If you are anything like me, life works out much better when it is scripted. “Then the LORD answered me and said: ‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it’.” (Habakkuk 2:20) I have found this scripture to be of great importance; reminding me to prayerfully write things down rather than trying to remember everything on my own. Because of the importance of staying organized as a stay-at-home homeschooling mother, using planners has been a wonderful and necessary tool in my life.

Does this describe you? If so, then I have the perfect resource to recommend you!

Recently I had the honor to review the eBook, Planner Perfect: A Fresh Idea on Organizing Your Life by Jenny Penton. The Planner Perfect is unlike any planner that I have ever used in the past. It is truly a breath of fresh air that I know will help me out with planning many wonderful thins to come in the new year. It is well written, well organized, keeps God at the center of your planning, and very simple to understand. The beautiful thing about Jenny’s eBook is that it teaches you how to become a master life planner, taking control of your own scheduling, rather than being held captive by your schedule.

The story behind the concept is absolutely heartwarming. Jenny has fashioned the planner around the influence of her precious Proverbs 31 mother and the example she modeled while Jenny was growing up. Rather than the typical “task manager” planning, the Planner Perfect is a place where you create your life and can dream up new things birthed in freedom, rather than being tied down by an impossible to-do-list.

One of my favorite things about the Planner Perfect approach to goal setting is the simple fact that it is more about dreaming and living life than about the legalistic aspect of making lists to “check” off. While lists do serve their purpose, the Planner Perfect gives you a whole new understanding about the importance of not overbooking yourself and family. This new “mindset” will help anyone who has been giving their calendar too much control in their life plans.

Some of the many wonderful topics this fabulous eBook covers are:

• creating a space of your own
• secrets to why we can’t stay organized
• the role of your calendar
• daily and monthly pages
• organizing and exploring your strengths and talents
• organizing your wardrobe
• party planning
• vacations
• emotional and physical health
• keeping your home clean
• meal planning
• holiday’s and special occasions
• aspiring for more

I would highly recommend purchasing this eBook if you want a fresh and exciting new start to your life planning. I love the way Jenny teaches us to become the master of our own life planning accompanied with living life, accomplishing goals, creating and accomplishing dreams, and above all else; living a life pleasing to God.

You can purchase Jenny Penton’s ebook here: Planner Perfect: A Fresh Idea on Organizing Your Life.

We have FIVE copies of Jenny’s planner to give away!  To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. The giveaway will remain open until Wednesday 2/8 at 10pm EST. If you are reading this on Facebook, please note that you must enter your comment on the original blog post on our website.

Carlie has been blissfully married to the love of her life, Michael, since June of 2000. She has been a stay-at-home homeschoolin’ mama to their 3 children since 2001. Carlie currently resides with her family in Germany courtesy of the US Army. You can read about her homeschooling adventures and Christian faith at her blog: So You Call Yourself A Homeschooler?

It’s cold. It’s dark. Getting out from under the warm blankets is more difficult. You have no motivation. It’s the winter blahs. Or is it? Maybe it’s something more. Maybe you’re really fighting depression.

What is depression?

“Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods.

Clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for a longer period of time.”

(from the U.S. National Library of Medicine)

Depression has many different faces including: minor depression, major depression, atypical depression, dysthymia, postpartum depression, bipolar disorder, and more. Each one is slightly different, varying in severity as well as the optimal methods for treatment.

Symptoms can include:

• Low mood or irritability
• A loss of pleasure in usual activities
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Major change in appetite or weight
• No energy
• Feeling worthlessness, self-hate, and guilt
• Trouble concentrating
• Hopeless or helplessness
• Repeated thoughts of death or suicide

I was diagnosed with dysthymia about three years ago. I’d been running in denial for many years. I’d probably been paralyzed by depression since I was a teenager. The stigma in the Church of taking medication for depression terrified me. The fear of others finding out that I, a staff member and leader in the church, was depressed kept me in hiding.

This is what depression looked like for me:

Always feeling a little “lower” than those around me. Even when I’m excited, I don’t look like people think an excited person should look. I’m not necessarily unhappy, I just don’t have the same highs as others do and when I have a “low” period, it is lower than the average person.

Hiding in sleep. I require a decent amount of sleep – at least 8 hours a night to function well – but this goes beyond that. This teams up with exhaustion and makes me want to sleep all the time. I also have PCOD and part of that is a hormone imbalance that further complicates this symptom. When I don’t know what to do and feel overwhelmed, I sleep.

Difficulty focusing. I think this one has become worse over the years, even when my dysthymia is well managed. Maybe that’s living in a house with a bunch of off-the-wall boys? When my dysthymia is not in check, I’m all over the place and can’t complete anything.

Feeling like I can’t do anything right and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. I give up and stop even trying to complete anything or focus on anything.

