Monday, December 29, 2008

Spring Fever Unit Study Sale! Gardens, Easter, Baseball...

Just in case you've been BUSY during the holidays, :-)

I thought you might want to know that there are just 2 more days to catch the Spring Fever Special, which includes Gardens, Baseball, and Easter Unit Studies for a special package price of only $24.95:

Spring Fever Unit Study Package

Looking forward to the promise of spring,
Amanda B.
www.unitstudy.com

Friday, December 26, 2008

Spring Fever just around the bend...

Christmas 2008 is now a page in history, and hopefully you and your crew had a blessed Christmas and are enjoying a peaceful holiday. It is raining here today, and I see that many parts of the country are experiencing winter weather that keeps everyone indoors and, well, cabin feverish!

Always the optimist, I decided to look ahead through my new 2009 calendar for some bright spots in the coming months. I discovered:

Spring training for baseball begins in just five short weeks - hurray!

Indoor seed planting for this year's garden will begin at about the same time, and this will be the year to carefully plan a productive family garden, to save money and get everyone working toward a common goal.

Easter is celebrated on April 12th this year, so the time to begin the Easter Unit Study will be in early March this year. This is my favorite study of all of the holiday unit studies, and I hope it will become a favorite of yours, as well.

With these three calendar observations along with hints of cabin fever just beginning to surface here, I put together a special unit study package at great savings for this last week of 2008. It includes three unit studies for only $24.95 - Baseball, Gardens, and Easter Unit Studies on CDROM. Follow this link to learn more:

Spring Fever Unit Study Package 

Looking forward to the promise of spring,
Amanda B.
www.unitstudy.com

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Interesting perspective on family life and today's economy

Here's an interesting article that I ran across while working on my new book about family vacations:

The Roaring Twenties & the Roaring Nineties


I like this line:
"
We will still need to tap our own natural resources, to repeal the massive regulatory chokehold on the economy, to return education to the states and local communities, and away from the straight jacket of federal mandates."

Keep learning!

Blessings,
Amanda B.

www.unitstudy.com

Monday, December 22, 2008

Spring Fever Unit Study Package

Plan now for an awesome start to the New Year! 


Spring Fever Unit Study Package


Easter
Gardens
Baseball


All three studies (12 weeks of daily lessons) for only  $24.95 *


Retail Value: $44.85
Savings of $20 - more than 40% off!

* Spring Fever Package special offer is good
through 12/31/08

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Facebook, anyone?

After much poking and prodding, I have finally set up a Facebook page:

Unit Studies

Now, to begin to figure out how it works - give me a few days.

Drop by and say Hi if you are on Facebook, and no laughing at my page,
OK? :-)

Blessings,
Amanda B.
www.unitstudy.com

Sunday, December 14, 2008

What are your children's ten favorite fiction books?

Books, books, books - a favorite topic here! I was trying to list what I think are probably our children's favorite, most-read, top ten fiction books, and here's my list:

My Side of the Mountain
The Bee Tree
Oh, the Places You'll Go
And the Relatives Came
One Wintry Night
My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother
Thunder Cake
Little House in the Big Woods
Where the Wild Things Are
Green Eggs and Ham
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

And how did I choose these? Well, let's just put it like this - I know almost all of the words to most of these books! :-)

What are the favorites at your house?

Blessings,
Amanda B.
www.unitstudy.com

Trying times and tender memories...

I know that these days are very trying times for families, as well as times that our children will remember for the rest of their lives. There are always going to be trials, and our children learn to weather the trials by watching their parents. I was thinking back to my own childhood today, during a time when I was experiencing double ear infections, and the doctor could not get them to clear up. Week after week, I would struggle with rupturing eardrums, and at the ripe old age of eight, I was sure that things could not get much worse.


