Our Favorite Bible Story Books

Before giving these suggestions, I'd just like to say that no matter what Bible story book you choose for your child, always always read it with a critical eye because very few are 100% accurate. Be ready to change the text when reading to a younger child or discuss the inaccuracies with an older child. Without further adieu, here are our favorite Bible Story Books for children...

"Mrs. Lee's Stories About God's First People" and "Mrs. Lee's Stories About Jesus"... Although these two books are harder to find a copy of, both of them are great bible story books and worth it even if you have to look around to find a copy. She tells the stories accurately, (That's saying a LOT! I think these are the only books I've found that didn't need any altering to be true to the text.) in a language easily understood by children without dumbing them down. I love both of these books! They're very, very minimal on illustrations though, so they wouldn't work as a VERY first bible story book, but we started using it around age three as our boys were able to listen to a short story without pictures. I just wish she had more books to cover the rest of the bible- these two basically cover Genesis and Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
*UPDATE: Mrs. Lee's books are now available for purchase either individually or as a set HERE! 

How to Organize Right Start Math Manipulatives!

Isn't it fun to get packages in the mail? I love getting school supplies like this! This is the box we got from Right Start Math...

After receiving it I wondered how in the world I'd organize all that stuff in a way that was uniform and accessible. I googled it and checked on Pinterest trying to find a storage system I liked and kept coming up short. After looking at a variety of storage containers from several different stores, I ended up finding JUST the perfect thing, and the price tag was minimal. I imagine I'm not the only mom who has wished for a good Right Start organization system, so I thought I'd share what I came up with.

Right Start Math Review

We have been using Right Start Math this year, and are loving it! Right Start takes a unique approach to math that just makes sense to me and I love seeing my son do well with it. (Here he is with little brother tagging along.)

Here is a glimpse into their philosophy:

•  "Informal mathematics should precede paper and pencil work. Long before a child knows how to add fractions with unlike denominators, she should be able to add one half and one fourth mentally." Instead of putting lots of abstract worksheets in front of a Kindergartener, we're working hands-on with quality manipulatives. A lot of them. 
• "The only students who like flash cards are those who do not need them." Amen to that. We use games, not flash cards, for practice. 

Luxury Baths in a Bottle!

I've never been a big "bath person", but one of the perks of our new house is a nice big bath tub. Since it seemed like a pity to let it sit there unused, I thought I'd give the bath thing a go. After doing some intense research (you know, Pinterest style) I found all sorts of recipes for bath salts and bath soaks. Although it seems nice to make all that, I've got plenty of projects on my plate right now and wanted something simpler, and this is what I came up with...

Luxury Baths in a Bottle!

If you want to take a relaxing, skin-nourishing bath without lots of chemicals (which are pretty much every store-bought bath product), you need to look no further than the following basic ingredients: baking soda, milk, salt, and oatmeal. If you really want a treat then add in some essential oils too.

You can find lots of recipes for specialized bath salts and other concoctions on Pinterest, but for the most part, the good ones all utilize some combination of those ingredients. So I decided to just make some Bath Bottles instead. Here they are:

As pretty as they were in glass, I later opted for plastic containers because they're easier and safer to use with wet, slippery hands. (If you decide to make these, I share my free, printable labels at the end of this post!) Here they are:

To use them, simply grab what you need. Here's what each one is good for...

I Heart My Laminator

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I love that you save, protect, and shinyize my stuff. 

I love that you turn any document into a dry-erase board. 

The Color Swatch Ring

 Would you like to know what's in this cute little beaut?

We recently moved and have been painting and painting and painting some more, ever since. I wanted to do something handy with my swatches, and have wished a couple times that I had them with me when shopping. And so I present to you, the color swatch ring:

I cut the paint color cards to the same size, made divider cards for each room in the house, laminated and hole punched them, and stuck them on a ring. And now I can flip right to living room and see both colors used in that room, or bedroom and see the colors used in that room. I even laminated a swatch of each fabric I used to sew bedding items and curtains, which was handy when choosing my paint colors.

Now if I'm shopping for something for the house I can take my colors with me, which is rather handy! 

Did I mention that I love my laminator? 

Life Happens, But So Does Home Schooling

This has been quite a busy fall & winter for us... besides home schooling, we've been house-hunting, house-buying, packing, moving, unpacking and settling in to our new place. Oh, and did I mention that meanwhile I was in my first trimester of pregnancy?

If you've ever thought to yourself that you may want to do all those things at once, let me be the first to tell you that you MAY prefer to do otherwise, but if that's how life happens, it's ok. :)

Just for kicks I thought I'd share with you our "daily schedule"...

See how well-planned that is? You may be thinking that I've got it really together, but in that case you'd be wrong. We have yet to do ONE day by the schedule I so thoughtfully made before starting our school year. But somehow school happened anyway. And I'm thankful it did.

If we weren't home schooling, our home-buying process would've been WAY more stressful since various setbacks changed our would-be move-in date from August to November, which would've resulted in our little guy changing schools only a couple months into Kindergarten.  Besides that, he would've missed out on a lot of play dates with friends, a day-time bible class we join (a couple home schooled teen girls teach a class for the little ones while the moms have our bible study), visiting Dad at work, visiting his grandparents during the perfect fall weather and enjoying the Pumpkin Patch and Wild Animal Park minus the crowds, Day out with Thomas the Train, and behind-the scenes tours of Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Braum's Dairy Farm with our other home schooling friends. Most of all I think he'd miss getting to romp around with his brother, hunt roly polies, build forts, play super heroes, and go exploring.

I know I'd miss our "big talks," little snuggles, and hearing his lunch time prayers too. Besides, how can a class room compete with this???