October 09 Edition | Heart of the Matter

News Flash! Teenagers Will Change Their Mind!

Why bother with getting your kids ready for college when you feel certain they won’t go? Because sometimes, when you least expect it, teenagers will change their minds. Stop laughing! You know it’s true! College...

Crowing about Fall

One of the ways to teach kids about seasons is to have them help you welcome the seasons. A great welcome for fall is to make a scarecrow. Don’t have a garden? Who says you need one? You can even have your children...

Review: Spelling Success

Spelling Success (World Teachers Press) is a reproducible spelling book program for grades 1-7. Each book covers one year of instruction and includes additional activities to further extend the workbook lessons with games,...

Reading Journals

We all want our children to excel as readers. But our job as reading teachers is not over once the phonics and decoding skills are firmly in place. In fact, we want the reading skills to continue to grow over the years as...

Marsha’s Chicken Parmesan

I am a huge fan of quick cooking, especially since a very good idea (for other people) like Once a Month Cooking (aka Freezer Meals ) usually don’t bode well for me. The following is a recipe for Parmesan Chicken…...

The Procrastinator’s Guide to Planning

Remember the teacher’s planner that enthralled you so much at the convention that you bought it? Its purpose is not just to look pretty on your shelf or on your computer’s desktop. It’s time to pull it out and start using...

Beauty Bargains

Let’s face it. Skin care, anti-aging creams, and hair products are not cheap. Nearly everyone wants to look attractive and youthful, but not everyone has a limitless budget for beauty. Through the years I’ve hit on some...

Only One a Day

Every August when I’m sweating as I make out our upcoming school calendar schedule, the decision is made to take only a couple of weeks off in December around the holidays because “that’s all we really need for...

State Geography Studies

When we pulled our oldest son home from public school half way through first grade, we didn’t have a lot of homeschooling materials or fancy curriculum. Our one goal for him at that time was to reestablish his love of learning...

Reviews by Karin: Sequential Spelling

The Sequential Spelling program is based upon the concept of teaching children to spell the same way many of them learned to read—through word families, or “rimes.” Although there are other spelling programs...