Camp Timber-Lee, located just to the North in East Troy, Wisconsin, offers a homeschool science program for the serious high school science student.

This class spans the full school year and includes time spent at camp, books to read, lab work, and written assignments. Building on Jay Wile’s well known science texts from Apologia, these experienced teachers challenge the students to grow in their faith and academics.

The early bird discount period has already ended, but it is not too late to get in on the class for the upcoming school year. Find all the details on the Timber-Lee site.

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Keeping things light for the summer months? Here is a great video that will tackle Bible time and science all in one, and leave you in awe in the process.

Thanks to Michelle and her daughter for sending this my way.

It will take a few minutes of your time, but will give you a glimpse of how microbiology can show God’s work in the details. Teaching my children to trust and obey Christ is an integral part of my homeschool, and to “stumble” on something like this, helps tie it all together.

Master S. Morris Lawson of Barrington Martial Arts would like to offer classes geared specifically to homeschoolers during this upcoming school year. Their academy is located just off the corner of Lake Cook & Barrington Road, in downtown Barrington.

This new home schooled youth Taekwondo & Karate program would be open to all home schoolers ages 7 and up. They will offer one instructor for every ten students, with make up classes for all missed classes. For these special classes they will offer a 25% discount for students in their home schooled Tae kwon do & Karate classes.
Family discounts are also available, with half  off a one time registration fee and a FREE uniform and student handbook.

They are currently working to establish what days and times during the afternoon would work best for this new program.  They plan to have this all finalized by the 2nd or 3rd week of July and should add it to their website at that time. Please contact them soon if you are interested, and pass this information along to other local homeschool families as well.

Organization Name: Barrington Martial Arts

Address:
123 Barrington Commons Plaza
Barrington, IL 60010

Organization Email Address: Morris@barringtonmartialarts.net

Organization Website: www.barringtonmartialarts.com

Organization’s Phone: 847-382-9599

This may be a quiet time of year in terms of homeschool specifc events, but there is still lots of fun, even educational fun, to be had.

Came across this information packed site, called Chicago Kids. There you can find details about the happenings in Millennium Park among other things.

If you are looking for activities to spice up your summer, feel free to check through their ideas of free activities as well as many that charge admission. They have a calendar that can give you dozens of ideas for any day of the week.

Also, don’t forget the Museum Adventure Pass that is around for another couple months and has some great deals.

Last year I had the joy of reviewing products for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Crew (aka TOS Crew). Now and then I posted those reviews here, but most of them found their home on my regular blog, Delighting in His Richness.

This year, as I head into my second year on the voyage, I decided to relocate the reviews to this website as they pertain to homeschooling and homeschoolers and I thought my readers here would benefit more from hearing about all of these great products.

So, starting sometime this summer you will begin to see reviews on this site every week or so. These reviews will share with you my honest opinion about the products, and how they worked (or didn’t) in a real live homeschooling family’s home. I’ll tell you what we loved and what we struggled with, and of course I’ll tell you where you can get your hands on them as well.

While you are waiting, let me share my absolute favorites from this past year (click the product name to see my review):

All About Spelling — I love, love, love this program! We received Levels 1 and 2 and also the corresponding readers. This program was amazing for my middle daughter that I started it with and we can’t wait to use it with the rest of the younger kids as well. This program is absolutely amazing and helps bring reading, writing, and spelling all together and helps kids really make connections that make sense.

Super Star Speech — Many products are available to homeschoolers for math, reading, spelling, science, and history. Even music, foreign language, and geography make a good showing. But, what about Speech Therapy? I was definitely intimidated to tackle this one at home. Super Star Speech has made it easy and the success we have found through the tools, knowledge, and methods spelled out in this book have been impressive. Excellent resource!

Mystery of History 3 from Bright Ideas Press — History can either be dry or too detailed, but this series has found the great balance of offering enough information to keep you interested, and enough hands on activities to make it stick. I definitely plan on purchasing other volumes from this series when we finish up with this one. Great material, beautiful text, and lots of great resources to go along with it on an accompanying CD.

There were lots of other great products, and you can see all my reviews here, and be sure to check back in here for other great reviews in the year ahead.

Disclaimer: These products were provided to me free of charge as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

Hat tip to Tracy . . .

Next week you will be able to get into all 392 national parks for free!

Read about it on the National Park Service website, and see if any of these parks could fit into some homeschool or travel plans for your family.

