Special Edition~Book Samaritan

http://booksamaritan.blogspot.com/ is a organization that offers free homeschooling text books and resources to any parent who writes to them, through snail mail only. It is a religious non-profit organization, so you must use your own conscience if you would want to receive help from them or not.

My family has used them, and received the majority of what we requested. Keeping in mind they can only send you what they have been donated. So as not to get religious items I do not want, I request exactly what I would like instead of leaving it to them to send what they have in stock to their liking to send for my children's ages. Then I either get it, if they have it, or not if they do not have it. Either way it usually helps me because I have received quite a bit of what I requested. I so far have not received anything religious from them, nor have had any religious connotations with their communications with me.

Mainly though this post is to inform you they are moving and will have a new address to send request to.

The Book Samaritan
1457 West Main
Pawhuska, Ok 74056

Weekend Edition~Gardening and Life Skills

As you can probably tell by now, my thoughts on homeschooling, is life is learning! When homeschooling our children, yes we want them to learn to read, and write and do arithmetic, but do not by pass life skills!

Gardening is a life time skill that children can use the rest of their lives and on into the new system. Teaching to recognize and identify food. Teaching them nature science! Children learn so much by simply digging in the earth!

Today we planted chives, garlic chives, stevia, collard greens, and many more. We have been planting for months though, every thing from tomatoes, to kale and mint! My children are learning to identify weed from food, and so much more.

Today in our gardening adventures, we have discovered three ant colonies, tons of larva! And the ants coming to attack us by the drones! I had no idea we had three ant nest right outside our door! And that's just what we discovered today! haha It was very educational. I was able to teach my children safe ways to control ants, using DE.

Then they also were able to play with worms, rolly pollies, and lady bugs! The children had so much fun, and learned so much. They just love "saving" worms. One summer we had so many worms and so much rain they came out all over the streets, and when the rain dried up many of the worms died from baking in the sun. So now when they find worms on the surface, they always make a effort to re-home them by putting them where the dirt is. haha

As I was coming into the house to clean up, I could over hear them telling the neighbor children all about every thing we did today and how to identify ant eggs and all about the thousands of ants that came swarming out of the nest when we disturbed it. Which then of course, with my children's enthusiasm made the neighbor boy very interested! And he wanted to learn all about the ants and their nests too! haha They were also so eager to show him all the vegetables in the garden.

They go out every day and check the tomatoes, and strawberries, they usually eat the chives down to the ground. haha And have to add mint to their water all summer long. Who needs gum when you can go out and chew on a fresh mint leaf?


You just never know how a day at home will turn into a rich learning experience! Please don't forgo these fun memories and teaching moments, for a text book or workbook. Sure workbooks and text books can help some children to learn. And have their place in some education. But, don't let yourself become a slave to them. And allow them to take up so much of your time, you miss out on the every day fun learning experiences there is to be had outside of a desk and a chair.

Weekend Edition~Learning Happens!

Homeschooling family, making blueberry muffins.

So many parents, are worried they aren't doing "school" enough, they aren't teaching enough. They aren't doing what ever it is they think is "enough".

In my opinion the main reason they feel this way, is the public school brain washing, that learning only happens when workbooks, and testing. Sitting at a desk. Throw those thoughts away. Rethink what learning, and teaching really is! Again I highly suggest any book by John Holt but especially How Children Fail. Children do not learn much from worksheets and tests... they learn so much through life though!

This photo above, was posted by a mom who was feeling guilty she wasn't teaching school enough, as a homeschooling mother. This is ONE of many things she had done that morning with her children. When you find out how children really do learn things, you can look at this photo in a totally new light. Off the top of my head, I told her several things, I could see just in this one photo that she was teaching her children.

1) Math-They had to measure and calculate the ingredients.

2) Science-Learning what ingredients you need to use, to make the dough rise, fluffy, be sweet enough, tasty, etc.

3) Health-As you can see, she keeps her kitchen immaculate, this teaches the children the importance of clean and safe food handling.

4) Budgeting-Many people go to Starbucks, and other such places and spend the same amount of money she most likely spent to make this whole batch of muffins, for just one muffin! Again ties back to Math as well.

5) Home Economics and Life Skills, Independence-how to make things for their selves.

