When we heard about author Carole P. Roman, we decided to explore Carole P. Roman Books and Collections. What a great decision!

Do you want to learn about the history and culture of other nations?

Author Carole P. Roman has created a collection of books that you will enjoy reading to your children. Both  you and your children will enjoy learning about other places and historical times. 

Our books arrived at the end of February. It was perfect timing! In March, we dove into Europe in our homeschool geography co-op. Of course, I brought the three books to geography co-op. 

The books were cheerful, easy-to-understand, and fit perfectly in our studies. They were jam-packed with information, too!

We read If You Were Me and Lived in Germany, If You Were Me and Lived in Italy, and If You Were Me and Lived in Viking Europe. Let me tell you about all three books.

​It's hard to believe that three years have gone by since we welcomed little Rusty into the family--the first grandson on both sides. 

Mike and I have been friends with Donald and Laura for almost 20 years and were so excited when their eldest son fell in love with our oldest daughter. They got married and started having beautiful babies, our beloved grandchildren.

​This past weekend, we got to celebrate Rusty's third birthday. 

His parents threw a birthday party for him in their backyard. They invited friends and family to help celebrate! 

The kids played games and we enjoyed snacks and birthday cake. 

Poppi and Lolly (Donald and Laura) got their grandson his first tricycle. A little red trike! He loved it! 

In fact, Rusty loved all his gifts and had a blast opening each one. 

It was so nice to see how excited and thankful he was, unaware of the price. He saw value in everything from little cars to a brand new trike. 

It was so nice to see him playing nicely with his friends and little brother. What a blessing to have a good-natured grandson. 

​Let me tell you about the party theme. 

Home School in the Woods is known for their beautiful timelines, maps, lap-paks, and hands-on activities to make learning history fun! I was so excited to review their American History Newspaper Collection, one of their A La Carte Projects products, especially since we're studying U.S. history next school year. 

The American History Newspaper Collection includes 7 different newspapers to take students from the Age of Exploration to the 20th Century. 

The newspapers are Explorer Weekly, Town Crier, The Daily Bugle, Westward Weekly, The Camp Kettle, The Industrial Times, and Frontline News. 

Each newspaper has headlines with space underneath for an article, as well as ads and empty boxes for photographs. They are gorgeous! My whole family loved them!

We worked on the Town Crier, a newspaper for Colonial Times. 

The newspaper came with headlines and we wrote a story beneath. There were also ads.  You can see on our pages below we wrote out an ad for Caravel Cruises and Ye Ol' Apothecary. We enjoyed working on each paper. As a homeschool mom, I appreciated the depth of the headlines. There is something about King Philip's War on page 2 of our newspaper, which very few history books even mention. 

Once the newspaper pages are finished, there are easy directions to put it together. We are going to finish the other American newspapers next year along with our American history unit study. 

Easter is my favorite time of year! I get so excited when we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus who loved and died for us. I just have to worship! 

Here are twelve of my favorite worship songs. These songs express the excitement and wonder of the Resurrection. I hope you will enjoy singing along as much as I do. 

Here are 12 Easter Songs for Worship:

"Christ the Lord is Risen Today" (Charles Wesley)
"Forever" (Kari Jobe)
"Victor's Crown" (Darlene Zschech)
"Resurrecting" (Elevation Worship)
"Christ is Risen" (Matt Maher)
"Resurrection Day" (Rend Collective)
"My Redeemer Lives" (Hillsong)
"Man of Sorrows" (Hillsong)
"I Will Rise" (Chris Tomlin)
"What a Beautiful Name" (Hillsong)
"Because He Lives" (Gaither Band)
"Up From the Grave He Arose" (Michael W. Smith)

So, set aside some time to worship the Lord this Easter. This songs will be a great start. 

Enjoy! And Happy Easter! 

Love, 
​Meredith Curtis

I never understood as a little girl why Good Friday was called 'good' because of the torture and suffering Jesus underwent. Once I understood that He endured the suffering for me to pay the price for my sins, I called Good Friday 'good' too. 

There are more songs than I could possibly share that are special, but here are my very favorite worship songs to sing to Jesus on Good Friday. 

