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Home of Mary Pride's Practical Homeschooling magazine and homeschooling community. Large number of articles, news, online experts, up-to-date events list, ...

Curriculum reviews and education articles from Dean and Karen Andreola.

Resources for applying classical Christian education to homeschooling. Home to the Trivium Email Loop, an Internet Guide for homeschoolers, articles by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn, listing of national contests open to homeschoolers, seminar schedule, a gr

Resources and information including articles and message boards.

Guest Post By Liz Donnelly of www.FamilyFitnessGuru.com 1. Put on that fitness-minded personality Wether you desire a flat belly or just the time to workout, you have to start it all with your attitude. If you are determined to improve your fitness “no matter what,” the you will most likely be successful. Usually this takes the manifestation of anger with your appearance or lack of energy or poor health. Once you’ve made up your mind to be fit, then it’s time to don that “fit-minded personality.” This is where you tell yourself multiple times daily that you have a tight mid-section, that you deserve a flat belly, if that’s your goal, for instance. Promise yourself that you’ll do something every day to work to that end. Your subconscious will listen to you. It doesn’t decipher between good and bad affirmations, it will simply apply what you always tell it. Are you saying or letting others say that you’re “fat” or “overweight” or “thick-waisted”? Time to change those words into “slender” or “sleek” or “tight”. This is also part of changing yourself from the top down, so to speak. What you think about yourself has great impact on your esteem, performance and outcomes. For example, becoming more aware of your body will get you to focus on changes to make like sitting or standing tall to prevent your belly from popping outward. You can apply fixing yourself from the top down in all aspects of your life not just fitness. (For example, telling yourself to have patience will help you be more inclined to notice those times when you are losing your temper.) The big lesson here, especially if you’re the kind of mom or dad who puts him or herself last on the priority list, is that you do need your self-improvement time and that you do need the increased energy, self confidence, strength, etc. to help you meet your many demands, especially keeping up with your kids, right? So the next step is just as important: 2. Get educated on fitness So many people lose their desire to workout and eat well because they either tune out the important messages that tell them why they must do so, or they possibly are not aware of the reasons. So the more you educate yourself on exercise and nutrition, the better off you’ll be to be inspired to keep yourself and your family health and active. This website is a good place to start. In particular, you can get FREE downloadable booklets on exercises for children and for yourself by subscribing to FamilyFitnessGuru updates. Look at the upper right side of the page above the side margin. There are also a host of books on the topic of fitness and articles in the paper on almost a daily level. Scour what you can and be informed. After all, you know yourself and your family best and you will remain motivated to stay fit the more you keep in touch with good information. 3. Now, it’s time to make time for fitness Getting a better working body does take time. If your particularly out of shape, then you must realize that it probably took some time for you to degenerate to this level. Even if you relatively fit, you still need to build in time for your workouts. Talk it over with your spouse, partner or own brain (if you’re a single parent like me) and literally write down and schedule your workouts. For me, I have to do some of my workouts during the week before I teach my 5:45 a.m. Fitcamp class. At other times, I have to schedule evenings after the kids go to bed. If you are with a partner, then you can alternate times to best suit your schedules, especially if the kids are awake and need supervision. If you’re a single parent and you are the residential parent, meaning the kids are with you the majority of the time, then you will have to do a little creative planning and think outside the box as to how you’ll get child care and get the freedom to work out. Many gyms have daycare-style facilities at which you can leave your kids for the duration of your exercising. Of course, if you don’t belong to a gym, then your next course of action is enlisting babysitting help with neighbors, friends or relatives. The next step is to join a local civic group that has a lot of parents as members (like a Junior Women’s Club (for moms) or Early Childhood PTA or regular PTA (for moms and dads). Some times making inquiries within groups like these will give you leads of fellow parents who are in a babysitting network. There is typically no charge for something like this. Your only payment is being available to watch someone else’s kids. There are options for just about any situation in terms of finding time (really its making the time) for your workouts. If you really want it, then you will make it work for you. (I hope you really want it!) 4. Do it! Nike has it right, if they still use that old tagline, that is. You really just have to start exercising. Your body was made to move. So, if your parts seem the Tin Man’s after a rain storm, then it’s all the more reason to continue to do your workouts consistently and stay “oiled up.” “What’s ample?” you might ask. Building an hour and a half weekly is a good place for beginners (30 minutes 3x/week). From there, you can add an additional 30 minutes. Ideally, you want to put in 5-6 days of movement. And it doesn’t have to be in the form of a formal workout. Schlepping things around in the garden or shoveling snow are excellent ways (depending on how intense) to move and burn calories. “What exercises do I do?” Well, start by signing up for FamilyFitnessGuru updates (look at the upper right area of the side margin) so you can download the “Top 5 Exercises for Moms & Dads.” You’ll get tons of details on how to perform those basic exercises to help you get on the road to fitness. My hope is that you’ll be consistent with your plan and notice results to help you stay motivated. Good luck and keep forging ahead! Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