6) Language Arts-They most likely had to read a recipe to make these muffins.

7) Last, and as they say, certainly NOT least, they are having fun with mom, and building memories that will last a life time. How many worksheets are going to give them warm fuzzy memories to look back on? However, when they are making blueberry muffins with their own children, do you think they are going to remember these days with their mother? They sure will! Something they will NEVER be given in a worksheet at a desk.

And this was just ONE photo into this family's life. You can be sure that she taught her children much much more that day! And so are you! Every day, we teach our children many things, with out even thinking about it. And none of it has to involve worksheets or tests, or sitting at desks! So let the guilt go. Rethink your definition of teaching, and learning. And feel confident you are teaching your children more every day, every minute. You got this Momma!

Guest Blogger~Perfect moment of Unschooling ..

Perfect moment of Unschooling on our drive home from gymnastics class today. I read this quote to our daughters & asked them what they thought each sentence meant. Personally I have been struggling with letting go with the structure of PS. I wanted to Unschool, but the reality of changing 7 plus years of the way we have been learning it's been a struggle for all of us. I have to say today I realized we have made HUGE strides & are truly being successful as an Unschooling family. Our conversation started with how we learn from a variety of people that are outside of our normal 'crowd'. I learned they did not understand what 'social class' meant (of which is not a bad thing but a good talking point), which lead to discussing how we should help others (we talked about how we had recently helped a family in our congregation with a meal during a difficult time in their lives .. their baby was sick). Which lead to us talking about how others have helped us. The girls lead the conversation & brought up about how our youngest was very ill after she was born. Then the subject changed to science/health in regards the illness she was born with. We talked about how our bodies work, including discussing organ transplants. The girls asked, 'Mom what does DNA actually stand for'? I know it may have seemed we were all over the place with our conversation, but one subject naturally fed into the next. All of this happened within a 30 minute drive. I am so proud of myself & our girl's!

~Marcie Okpakpor

Weekend Edition~Public Domain Books

Public Domain books are books that are no longer protected by copy rights, trade marks, or patents, due to their age, and/or the length of time their author has died. So they must be 70 to 120 years old or older.

The reasons I choose to use Public Domain books-

1) They will not have any correlation or association with Common Core. There's many reasons I do not want my children aligned with Common Core. So first and foremost that is one thing we can be sure of with Public Domain books.

2) I love the common sense way they choose to teach children. Instead of work books, and arbitrary questions, or stories, these are questions and stories based on life skills, and real life situations for a child to be able to transfer their skills from the page into real life. They are also morally clean stories. They rarely if ever deal with morals or values that we would disagree with.

3) Lastly, they are free. This is really just a bonus. I would most likely use them even if they were not free. For the above two reasons. But, it's for sure a huge benefit to us that they are free. Or can be bought, printed/bounded for very inexpensively. This leaves us with more money to spend on manipulatives, and real life experiences, like museums, zoos, gardens, and so on. Our family likes to be able to give our children real life experiences to round out their education. And being able to provide most of our books for free, or very inexpensively, affords us to be able to pay for more of those experiences.

Where to find Public Domain books? Many places. Libraries often still carry them. They can also be found on Kindle Books, Google Books and Archive.org for completely free. However, be sure to browse the samples first if you decide to purchase any. Some include the original illustrations and others do not. I prefer ones that include them. DollarHomeschool.com also sells them on CDs. They have taken the time to clean them up and make sure they print correctly and so on. I however, have not found problems finding the majority on Archive.org for completely free. I also have bought our Ray's Arithmetic and McGuffey Readers from Mott's as they still print and publish them, as well as have a teacher/parent guide written by Ruth Beechick, who had a lot of experience with teaching age and developmentally appropriate subject matter to children. Her Parent/Teacher guides are not essential to use Ray's or McGuffey Readers, but I find them nice for new ideas. and also really like Ruth's explanations of what is appropriate at what ages to expect a child to know or learn.

Daily Planner~5/12

Daily Planner~5/11

Daily Planner~5/10

Daily Planner~5/9

Special Edition~Oatmeal Cookies

This is a very rare Special Edition. A friend of mine recently posted about a Oatmeal Cookie recipe from, AWAKE! 1970 8/8. It is no longer accessible digitally and can only be found in hard copies of the magazine that people may or may not have access to.