Easily becoming mad at myself and feeling easily frustrated and uncontrollably irritable.

Feeling anxiety, irrational fears, and worry.

When my depression is under control, these things don’t magically disappear, but I can handle them. These symptoms are greatly lessened and manageable. They no longer throw me into a tailspin. For me, medication is the best treatment. For others, there are natural remedies that can help.

If you’re struggling this winter, know that you’re not alone. Make sure that whatever blahs you’re experiencing this winter are not a sign of something much bigger. You don’t need to be ashamed. Please seek help from your doctor, a counselor, or pastor. There is help.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV

God doesn’t always take afflictions away from us immediately; more often He seems to choose to walk through it with us. Paul tells us in that passage that God comforts us so we can comfort others. If you’ve faced your depression, comfort others by sharing your story and creating a safe place to deal with depression.

Amanda is a former church communications director turned homeschooling mom. She’s now using her BA in Bible and MA in Old Testament Studies to nurture and disciple her two boys with the help and support of her high school sweetheart and husband, Josh. She’s venturing into the world of Kindergarten with her oldest son this year using Sonlight as her base curriculum. She blogs about life, motherhood, homeschooling, technology, faith, books, and more at ThePelsers.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @apelser.

Growing up I did not like school and especially science, my favorite subjects were history and English. Homeschooling my children has broadened my interest in various subjects, one being science. I have realized that one of the reasons I did not like school was because it was something I was required to do. As I grew older and schooled my children I found my interest in knowledge growing.

Not only did I grow to like science through educating my children on the topic, but actually started understanding math I never understood before. In the past I found myself indulging in one of our favorite places, the library. As the children searched for either the next book in the current series they were emerged in or something new to read, I too searched. I have always had an interest in business and for two years read everything I could on the topic.

I’m going to back for a minute to when I was in my late teens early twenties and decided I wanted to learn how to type. I had dropped out of high school so I decided to take non-credit courses at the community colleges. I took typing and learned to type and then I found other classes I was interested in; journalism, psychology and more. While I did not get actual credit for those classes it was fine with me I could just take whatever interested me instead of having to stick to a schedule full of classes I had no interest in, now back to the present.

My husband had to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas day so we celebrated on the 26th. We had a wonderful lunch with the family played a Monopoly type game on the WII and my oldest son and I watched Midnight in Paris. My husband soon realized the only reason my son and I had an interest in the movie verses him and my younger son is because we both write, the movie is about a writer. At the end I thanked my son for sharing that with me, he had already seen it, and asked if he was interested in learning more about any of the famous people in the movie. He hesitated and then said Ernest Hemingway. That was so perfect, he was my pick also, we decided right there we would read his biography together along with one of his works.

I love the fact that both my oldest son and I share a love of writing and I look forward to starting our study of Hemingway. I will use this as high school credit for literature and glean more knowledge. You may be thinking what is the point of this? Never stop learning, help develop a love of learning in your children through mutual interests. Sit down with your children as you and them create a bucket list of learning. What things have you always wanted to learn or do and never had the time to or just blew off? What things would your children like to learn more about or even learn how to do? Now compare your lists and see what you have in common and make an attempt to learn about it or how to do it.

My learning bucket list includes some of the following, learn how to create with stain glass, make pottery, read music, kick boxing, stick fighting and more. My youngest is interested in stick fighting also so maybe one day we will do that together.

Share with us what have you always wanted to do and let us know it this has encouraged you to pursue it?

Joyce Wheeler is the mother of three and has been homeschooling since 1997. She has one daughter, already graduated, a son she is homeschooling through high school, and the other is a junior high student. Currently she is re-organizing her nonprofit organization, Education Jump-Off. Her mission is to aid in the education of the world’s greatest natural resource, the children, and “never stop learning” is her personal motto. A blogger and free lance writer you can find her at Homeschooling High School and Baton Rouge Homeschool Examiner.

Getting started with Pick and Draw is very simple. The entire Pick and Draw product is packaged to look like a deck of cards. Within the deck are five different facial features to draw, including eye and nose shapes and hairstyles. Then for each facial feature, Pick and Draw provides 9 distinctly different cartooning options.

To begin playing Pick and Draw, five cards are chosen at random, one from each facial feature category. Using paper and a pencil, a player first draws the face shape that is shown on the card. Next, the player adds the nose, eyes, mouth and hair shapes that are displayed on each particular chosen card. That’s it! The adorable cartoon face is done! It’s really that simple.

For added educational benefit, once the drawing of numerous faces are complete, homeschooling parents could assign creative writing assignments such as having kids give their cartoon faces a name and personality. Children will also enjoy writing a fanciful story to give life to their Pick and Draw cartoon faces.