I hope you will enjoy these songs and enjoy worshiping the Lord who died for you. 

Here are my favorite Good Friday worship songs: 

​"The Cross Has the Final Word" (Cody Carnes)
"This is Our God" (Hillsong)
"At The Cross" (Chris Tomlin)
"You Saw Me" (Hillsong)
"Here I am to Worship" (Chris Tomlin)
"Savior King" (Hillsong)
"Lead Me to the Cross" (Hillsong)
"Nailed to the Cross" (Rend Collective)
"How Deep the Father's Love for Us" (Stuart Townend)
The Old Rugged Cross (Old Hymn)
"Nothing but the Blood" (Old Hymn)
"Were You There?" (Old Song)

I hope you enjoy these songs and spend some meaningful time worshiping the One Who gave His life for you on Good Friday. 

Be blessed! 

Love, 
​Meredith Curtis
​

"Hey, does anyone want to listen to Taming the Lecture Bug? It's a DVD. I'm showing it during lunch." I was at homeschool co-op and wanted to hear from other homeschool moms thought of Parenting Made Practical's Tame the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think workshop. I also read the book Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think. 

Five moms watched it with me. Our children range in age from 10 to 31. We all homeschool, love our children, and want to raise them to love and serve the Lord. 

Joey and Carla link have been in ministry for 40 years. They have served on pastoral staffs at churches and with Growing Kids, Int. I loved the style of the workshop. It was conversational and kept my attention (I can get distracted easily!). 

They got to the root of the issue. We don't necessarily struggle with drug use and sexual immorality in our children and teens, but we face attitudes and passive rebellion.

How do we respond to it? 

All of the Moms that watched the lecture (I would call it a workshop, rather than a lecture because I felt included, not lectured to.) admitted to lecturing instead of dealing with root issues. Maybe not all the time, but at least sometimes or often. We were all challenged to ask questions to deal with the root issue instead of exploding to vent our frustration. Thank you, Joey and Carla. 

All my children already know cursive and my grandchildren are too little, so I recruited my friend Mercy. She has not learned cursive yet, so we took the plunge together with CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack from CursiveLogic. As a bonus, we got a beautiful coloring book, The Art of Cursive.

CursiveLogic breaks learning to write in cursive down to easy-to-understand and apply steps. The Quick-Start Pack comes with the workbook and full access to the webinar for a year. 

First you learn the Orange Oval shape and the letters that use that shape.

We worked on the orange oval shape, 

This is followed by other shapes and letters that use that shape. Children go step-by-step in a sequence that makes sense to both teacher and student.  

Wow! I love it! It''s a logical and easy way to learn the letters step-by-step, taking children from success to success to success. 

It's almost that time!

​The most important celebration on the calendar. The day we remember the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We want to bless you with a gift this season to make Holy Week and Easter morning meaningful. 

You don't have to sign up for our newsletter, though you are always welcome to sign up here. (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Celebrate Easter Deovtions is 16 days of Bible reading, singing, and a family craft or activity. 

Starting the day before Palm Sunday when Jesus is anointed by Mary in Bethany, in preparation for his burial, and following the story day-by-day until his arrest, death, burial, and resurrection. 

The second week of devotions follows Jesus 40 days in His resurrected body until He ascends to the Father in Heaven. 

If you are looking for a way  to celebrate Easter that will draw the entire family closer to Jesus, this is it! Download your free copy of Easter Devotions here. 

Okay, I have to admit it, when I first opened the Magik Stix ​Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc., my first thought was, "Wow! I love all the beautiful colors!"

It's true! I love colors! The Magik Stix came in a set of 24 in a handy-dandy clear carrying case. I was so excited for my grandsons to come over so they could try them out. 

Rusty and Cooper loved the bright, shiny colors, too! They wanted to hold them and asked for paper. 

I set them both up with markers and paper. Rusty began to color on paper, trying out different methods of drawing and coloring. His younger brother was enjoying experimenting in his high chair. 

Within minutes we had lost several marker caps. After several minutes searching under the table, we found all but one. "Perfect," I thought to myself, "I can find out if the markers will go for seven days without drying out." Six days later, still no cap and the marker still made a beautiful green mark across the paper.