Homeschooling for 3

Hi, this just arrived in my email today and I thought I’d share it with everyone:

We are pleased to make you aware of CurrClick’s Black Friday Freebie Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays Sale, in advance of the general public.

Black Friday is about savings, this season is about being frugal and CurrClick is and always has been about helping you trim your education budget. That’s why this year, beginning Friday the 28th at 10 AM EST, we’re inviting you and your readership, egroups and co-ops, to our biggest Black Friday Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays sales event yet, offering 28 COMPLETELY FREE TITLES from our most popular publishers and dozens of your favorite holiday education titles up to 85% OFF!

This Friday, November 28th, put on your pajamas, put away your pocketbooks and “head over” to CurrClick’s best ever Black Friday Freebie Giveaway and Homeschooling Through the Holidays Sale!

**Look for these graphics on our homepage at 10 am EST on Friday, November 28th:

Wishing you a Blessed Holiday Season,

The CurrClick Staff

P.S. Amazon is also having a Black Friday sale too! Details are below:

Great Black Friday Deals. No Black Friday Blues.

Black Friday deals start today! Don’t spend Black Friday 2008 jostling for bargains and parking spots. Amazon will have amazing deals to help you and your site visitors get holiday shopping done for less. Our Black Friday page is the central point to find all our Black Friday deals, including the Gold Box hourly deals featured from midnight to 11pm PST and thousands of products that are on sale for a limited time only.

At the beginning of the year Jade and I wanted to do a fundraising project and were very happy when Agora decided to do a cyber-charter fundraiser for Alex’s Lemonade Stand. Jade was quite touched by Alex’s dedication and bravery to raise money for other children with cancer even as she was dying. So, this past summer we held a lemonade stand and were able to raise about $100 – not bad for a couple of novices, I guess.

Jade wanted to do more and so did I so we set up an online fundraising portal at www.firstgiving.com/CherylHendersonKhalid in order to do this. To date this hasn’t been much of a success, but I blame lack of experience on that. So, for I put this project on the back burner for a bit while I licked my wounded ego and tried to figure out a new strategy to contribute more to this charity.

Then, about a week ago, I picked up my local “Our Town” at our local library and started reading through it. I was touched by the tribute that Mrs. Kizer gave to the local community for helping her family to deal with the death of her 17 year old son who succumbed to childhood cancer. It called to mind the families that I knew of through professional connections or friends who have buried their children before the age of 21 due to the scourge of childhood cancer.

After I read the article I knew that my desire to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand wasn’t just a project to help my daughter to understand the importance of reaching out and helping others. I am trying to help find a cure so that no other parents have to endure the pain that the Kizer family has had to do.

I have copied the “thank you” from the Kizer family and I think that it will inspire you to reach out and help researchers to find treatments for childhood cancer. I also ask that you pass this link on to everyone that you know. If we all contribute just $1 we can make a difference in the lives of childhood cancer sufferers and their family.

A Tribute to All of the People Who Managed to Touch This Family’s Heart in a Most Terrible Journey into the World of Childhood Cancer
Our Town Issue #36, Central Monroe Edition, November 8, 2008

“My family cannot express in mere words alone how much we have appreciated al of your support, your love and devotion in my family and our son, Brendan Kizer. When a tragedy such as this happens in your family you feel alone and lose faith in mankind. You spend many hours asking “why me and my family?” You just don’ think it’s fair and you want this terrible thing to go away and quickly.

My son Brendan Kizer, although young in age, somehow managed to touch so many people’s lives in some way or the other. Even people that he had never met in person somehow they came in contact with his journey of cancer. I never imagined in all my life that I would meet such kind souls. There have been children of all ages to adults of all ages. People just came out of everywhere ready to help my family fight along with our son this terrible disease. The moral support, the financial support, the love and devotion that has overwhelmed our family goes without question. Sure we could say “thank you” but that would never express the love and the warmth of how each and every one of you in a positive way.