My entire family really enjoyed Pick and Draw. My kids that have been enrolled in expensive art lessons loved Pick and Draw because of the ability to manipulate just one card (of the five needed for a particular face) in order to create some very different cartoon faces. As for me, I have no art training whatsoever. However, by following designs on the five cards faithfully, even I was able to draw adorable and funny cartoon faces!

Pick and Draw really is easy to understand and can be enjoyed by the entire family. It’s small and as portable as a deck of cards, so you can also take Pick and Draw along on your next trip.

Pamela has been homeschooling her kids since 2005. She has visited 41 states and 16 countries and now calls the beautiful Pacific Northwest home. You can find her writing about homeschooling, books and downsizing her life at I Read. Do You?

The key to successful homeschooling with toddlers is preparedness. Knowing this now, as I do, all the year round I keep an eye out at garage sales, thrift stores, and craft blogs for activities, inexpensive ones, that will keep a toddler’s attention. I don’t spend much money on busy activities for my toddlers, and many of them I’m able to make at home. Part of my being prepared to homeschool with toddlers includes teaching them to be able to sit for five to ten minutes at a time, on a blanket or in a high chair, with their own activities when I need to help an older sibling. Now, let me share some of my favorite activities, which we keep set aside for lesson time, and I’d love to hear yours.

Most toddlers love fine motor activities and beading is such a great toddler activity, whether it’s large wooden beads or pasta or animal shapes with holes. As with all things, use parental wisdom – if your toddler tends to put everything in their mouths, then you might have to wait a year or so on this activity.

I remember watercolor books from my childhood but they seem to be harder to find nowadays. We especially like the ones with little dots of paint all over the picture. They also make watercolor books with the paint palette at the top of the page. I tend to find watercolor books in the most unusual places, like drug stores, and most recently, Joann’s Fabrics. Whenever we’re in the coloring book section of a store, I take a quick peak for them and stock up when I see them.

Our first lacing cards came from a garage sale, vintage ones with shoe laces to thread through. Recently I’ve seen them available on www.amazon.com and in Barnes and Noble, so their popularity is growing. If you’re pinching pennies, you can also laminate some pretty graphics or magazine cut-outs and hole punch around the border. Dollar stores carry shoe laces, which are still our favorites for lacing. We are a crafty family and these are a hit with the toddlers in our home, who get to do their own “sewing.”

Lego Duplos are also kept for lesson time. They come in a large variety of shapes and colors and I don’t have to worry about them being a choking hazard for any babies that may be crawling around.

It may seem simple, but stickers are loved by the toddlers in our home and are a great activity for building those fine motor skills. I ration out a 500 pack of stickers from the dollar store with scrap paper and let our toddlers create a masterpiece.

A metal sheet (you can use a cookie sheet) and magnet sets are also a fun toddler activity. We have animal magnets, firemen magnets, Bible story ones, and the traditional numbers and letters. I sometimes write out words so our toddlers can match their letter magnets to them on the baking sheet and they can play act out their own stories with the people and animal magnets.

Play dough in our home is reserved for lesson time too. We make it at home, add in glitter for sparkles and essential oils for scent. You can color it with coffee, kool-aid, jello, or food coloring. We keep a basket of play dough toys like cookie cutters and a small rolling pin. Here is the recipe we have always used:

In a saucepan, mix two cups of flour and two cups of water. Stir in one tablespoon of oil and one teaspoon of cream of tartar and one cup of salt. Cook over low heat, stirring, until the dough thickens. When it is cool to touch, knead in your colors, scents, and sparkles of choice. We store ours in plastic zip-lock baggies.

I’d love to hear some of your toddler’s favorite activities too – won’t you chime in?

strong>Hannah is a relaxed homeschooling mama of six. Her and her family are big on the outdoors, big on family days, and big on making memories in everyday small ways. She loves handcrafts, iced lattes, re-arranging furniture and counts falling into bed exhausted a sign of a really great day. She and her husband make a home in upstate New York with their energetic children and a menagerie of animals. Hannah blogs at Cultivating Home and you can connect with her on the facebook page, Cultivating Home.

My boys were destined to study martial arts. Their father is a black belt in one karate style, went so far as brown belt in Aikido, and is currently a brown belt in a second karate style. Watching their father practice and test has always been a part of my son’s childhood.

I, however, grew up in a certain church tradition that was very leary of martial arts because it was assumed that they integrated ‘dangerous elements of eastern religions.’ I naturally assumed that line of thinking was absolutely correct.

But then I met my husband. He had already been practicing karate for 8 years and he was a solid, thoughtful man who served the Lord. In addition to good-humored, loyal and playful, I found him to be disciplined, attentive, straightforward and sincere. It turns out that that the martial arts weren’t a dangerous arena and in fact this practice had helped him develop those fantastic characteristics.

