Sell those books you don’t need

I have a couple websites to share.   www.Cash4books.com  and www.mybookbuyer.com .  They each have their good points,  cash4books has no minimum required, they are buying a book from me for 58 cents and mailing me the shipping label ( I do not have a printer at home)!  bookbuyer has a $10 min. before they will buy from you, but they seem to have higher offers.  Both of them pay shipping and will send you a check or pay through paypal.

Handwriting curriculum

When I was in school handwriting was torture.  The teachers were always telling me how awful my writing was and forced me to use those awful grips and told me I had to hold the pencil above the grip.  I have never even been able to use chopsticks properly because I was always told to hold them like you hold a pencil but I can’t hold a pencil right!!

So a good handwriting curriculum was important to me.  There are several religious options out there but I wanted something that would really give Maddie a good foundation.  I think I first heard of Handwriting Without Tears (www.hwtears.com) through Old Schoolhouse Magazine(www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com).  Almost everything I know comes from them!  Anyway, HWT was developed by an occupational therapist and it just makes sense!  The Teachers guide is a must, it explains how to teach their method of “building” the letters and the why’s also.  HWT works well with lefties too! 

Another great thing is that HWT has teaching ideas and products for visual, kinesthetic and auditory learners.  The wet, dry, try method works well with Maddie and TT.  They each have a small slate that they can write a letter on, trace over it with a wet sponge cube, trace with a dry sponge cube and write it again with their little chalk.  TT likes to dip her finger in warm water to trace the letter.  HWT does sell sponge cubes and small chalk.  The chalk, IMO, is worth the small price of about 2.50…but I think next time I will just buy some cheap sponges and cut them up myself.  I also saved $ by using the template in the teacher’s guide and making my own lines and curves out of old cereal boxes!  This is another element of the curriculum where the child “builds”  the capital letters with big lines, small lines, big curves and small curves.  

For school teachers out there, this company offers discount on larger orders and is used in public and private schools nationwide.  Even Sidwell Friends (where Obama’s girls attend) endorses it!

New books

I love new books, I love old books too…i just love books!  Anyone who knows me could tell you this…anyway- I got a box in the mail today from www.graceandtruthbooks.com.  They had a great deal on a girl’s story collection.  These are all stories and books written in the 1800’s.  I am really excited   because it is so hard to find stories that include TRUE Christianity.   I encourage you to check them out, I looked at their website real quick and they seem to have some really wonderful books available.  Let me share the blurb from one of these books.  This one is titled  “Grace Raymond”, “The story of Grace Raymond portrays to children the life transforming power of our kind God.  Though we are so unlike Him, He is willing and able by His great grace to change us!  As your little girls read of tempermental, hot-headed Grace, who at first defends and justifies her angry outbursts, but learns of the depths of sin in her heart, they will learn to seek the Lord for grace to deal with their own weaknesses…”  WOW!  It is hard to find children’s books that have such truth and depth to them!

WELCOME!

Hi, I am glad you decided to stop for a visit!  I will try to make it worth your time but please bear with me!  I am a daughter of the Lord, wife to my best friend and homeschool mom of three beautiful girls.  Walkinintheway is a reference to Deuteronomy 6:”  ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”  

     Okay, I guess I should have called the blog walkinbytheway.   Well I can’t change it now and I kind of like walkinintheway!  I guess you could take that a couple of different ways!  Maybe I am just walking in the way of other people!! LOL Anyway, sorry, I do tend to go on rabbit trails! 

So the point is that we homeschool first and foremost because of a conviction that this is what the Lord wants us to do.  We started our journey before our oldest was born and the longer that we travel this path, the more reasons we have to continue.  It is such a blessing to be at home developing relationships with my girls.  For those of you who think I must be some super patient, super organized person I say…”HAAHAA!”  I am not!  What I have is a strong conviction and faith that God will give me enough to get through each day.  Some days are wonderful, other days I wonder if I am crazy.  I ask myself why not just send them off to school…Then Maddie says something about God or the Bible and I know she wouldn’t  be allowed to get away with that at school.  Or I watch her sister dancing around the house and think of how she would be forced to sit in a chair most of the day and be labled ADHD or something at 4 years old.  I am so thankful.