For those who knew my son – knew he was bigger than life itself. He was full of laughter and smiles even at the sickest points of his life. He knew he had a job to do in this life and even thought he would lose his life in the process he wanted to make sure that his death was not in vain. His one quest in life was to have many friends which indeed he did and the other quest was for people to be aware of Childhood Cancer. He knew that the trip to Maryland was a phase one trial drug, but he did not care. He said “Let’s go for it!” He wanted so bad to be the one to find the cure. Well, he might not have found the cure, but he left behind an army of people who will now be aware of childhood cancer and who will fight to help find the cure for all of the other children still in the battle.

Having any child have to go through a journey such as cancer is unspeakable, unthinkable, and is the most hurtful thing you will have to ever endure as a parent. You as a parent have to remain strong. Even at that weakest times you carry the strength for you and the child to keep up the fight. And then the most horrific moment of your life comes when the child passes on. There is no greater hurt nor pain in the entire world. No parent should have to face this Cancer Monster at any given moment of their life.

So in conclusion, I not only want to thank each and every one of you, but I want you to continue his battle in his honor to help in any possible way to find the cure for Childhood Cancer.

The Kizer Family”

Contributions towards research into Childhood Cancer can be made at www.firstgiving.com/CherylHendersonKhalid in memory of Brendan and all the other children who have succumbed to this disease. Thank you and please pass this message on to others.

While in the children’s section of the library my eye fell upon a book entitled “The Dragon’s Lair (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)” As I am a fantasy reader and was looking for something light to enjoy I picked it up for myself … and fell in love. The book is set up as a restoration of archeological records and they tell the story of Ven Polypheme as he goes through his life as an explorer, adventurer, and journalist for the High King.

As has been my misfortune of late, I began the series at the end – “The Dragon’s Lair” is actually Book 3 in this series. The other two books are “The Thief Queen’s Daughter (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)“– Book 2 — and “The Floating Island (The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme)” – Book 1. Because I do have younger children I checked to see if audiobooks had been created for the series, but not as of today.

The story itself is fast-paced, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always interesting. I’m sure that boys (even boys who aren’t really sure if books are cool or not) will enjoy the series. The scary parts aren’t too scary for the little ones and the moral ambiguities of life are intriguing enough for older children to ponder without steam pouring from their ears. But what I like most about these books is that she includes a curriculum in the back of each one. She covers composition, art, cartography and other subjects in a fun manner, using her characters to take the sting out of “school work”.

Here’s one example of her Reader’s Guide:

“II. Gated Cities and Penal Colonies – B. What is a penal colony and why would a government want to use one? Look up some examples and read about them. Then draw a vertical line down a sheet of paper and make two columns, one for good and one for bad results. List why you think the penal colony system was a good idea on the left, and a bad one on the right. Then decide overall whether you would have used a penal colony if you were a king long ago.” – The Thief Queen’s Daughter, p. 315

In her book “The Dragon’s Lair” she includes art projects as well as science and other cross-curricular activities. I think that this would be a great addition to the homeschooling community library since she does such a good job of making the reader think and apply the story to the world that we live in today.

My daughter, Jade is going to read the book once she finishes with her latest omnibus so I’ll be sure to share her 8 (almost 9) year old point of view too! And be on the lookout for Book 4 coming soon!

Now, back to Percy Jackson … but that’s another post!

Well, once again homeschooling has been an education not only for my children but for the parents as well. We listen to a lot of audiobooks when we’re traveling from dance to shopping and all around the town. Since we were studying the about the Civil War figures, this book jumped out at me while perusing the shelves of the library. And I am so glad that it did.

This is a story of Sarny (by Gary Paulsen) a survivor of slavery times and the Civil War. It is told in retrospect by the 90+ year old Sarny. Why did I like this story so much? Well, one thing the person who was chosen to read this story did so in such a convincing manner that I felt as if I was sitting at Sarny’s bedside listening to her relate her life. It was that gripping and real to all of us.

The story itself was, for me, about how the love of one’s children can make you do things that you never thought you could. Not to give too much away, Sarny’s children were sold shortly before the emancipation and she set out to find them. Her life story includes this chronicle of what she did to reach her family despite the odds and miles separating them.