Christmas was approaching, I had missed most of the crafts and festivities at school in past weeks, and there I was, confined to bed and totally miserable. I will never forget one very special day with my mom, though. On the day of my class Christmas party, my mom got all of the other kids off to the school bus, and then came in to the bedroom with a sly look. Times were so tough for our family then, and the financial outlook for a festive Christmas was grim. However, my mom had splurged on a small package of styrofoam balls, a bottle of white glue, and two tubes of red and green glitter, and we had a blast that day. While she taught me how to drizzle the glue onto the ornament in patterns and then sprinkle the glitter onto the glue, she shared some stories of Christmas when she was a child during the Depression. I loved the ornaments, but I was mesmerized to hear about her life "back in the olden days."


I will never forget that day or the love that my mom showed just by sitting there with me, sharing her stories and passing the day with me, when I knew that there were many other things she could have been doing. That's what love is all about, isn't it? As parents, it is sometimes difficult to see just how much our worries and concerns impact our children. It isn't until we actually catch our breath, sit down, and share some time as well as some of ourselves that we all begin to realize that love is the key ingredient.


Now, everytime I see styrofoam balls, I am reminded of that time and the lesson of love. Think about it today, and try to trust Him. I read a great message on a church sign recently: "You cannot worry and trust God at the same time!" I like that.


Blessings,
Amanda B.


Phil. 4:6-7
www.unitstudy.com

Friday, December 5, 2008

Christmas: A Study of Love

 
The warm feeling of love, the snug feeling of togetherness and family,
and the joy and excitement of celebration --
all to be found in many American homes this time of year.

From the preparation and celebration of harvest and Thanksgiving to the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, there is a wonderful feeling of love everywhere, and as homeschooling families, we can take this time to learn, prepare our homes and our hearts, and share with others throughout the year.


At our house, we begin planning for the holiday season by preparing unit studies on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. This has become a regular tradition here, and one that is eagerly anticipated year after year. With each year of holidays comes a new slant or area of interest for our learning adventures, and we have never worked on any unit study in the same way twice! We use these holiday studies to help us grow in our knowledge as well as giving the children more time to thoroughly prepare for and understand the meaning of the holidays -- the history, literature, geography, science and music represented within the holiday theme.


In this article, I would like to focus on studying Christmas as a family unit. What does Christmas mean to you and your family? Ever take a close look with your family, asking them what they think? Write down their comments without criticism or discussion. Then, ask them what they like best about Christmas and then what their favorite holiday tradition is -- if they are old enough to understand. This is a great way to begin the Christmas season, and is usually a real eye-opener! What significance do you give to the true meaning of Christmas?


I first wrote the Christmas Unit Study to meet this need in our own home. We wanted to study this with the children, learning together and drawing us all closer in your own celebration. We were tired of the commercialism that had worked its way into Christmas and had to reflect very closely on what and how we had celebrated in the past, as well as finding ways to focus on the true meaning of Christmas -- the reason for the celebration -- His birth. We worked with the children to define what Christmas means to our family and what we would like to change. How could we celebrate Christmas with our family, our church, our neighbors and our community with the right emphasis? After all, this event we are celebrating was foretold in almost 400 different prophecies in the Old Testament - quite a fulfilling event when our Savior was born! Why shouldn't we celebrate it as least as much as we do the birth of one of our own babies?


Like me, you probably get overwhelmed with catalogs in the mail this time of year. But recently, one that we received really caught the attention of one of the children. It has a picture of Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus on the front cover, but it is somehow very different. My son looked at it and said, "Look, Mom -- they had a baby! Look at how happy they are!" Unlike so many other nativity scenes where Mary and Joseph have rather nondescript faces, this one shows them as parents getting a first good look at their new baby -- utmost joy and pride and awe and love. Their expressions also reflect what I imagine that God felt about then, too -- pride and love for His own Son.


We have tried to look back at the expectations we had before each baby was born -- the joy, the fear, the concerns and the love. As we talk about these feelings of expectations, we can connect them to the feelings of God's children as they heard for so many years about the coming of the Savior and their own feelings of expectation. Then, how Mary and Joseph must have felt with their own special knowledge about this baby and Who He was. You can celebrate Advent to take a close look at the prophecies, the Birth and what His coming means to you as Christians. We do things like learning some of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and having the older children look to find where each of these prophecies were fulfilled. God does keep His promises, doesn't He!


