God speaks of “Godly seed” as the intended outcome of Christian marriage, just as bearing spiritual children (making disciples) is His intended outcome of His spiritual union with us through His Spirit. Just as in earthly marriage, our relationship with Him, our Husband, cannot be neglected or forgotten. Love is always at the center of it all.


On earth, it’s just a picture. But in heaven, when we, the Church, are united with our Bridegroom, His Bride will finally be truly one with Her Beloved, Who will whisk her away on His white horse, and the Real Happily Ever After will begin.

Scriptures referred to
(and there are many, many more that I could have on this list):
Romans 5:12-21
Psalms 68:6
Psalm 127:3
Malachi 2:15
John 3:29
Matthew 28:19-20
John 3:7
2 Corinthians 5:17
Galatians 4:19
1 Timothy 1:15
1 Corinthians 13
Revelation 21:9

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Love and Marriage: In the Beginning

God’s ways are mysterious. We plan, but He directs our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) This is true in life, in love and…in writing. I originally wrote something totally different for today, but, well, God had another idea. Last night, praying again for His direction on the final touches to today’s post, and planning to go back and take a look at the history of courtship and dating, God said, “That’s not far enough back. You need to go back to the beginning.”


Genesis 1:1; 26-28 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth… 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Beginning a study of Love and Marriage, we need to begin at the beginning, with a foundation of belief in God's Creation of Everything in the beginning, because Who you think God is and who you think you are and how you believe you came to be, are crucially important determinants of your view of love and marriage.

God says to us, “What do you believe about Me? Where do you think Love originated? Why is it in you to want to love and to be loved? What is it all for? I am the Alpha and the Omega: the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13) I am Love. There can be no Love without Me, nor would you have a desire for love if I had not placed it there. To understand anything of Love, you must come to Me. (He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8) It is out of My Love for you and to draw you to Myself that I created love, marriage and you. What you think of Me and whether you believe Me and how much you trust Me will guide and influence all your thoughts on love. I am the originator of Love. You cannot know true love without Me. All other love is a cheap imitation. I want you to know love. I want you to know Me. I created you to exemplify My love to the world and to glorify Me. The world’s thoughts and ways are not My thoughts and ways.”

1 John 2:15-17—“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

The Love of the Father--The love of the world. One is True and one is a cheap imitation. One does not last, and one lasts forever. All that’s not the Love of God, the Father, is a cheap imitation. Why settle for a cheap imitation when you can have the real thing?

If the Genesis account of God's creation of the world is correct, then you can trust the Bible and all it says about Love and Marriage. In the end, it all comes down to what you believe in the beginning.