Although most of us don’t have to worry about searching for our children in this manner, we are all on a similar journey. When we homeschool we are seeking the sparks of creativity within ourselves and our children to help them prepare to live a happy and fruitful life. We have obstacles and challenges, but ultimately we would give our very souls to provide them with excellence and the love of learning.

Sarny passes on this love of learning not only to her children but to many others whose lives she touched in her nine fictional decades on earth. Although she is a fictional character, I hope to emulate her ability to help others to understand that the ability to think and reason is the greatest gift of all.

My daughter has problems with spelling and I’ve been trying to find new and more interesting ways to help her to be more successful. Jade was in speech therapy for a little over three years for an immature auditory system and still has problems sounding out words. Ironically, she’s a very advanced reader with great comprehension.

Anyway, quite by accident I found this great site (www.wordle.net) that will allow you to make art out of words. Here’s an example of her first spelling/art masterpiece:

If you’d like to see more of Jade’s masterpieces (or just play around with it yourself) be sure to visit www.wordle.net. Jade’s work will be saved under “Cherbear2768″ in the gallery.

BTW, there is no censorship within Wordle, so you may want to just let your children play with the application without going through the gallery.

Today I received some news from my husband that brought to mind the words of Napoleon Hill. He tells us in his masterpiece “Think and Grow Rich” that “The prevalence of these fears (fear of poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age and death), as a curse to the world, runs in cycles. For almost six years, while the depression was on, we floundered in the cycle of FEAR OF Poverty.”

This sprang to mind as I listened to my husband describing the scene down at Goldman Sachs last night. He works for Williams Lea, a British outsourcing agency, and they’ve already laid off fifteen people with more to come. Yesterday, he found out when he arrived for the graveyard shift, Goldman Sachs laid off over 3,200 people. Why? Because they had a loss this last quarter — the first loss since 1999! And because of this momentary downswing in their profits they’ve now left 3,200 people without jobs or hopes of even finding new jobs quickly because other businesses are reacting with the same type of FEAR.

During a Mastermind Session hosted by John Milton Fogg with Michael Losier, he explained FEAR this way: “FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. See, fear is never about the past, it’s always about the future. Fear is always something that hasn’t happened yet. So that means it’s always a story. “

Right now we have lots of false evidence abounding in the news. We’re being told that there’s no money available, hence the layoffs and other cutbacks. We’re being told that unemployment is at an all time high. But the government just gave these businesses BILLIONS of dollars to jump start the economy. The money is out there, we just have to find ways to make sure that our businesses are the ones benefiting from it. We need to understand that the reason that jobs are drying up is because of the company’s fear of what might happen so they’re performing amputations before they even know if the limbs are a threat. As Mr. Hill mentioned in his book, the Great Depression was caused mainly because people believed that resources were virtually nonexistent and acted accordingly. It sounds crazy, but no crazier than the way companies are reacting right now.

Even as the stock market plunges, there are people out there making a lots of moola. Even during the Depression, there were many people who actually made their fortunes .

So, now it’s time to put my faith in ourselves and our business as a way to support our family — so I’m going to investing in advertising my virtual assistant business more effectively and effectively. I will get my website up and running the way that I know that it should be and stop making excuses for why I haven’t completed my goals yet. I will allocate funds to maximize my “attraction” to clients and thus increase my financial bottom line.

Now, it’s written down, on the internet, in my notebook and on my wall. So there’s nothing to it but to do it, as the saying goes. I encourage everyone to look into their own situation and see the positive aspects rather than being distracted from your goals by the media driven fear machine. And if you don’t have your own business yet, now is definitely the time to start one, even if it’s just mowing the lawn. The tax benefits surrounding a home-based business (with more than one client if you’re thinking about doing the virtual assistant route) will put money back into your wallet.

Stay tuned for tax tips I’m researching for a home-based business tax cheat sheet, so stay tuned!

Every weekend Game Giveaway of the Day has free downloads of some pretty nice family games. Every game isn’t a 10, but if you have children or are a puzzle lovers you can’t beat FREE!

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and a wonderful week.