Now, there is only one in Illinois that usually charges, (and will be free next week) and it is down near St. Louis. But, there are a couple in Indiana, Michigan, and Iowa. Take a look at the full list here.

Granted, 246 of the national parks don’t usually charge an admission, so you can enjoy those for free any day of the year.

You can check out the few others that are in Illinois, or elsewhere as well.

You may recall from your PE days gone by the Presidential Fitness program. You can use this program with your own students today as well.

The challenge is designed to motivate kids to get in the habit of regular exercise. The President’s Fitness Challenge website has lots of information available.  They even have patches and certificates for you to order that you can use as rewards for your child as they set and achieve their goals.

If you are not familiar with this program, here is a little information from their site:

The Physical Fitness Test recognizes students for their level of physical fitness in 5 events: curl-ups or partial curl-ups, shuttle run, endurance run/walk, pull-ups or right angle push-ups, and V-sit or sit and reach.

The Physical Fitness Test offers three awards for students who meet the program qualifications:

The Presidential Physical Fitness Award
This award recognizes students who achieve an outstanding level of physical fitness. Boys and girls who score at or above the 85th percentile (based on the 1985 School Population Fitness Survey) on all five events are eligible for this award.

The National Physical Fitness Award
Students who score above the 50th percentile on all five events – demonstrating a basic, yet challenging, level of physical fitness – are eligible for this award.

The Participant Physical Fitness Award
Students whose scores fall below the 50th percentile on one or more events receive this award for taking part in all five events of the Physical Fitness Test.

For competitive kids they might enjoy seeing how they rank in the national standings. For your non-competitive kids, or those just setting health goals, you might like them to just work to improve their own scores over the course of the program. Most of these activities you could conduct in your living room, basement or back yard.

Physical Education is often an area that homeschoolers struggle to consistently incorporate into their school day. This might be an easy way to add some structure to your activity and with some effort your kids can make some progress in their own health and fitness. Might not be bad for the teacher to join right in either . . .

“Don’t wish away the season you are in.” ~Marilyn Boyer

Recently I attended ICHE’s mid-winter renewal at which Marilyn Boyer shared from her wisdom and experience from 30 years of homeschooling her 14 children.

She spoke of savoring the season you find yourself in. Whether it is a busy time with little ones, toddlers, and morning sickness, or the sometimes emotional teenage years, or maybe even a combination of the two, these years pass quickly and we need to find joy around us. She even shared about some of those heartbreaking times, like the loss of her teenage son to Leukemia. Even then, she found it important to not just “get by.”

For myself, I often find it easier to find joy in the seasons I already passed through, or I finding myself yearning for a certain phase to pass, I needed this reminder to look around me and enjoy what I have about me right now.

Her tips:

Recognize that God takes us through seasons of life,

Know that some seasons are just more enjoyable than others,

Trust Him through those difficult seasons.

As I considered this quote, I thought of ways to continue to build a joy and contentment in the present season:

• Step back and look — I enjoy looking with my children through pictures (recent), look for growth in my kids, write down the funny things they say and do, remember who they are and the unique qualities they each bring to your home.
• Laugh and smile — Yes, sometimes I need to choose to do these things. But, as I make that choice I find my emotions changing for the better as well.
• Remember that time passes quickly — When I do look back to those baby days, I cannot believe how recent they seem, and yet over a decade has passed since our second child was born. The years ahead will just gain momentum. Whether full of joys or struggles, these days will soon be over.
• Focus on the positive — Always two sides to the coin. No child, that I know of, is a challenge 24 hours a day. Find the good and choose to dwell on it.
• Pray – Sometimes I just need a supernatural change of heart. I cannot be the mother I want to be on my own.

Whatever works to restore your joy in the present season you are in, jump on it, and don’t wish these days away.

Are you already a fan on Facebook? If you are, then thank you! Glad to have you along.

If not, and you have a Facebook account you will find us there. To become a fan you can click the widget on the sidebar of this page.

Also, the Facebook page offers a place for discussions. A couple questions are already posted there, so hop on over and see if you can offer some help or opinions. And, maybe you have a question of your own.

Homeschooling can be a difficult journey to travel without other homeschoolers to come alongside us as we learn and grow and teach our children. So, please take a few minutes to check out the discussions, contribute an answer or start your own.

Thank you all for stopping in here and on Facebook, and I truly hope this site is a help and encouragement to each one of you.

Also, if you have any suggestions as to how this site could be more useful to you or changed for greater ease of use, I would love to hear your ideas.

~Erin