Encouraging Moms Who Homeschool

This post will be short and sweet - well, hopefully sweet and not sour :) I'm simply going to share something from God's Word that blessed me today in regard to this blog and it's end goal of encouraging moms who homeschool. So, here it is! 1 Chronicles 16:24 says - "Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does." - New Living Translation Those few words pretty much sum up all I desire to do via this little blog...publish His glorious deed & tell everyone who'll listen about the amazing things He does. What could possibly be more encouraging to a homeschooling mom than that?! Lord bless & be encouraged today! Day 39 done :) Jan L. Burt

Today I am reviewing a product called "MY Access! Edition" - a product geared at improving the student's critical thinking skills in all subjects through increased writing skills. The product I received to review (free of charge - as always with items I review as a part of The Old Schoolhouse Crew) do not contain any "physical" items; the home edition I have been using is available online at VantageLearning.com . There are multiple options available for purchase at the website, including the At School, International, Corporate, and At Home online versions; in the Vantage Online Store they offer resources to improve usage of the English language, graduate courses, assessment and training tools, police and fire practice exams, Excelsior college exams, and much more. My children's use of the "At Home" edition has been as a supplement to our language arts curriculum; this program is not meant to stand alone, but works best when coupled with a more comp

I took my 5 wonderful kiddos on a super-fun trip to Orlando. With some awesome military appreciation deals & a long but fun drive to and from Florida from Kansas, we were able to pull off a really great vacation on short notice for minimal cost. The real bummer was that my hubby wasn't able to come with us; he began a new position at work the day we left to drive South & he just couldn't get away at this time. We missed him terribly! This trip was, for me, something of a "start the good-byes" vacation. This year is the 13th year of homeschooling for me. My oldest is 17 & is taking all of his courses at Friends University during his senior year, in addition to studying like mad for his SAT II subject tests coming up this fall. Next summer he will leave for college (somewhere in the Northeast, most likely). My next oldest child turns 16 in a few weeks - she will get a car soon & starts her new job next week; she's a sophomore in high school this year

Four weeks and 3 days ago, on July 3, 2010, we began the painful process of saying "good-bye for now" to our dear Austin Wayne Burt. Today I just want to take a few moments to share some memories of Austin. The year 2010 came in with a "baby boom" for the Burt families - first our daughter Avery was born in January; my husband's sister gave birth to her daughter Cheyenne in February; and in March Wes and Lisa Burt welcomed their fourth child, Austin. They were born close together and remained close - our Avery always looked forward to spending time with her cousin & she has many happy memories. In August of 2000, our house was full of family, all here to celebrate my husband's graduation from Officer Candidate School. I remember a bunch of cousins playing and laughing - and I remember Austin as a solid, bouncy toeheaded baby. Always smiling, never fussy, doted on by his older brother and 2 older sisters. When Avery and Austin were about 2 my husband'