We also include some geography, following the path of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, and try to understand what their trip was probably like. They had to travel just under one hundred miles over rough roads, using their feet and a donkey for transportation. It took them at least a week to make the journey -- contrast this for the children, using some other trip that they remember that was about that far, and how you covered the distance in under two hours.


We study what the area was like during that time of year -- quite a bit like where we lived in Florida several years ago -- no snow! It would have been a warmer climate, and citrus would have been getting ripe, with plenty of olive, date and palm trees. The children were so amazed to find out that the first Christmas weather was so much like that of Florida -- so then they asked, why do we associate so much snow with Christmas?


Another big question -- why exactly do we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, anyway? After hearing both sides of the argument over whether Christmas is a Christian or a pagan holiday, I decided to do some research of my own to include in the study and the findings were very interesting. Before the fourth century, Jesus' birth was celebrated on January 6th, along with the Epiphany. Then, as Christianity moved through Rome, Pope Liberius of Rome, in 353 A.D., researched historical records to try to establish the actual day of Christ's birth. Remember -- the whole journey to Bethlehem was to participate in a census and pay appropriate taxes -- record keeping! As a result of his work, the Pope decided to make December 25th the official day of celebrating Christ's birth.


Now, for the 12 days of Christmas. I was reading a beautifully written book recently, The Christmas Book by Alice Lawhead. The author has a whole section about slowing down the frenzy and focusing on the meaning of Christmas. She offers ideas like celebrating Christmas throughout the original 12 days of Christmas, which begin on Christmas Eve and continue until January 6th, which is the celebration of Epiphany, marking the Wise Men's visit to the Baby, the first visit of Gentiles to see the new King. Why not make cookies and have more of the festivities throughout those 12 days with family, instead of spending December in a flat-out rush to get it all ready for that one day, and be so eager to have it all out of the house! This way, we can avoid the let-down of December 26th and keep the focus of the celebration where it should be. We also use this study to learn more about the many Christmas traditions, those celebrated in this country as well as other countries. These might include the Yule Log, mumming, the days of posadas, and on and on. Have the children help with the research and then share their findings.


Use the season to read some classics aloud in the evenings while everyone is working on Christmas projects. Consider books like The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Dodge, and, of course, we read the Gospels of the Bible.


As children get older, there are two books that they might enjoy, Two from Galilee, Love Story of Mary and Joseph and Three from Galilee, the Young Man from Nazareth both by Majorie Holmes. These books have made the people and the nativity so much more real to all of us, and added new depth and understanding to the event on a human level.


There are so many books about Christmas available now and most of my favorites can be found at local Christian bookstores. Some of them are One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson, 101 Ways to Have a Christian Christmas by Brenda Verner, and The Scriptures Sing of Christmas: An Advent Study of Christmas, by J. Ellsworth Kalas.


It is my hope that you all relax and enjoy the holidays, learning and sharing as a family, and that the adventures will bring you many happy memories in the years to come. May God bless you and your family abundantly!


May the Lord bless you and keep you; 
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you;
 May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace.


Blessings,
Amanda B.


www.unitstudy.com


Copyright 2008 Amanda Bennett

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Kids and Christmas Business

In my spare time, I am working on a book about Kids and Business, having raised three entrepreneurs here at our house. They have had many great adventures in business, and this time of year brings some of their seasonal ideas to the forefront - here are two:


Ship a Holiday Gift Tree 


Merry CHRISTmas Bumper Stickers 


This year, I had the opportunity to speak on kids and business at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati - and it was GREAT! I met so many young entrepreneurs, full of ideas and energy, and asking plenty of questions. I am expanding my topic, addressing the questions that they raised as well as adding some of our insights collected along the way.


I will be speaking at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in 2009, and look forward to meeting many of you there in Cincinnati. This convention has developed into one of the finest - including a broad spectrum of homeschooling and parenting resources and speakers, and the attention given to meeting the needs of Christian homeschoolers is among the best. 


So, as I continue to write and prepare for the next season of conventions, I am wondering - are your children developing their own businesses? What kinds of things are they promoting or creating, and how is it going?


Blessings,
Amanda B.
www.unitstudy.com