I hope you had an opportunity to read my review of  Curriculum Advice Volume 1 from Victoria Botkin on Tuesday.  If you didn’t you can click here to get to that post.

Volume 2 is for homeschoolers with children older than 8 years old.  Whether you’ve homeschooled your children before or are just beginning, you need this CD.  Mrs. Botkin gives us clear advice and creative ideas for how to homeschool our older children using common sense methods, not expensive text-books.

As she did in Volume 1, Mrs. Botkin covers all academic subjects and explains how she and her husband have taught their seven children, only this time the info is ramped up for the older children.   Also, much information is shared by the Botkin children and Mr. Geoff Botkin.

I love the natural methods explained in these 2 Volumes.  Mrs. Botkin shares just how to teach your older children in such a warm, friendly way.  You just want to reach through the speakers and hug her neck.

I am particularly impressed with the advice on teaching creative writing using their History read aloud book.  Several of the Botkin children are published authors, so when the homeschool mama of adult children who are published authors gives advice on teaching children writing, all the smart mamas get very still and listen.

Really, I am already getting out some notebooks for tomorrow.  I’ll be drowning in History essays by the end of next week.  Oooh, I can’t wait!

I may start keeping a set of these CDs in my purse. That way every time somebody tells me they are thinking about using Bob J*nes curriculum or AB*ka curriculum, I’ll just gift ‘em with these CDs and rock their textbooky boat.

Here’s another link to the Botkin’s site so you can order a set for yourself.  These talks also are available as an instant mp3 download.  I love that.  No shipping, no waiting.

But, once you’ve done that, come on back here and enter this week’s giveaway.  You don’t want to miss it,  I’m giving away a book you want to read.

Enter at your own risk!

We have been so busy today.  I can’t believe the difference in my kitchen, and we aren’t half done, but the rest will wait for another day.

The big earth-shaking advice here is this.

If I don’t use it why am I junking up my life with it?

My kitchen is so much easier to use without all this stuff.  Boy that felt dumb to type those words.  Of course my kitchen is easier to use without junk in the way, duh.

This…

became this,

and this… (Nobody knows how the Cascade got in this cupboard, but teenage Pirates don’t always wear their thinking caps in the kitchen.)

became this.

We are really on a roll with the de-junking of the whole place.  This feels so great.  I am so sick and tired of the clutter.

Some time back I found a site about de-cluttering our homes.  Her method was to have a goal of just 6 (or was it 7?) items per day.  I originally thought this would work for me. The thing is that my junk is as prolific as our gerbils.  See those cupboards up there?  The junky ones?  That stuff got in there and was fruitful and multiplied.  We must have gotten rid of 6 or 7 BOXES of junk.  Should I give you a pic of my front porch?

We’ll load all this up tomorrow (and by we, of course I mean Calico Zak, Cannonball Jack and The Squid) and then take it to the Goodwill drop off.

Free at last!

Well, we’re gettin’ there.

Don’t ya just love Works for me Wednesdays?  Where else can you get so much helpful advice at once?

And remember that today I’m blogging at Frugal Hacks.  You can click here to get there.

Would you like to read the book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God?  I’m giving away 2 copies this Saturday!  Click here to enter!

Victoria Botkin’s advice is spot on.  This is the best Curriculum Advice I have ever heard.  And she has the sweetest, motherly, encouraging tone of voice.  I think I’ll adopt her as my homeschooling Aunt.  Aunt Victoria, I like the sound of that.

Volume 1 is intended for new homeschoolers and homeschoolers with children in the under 8 age range.  If this is you, go directly to FirstPacific Media and order at least Volume 1.

Mrs. Botkin has such a lovely way of explaining how to get started homeschooling and how to provide your children with a good foundation in the basics using natural learning methods.  I particularly admired her advice and encouragement for moms dealing with children who are struggling to learn to read.

We all need to hear her advice and encouragement on how to NOT spend our life savings on un-necessary school books.  She addresses every academic subject and explains how she and her husband instructed their seven children in these subject areas using natural learning methods.

Over one hour of sound advice and great ideas for teaching our children.  I’m very excited to have found this resource.

Here’s another link to the Botkin’s site so you can order your CDs.  These CDs are also available as an instant mp3 download.  I love that.  No shipping, no waiting.

Y’all come back on Thursday for my review of Volume 2.

Would you like to read the book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God?  You should click here to enter my giveaway!

No, not really.  Not in real life.,  I have planned my weekly menu every week since God’s dog was a puppy.  This is just my first time to do so for the whole wide web to see.

I’ve known about this Mr. Linky for a long time, but I have some road blocks giving me pause about joining up.

First, I usually do my grocery shopping on Thursdays, so I don’t usually plan from Monday to Sunday.  I, just yesterday, thought my way around that one.

The other is that, while I do plan meals, carefully, for the whole week, I also remain very flexible within my plan.  For instance, if something comes up that causes a certain meal to be too time consuming for a certain day (like an improptu trip to the zoo) I switch for a meal that goes in the crockpot.  Why I let that be a reason for not participating in this meal planning carnival I have no idea.  I’m certain we all do the switcheroo, as needed.

So, here I go.

Menu Planning Monday

Monday:  Meatloaf

Tuesday:  One Pot Wonder – can’t remember where I found this recipe – it’s a casserole involving potatoes and sausage.

Wednesday:  Shepherd’s Pie

Thursday: Jambalaya

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Baked Crispy Chicken Thighs

Sunday: Mother Hen’s Easy Chili (recipe follows)

I can’t believe I never gave y’all my recipe for Chili.  It’s really the easiest thing in the world.  It’s great for Sunday morning when I’m always in a time crunch.

Mother Hen’s Easy Chili

• 1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
• 1 pound Farmland pork sausage, cooked and drained
• 2 can Ranch Style Beans (KimC uses black beans and her chili comes out tasty, too)
• 1 can Mexicorn OR hominy OR whole kernel corn
• 1 can chopped black olives (KimC omits these.  Something about it being like eating black beetles.  How would she know, I wonder?)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes w/chiles

Use a large crock pot (at least 5 qt) or a stock pot.  Heat to just boiling.  Turn the heat down to simmer for 1-2 hours, at least.

Would you like to read the book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God?  I’m giving it away this week!  Click here to enter!

***UPDATE***

This giveaway is now closed.

So here’s the deal.  I changed the look of my blog and as a way of celebrating I am having weekly giveaways all month long!  This is the third such giveaway and I’ll get to what I’m giving this week in a couple of minutes.

But first I thought I would give a plug to the upcoming Bloggy Giveaways.  Isn’t it cool that it’s coming up and it’s on the last week of my month long, weekly, October giveaways? That will start on the 27th of October.

This week I’m giving the book that everyone wants to read!  Passionate Housewives Desperate for God.

But the totally cool part is that I am gonna give one of you a copy to read and a copy to loan out.   One winner, two copies.  Yes, it’s that good!

The Rules

1. This giveaway is open to the continental 48 states.
2. Everyone gets one entry.
3. You may have another entry if you blog about my giveaway.  (please leave a second comment with a link to your post)
   
4. To enter, leave a comment telling us your family’s favorite board game and who in your family usually wins!  I really enjoy getting to know y’all through your comments.
5. You may enter any time from now, until Friday night (October 24th) at midnight.  I’ll choose a winner sometime Saturday, email the winner and let everyone know by blogging about it!