The CLEP American Government test is a 3 credit exam Social Sciences and History exam. This was our first CLEP exam and it makes a great starting point for students who love history, are interested in government and politics or are competing in debate.Here is a list of materials we used, our method of study and what you must know to pass.....Materials available for this exam can be pretty overwhelming. I used any text available at the library covering CLEP American Government or AP US Government and Politics, includingKaplan AP U.S. Government & Politics 2009 (Kaplan Ap Us Government and Politics) Barron's AP U.S. Government and Politics CLEP Official Study Guide 2010 American Government (Cliffs Quick Review) Peterson's online practice examsBy far my favorite was the Cliffs guide. You can access it free here.Be sure to study the glossary (we memorized it) and take good notes. The other sources were used for test practice and "out loud" question. Other materials may be just as good. We would have used InstanCert but we had not discovered it yet.REA just released their CLEP American Government w/CD-ROM (REA) (Best Test Preparation for the CLEP). Consider using it as your main textbook and supplementing with the Cliffs Guide.Prior to this exam we had little experience in dealing with multiple choice questions at the college level. Together we learned to reason through choices and narrow down to the best answer. Daily I read aloud from the Cliffs guide while they took notes. We spent a lot of time chasing rabbits and creating analogies to help reinforce difficult concepts. This was followed by lots of drill with flashcards made from the Cliffs glossary. The last phase of study was practice tests and as soon as they were scoring in the 60's (according to the CLEP scoring method) we made the appointment for the exam. Other methods may be just as good but this served us pretty well.In order to pass this exam you must know the following concepts well:The Constitution, ammendments and articles Articles of Confederation Major supreme court cases Civil rights acts and their impacts Civil Liberties Types of Federalism The job of the Senate, President, VP, ect Congressional Procedures and committees (differences between committees) A more extensive list of topics covered and percentages is covered at College Board.I highly recommend this CLEP for any student in NCFCA Team Policy debate, both for the knowledge gained but also because policy debate prepares the student for parts of this exam. Your student will learn so much about the government and be able to apply this to negative and affirmative argumentation. For those not in debate this still makes a good starting point as it can be a good foundation for the US History 1 & 2 exams.

The CLEP US History 1 exam is a 3 credit Social Sciences and History exam that covers the early colonial period of North America though Reconstruction. This was our second CLEP test and overlaps material from CLEP American Government, especially the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Supreme Court cases. Students interested in history should be able to enjoy this exam and do well. Here are the materials we used, our study method and what you must know to pass.Available materials for this exam abound and many are good but our favorites were:InstantCert (invaluable for this exam, especially the feedback section of the forum) The CLEP History of the United States I w/CD (REA) - The Best Test Prep for the CLEP Official Study Guide 2010 (makes a great final exam) Peterson's online practice exams (harder than the actual exam but excellent for study)The History Channel Presents The Presidents For this exam we used a combination of texts, videos, flashcards and a few movies from the period. Making flashcards or a power point presentation of the presidents, the highlights of each administration, and the major supreme court cases were helpful to solidify the timeline and flow of the study. Reading through the text of the REA book, while taking notes was important for the first phase of study. Next we began practice testing, starting with REA's CD-ROM tests and moving to Peterson's online tests and finally ending with the CLEP Official exam. The practice testing phase showed us what we needed to study more and Wikipedia is a good source for this because it was so easy to search for the term or person we were unfamiliar with.The major "must knows" for this exam are:Women's issues of the period Reform Movements (both religious and political) Literature of the period Differences betwen the different British colonies Presidents, their administations (along with their scandals) The Constitution, Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation Slavery and Indentured Servitude A more detailed exam description can be found here.A suprising component about this exam was the time spent on more minor players and issues and less on major figures like Washington. If you need any more Social Science credits and don't mind a challenge think about following this exam with DSST Civil War and Reconstruction. More on that one later...

Join the Library of Congress for our final online research sprint with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) for their History Unfolded project on May 24, 2023, 6:00-8:00 PM EDT (US and Canada). Search the Library’s historic American newspaper collection, Chronicling America, to find out what people knew and how they reacted to the events leading up to and during the Holocaust.Staff from the Library of Congress will present the Library’s historic newspaper archive, Chronicling America, and demonstrate how to use the advanced search functions. Staff from USHMM will introduce the History Unfolded project, which investigates U.S. press coverage of several Holocaust-related events. They will instruct participants on how to submit relevant newspaper articles to the History Unfolded database. Following the presentations there will be time to conduct your own research and upload findings to History Unfolded.Request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.Click here for more information and to register for the webinar.

The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on Americaby William J. Bennett? William J. Bennett (Author) › Visit Amazon's William J. Bennett PageFind all the books, read about the author, and more.See search results for this author Are you an author? Learn about Author Central ? and John T.E. Cribb I was given the opportunity to review this book through BookSneeze.? The very first thing that comes to mind when I remember taking the time to go through this book is the unmatched value we found in it as a homeschooling family.? The authors have listed one major historical event for every day of the year.? We have had fun reading one of the events each day, and discussing the impact the events must have had on our country!? But the "this day in history" pages are not the only parts of value!There are also several articles, including "Twelve Great Reasons to Love a Great Country", "Flags of the Revolutionary War", "The History of the Stars and Stripes", "Fifty All-American Movies", "Flag Etiquette: Guidelines for Displaying and Handling the U.S. Flag", "How the Declaration of Independence Was Written and Signed", "The Declaration of Independence", How the Constitution Was Written and Ratified", The Constitution of the United States", "The Bill of Rights", "Amendments to the U.S. Constitution Since the Bill of Rights", "The Gettysburg Address", "The Emancipation Proclamation", The Pledge of Allegiance", "The American's Creed", "Songs of American Patriotism", "Poems of American Patriotism", and "Prayers for the American People"!? The collection itself is highly impressive before you get to the real "meat" of the book, which is readable every single day for a year!? I recommend this book constantly to fellow homeschool families.? Even if your children aren't homeschooled, this is a wonderful way to become more involved in your child(ren)'s education.? You can purchase this book on Amazon for a great value!? This link will take you to the ebook edition, but just because of the amazing aesthetics of it, we enjoyed the hard copy!? Thank you for coming to Mingle Over Mocha with Anna!