I am referencing where it came from, and only putting in a short blurb about it. Recipes themselves can not be copy righted, and even at that, this is a pretty lax recipe as far as ingredient listing and how to make them. Since I didn't copy the entire article, only one paragraph, and mainly it is of the recipe, and recipes again can not be copy righted, under current laws, and I did list where the quote comes from, I am pretty sure it is legal to share. ;) And I don't want to lose it myself!

I thought this could be a fun home economics, math, science, and what have you lesson. And yet, once again proves the very vast education we receive from the Faithful and Discreet Slave through our publications.

"Many are also the uses to which oatmeal can be put in baking. Oatmeal cookies are as delectable as they are nourishing. For making them without flour take four cups of oatmeal, two cups of brown sugar, one cup of oil. Mix and leave it for eight hours. Then add two well-beaten eggs, one-half teaspoon salt, one teaspoon almond extract and raisins and nuts if desired. Bake in moderately hot oven for 15 minutes. Let cool before removing from pan. Result? As tasty, nourishing and wholesome a cookie as you could wish for."~AWAKE! 1970 8/8

Weekend Edition~Homeschool perks

Today's post is just a reference guide to a few homeschool free coupons, discounts and perks.

Shopping perks-

Barne's and Noble, Joann's Fabrics, and Michael's all give homeschool teacher discounts.

B&N and Joann's will give you a discount card, Michael's will ask for a form of proof. I have found usually Michael's will accept my B&N or Joann's discount cards as my proof.

Barne's and Noble also have teacher appreciation days and weeks where your discount will be even larger.

Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo-
Offers a significant homeschool discount year around. Just call Guest Relations for Silver Dollar City ahead of time, and stop by their Guest Relations house, for details.

They also host a yearly Homeschool weekend, usually on the first weekend in October each year. Many crafts, and classes are only offered at this time, for varying age groups of children to enroll in during this weekend.
Silver Dollar City's Homeschool Weekend

Reading Programs-

Pizza Hut Book it-
Reading incentive for child(ren) Kindergarten through 6th grade (ages 5-12 years old) as of September 1, of the school year. Sign up usually starts in May. They will send you 6 coupons per a child. They are valid October-March. Each for one personal pan pizza. They usually send them sometime around the end of September beginning of October. They come in snail mail. But, the sooner you sign up the better. They do close sign up for the year at a certain time.

Braum's Book Buddy-
A reading incentive for children 1st-5th grades. Their sign up starts a little later then Pizza Hut. You also go to the store you sign up with to pick up your coupons. They also send you 6 coupons per a child. Two soft serve cones, Two single dip cones, and 2 single dip sundaes, per a child for free. Their coupons are valid October thru June. Again you sign up in late spring, and the store will contact you by email for pick up around September.

Book Adventure-
I have not signed up for this yet, but I hear it's free, and children get free prizes for reading. Please comment, or email me, if you have any personal experience with this program.

Six Flags-
Reading Program K- 6th grade Deadline: January 1. For just 6 hours of recreational reading, a student is awarded a free ticket to Six Flags. Special discounts offered to others in the family and a “teacher” ticket is given to each participating family. I believe they also have incentives for grades. But, contact your local Six Flags for more details.

Report card incentives, that accept homeschool report cards-

Chuck E. Cheese-
Bring in your latest report card and get 15 game tokens. Their site says all grading systems are accepted. They confirmed homeschool report card can be accepted and they said that since they accept all grading systems that they will accept a progress report or report card showing your child’s grades.

Krispy Kreme Donuts-
Students can bring in their report card and get a free doughnut for each “A” They confirm that homeschoolers can participate and said as long as they have their report card showing their grades with them, they are welcome to participate. I would however, advise to call ahead and confirm for your own local shop. As I have found each shop can be ran very differently, from location to location.

Texas Roadhouse-
Receive a free child’s meal (K-6th) for reading your selections and meeting your goals. Call your local restaurant. Mine was very helpful and happy to assist me.

Family Video-
They will give one free over night rental for every A. That would include homeschool report cards.

Daily Planner~5/6