My older two boys are now a red belt in taekwon do and a blue belt in American freestyle karate. Both of them love their sport for different reasons. They love that they get to wrestle, punch and kick. They love the connection they have with their dad. And I think that they love acting on that manly desire to defend and protect. But there are other things that they equally love even if they can’t quite articulate them:

• Practicing leadership. My oldest son’s favorite days are when he leads the warm-up time. My middle son’s sensei continually comments that he is a natural leader. Both of them are patient teachers to the lower belts. They’re not in it just for themselves, but to help others. When everyone can practice the art with skill it makes the art worth doing.

• Practicing perseverance. Before you can learn the art of anything you have to learn the science behind it. Practicing forms for an hour may not be their favorite activity, but they slowly see improvement, continue to move up in belt color, and they feel physically and mentally stronger. Persevering through the long practices continues to drive home Persius’ quote, “He conquers who endures.”

• Practicing respect. Sparring too roughly earns the offender push-ups, as does being late and forgetting one’s belt. With every direction that is given in class the students respond with “Yes, Sir!” or “Yes, Sensei!” They are working with an obvious authority and are giving them due esteem. Not only are they respecting authority, but they are learning to respect their own bodies, their place in space, and their peers. It’s a fantastic practice for life.

In addition to building great character qualities, practicing martial arts has helped my boys with their differing special needs. At one time I would have argued that my oldest was ADHD. I’m not so sure any more. More and more I’ve seen him take instructions with grace, transition better, display good manners and focus. Granted, these things don’t happen all the time, but because he’s regularly in a taekwon do class that specifically requires these things of them I can’t help but think that it’s made some of the difference in how he relates to the world.

My middle son is dyslexic. There are plenty of studies and articles that support the practice of crossing one’s midline in order to increase reading and writing skills. My dyslexic husband remembers having to learn to crawl as part of his beginning therapy and practicing karate gives my son the same benefits. His reading has taken off and his writing is slightly more legible. Again, as a part of a balanced therapeutic and academic regime, karate helps in building those pathways in his brain.

We have one more son who is still a bit too young to tie a belt on the right way. But in time he may find is own place in a dojo. Martial arts has been just one of the building blocks of our family life. What began as a great way for my little guys to get some energy out has grown into a lifestyle and discipline that has helped prepare them to be the young men they are designed to be.

Debra Anderson has three sons ages 11 and younger. Her passions are education, mentoring, her husband, writing, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education, is married to her pastor-husband of 16 years, and resides in their newish home in Denver, CO. In spite of moves between four different states, she has always home educated her boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at www.emergent-homeschool.blogspot.com.

While enjoying a nice lunch at the Japanese restaurant we were recalling that it once used to be a Blockbuster video store. It had been remodeled so well that it was hard to remember the building in its original state. An old dingy video store was completely transformed into a Japanese Steakhouse haven. The old and dingy was turned to bright and beautiful–truly two worlds apart.

Upon reflecting this great design my husband states, “I would love to redesign our basement like this.” He was implying the abstract thought of changing what is now to what glory it could be like the video store turned into a nicely done restaurant. But my child immediately spoke and said, “No you cannot!”

We let her explain further and she exclaimed, “You cannot cook in the basement!”

My sweet girl has a form of autism called aspergers. She lives in a very literal world. She could not break that thought down herself, it needed to be explained to her. She takes what is said at face value, meaning she believes what you say exactly as you say it. As I have been learning how to communicate with her more directly I have been noticing just how many clichés, idioms, and strange sayings we use in the English language.

Now imagine yourself taking these things very literally and how you would respond:

• Let’s hit the road. My daughter thinks I am telling her to physically hit the road with her hand. Makes sense right? Yet it means, let’s get going.

• Let’s just not rock the boat. My daughter’s reply to this would be, “but we are not on a boat.”

• Hold your horses! Again, the response would be, “but there are no horses to hold.” Simply you could just say please be patience.

I hope you are catching on. If you take these things in the most literal sense then you are thinking like someone with aspergers. These kinds of sayings are all around us. I am sure you probably use some of your own. The list goes on and on. The good thing is that I have been teaching these to her. This helps her understand our complex language. However she is not the only one who does not understand these sayings, I also have to teach these strange concepts to my English as a Second Language students.

However, I could ask a question like, “did anyone drink out of my cup?” My daughter would reply, “Yes.” Since we have had this cup for a while now most everyone has taken a drink out of it at some point in time. However, I wanted to know, “Has anyone taken a drink out of my cup today besides me?” Then it makes perfect sense and gets to the point of my question. The other people in my family know what I am asking but they are not literal in their thinking.

Another important thing I have learned is to say exactly what I mean. I often say, “Not now.” However my daughter is hearing an implication of that meaning later. It is like a promise of not this minute but later this thing will happen. Because of this she continually comes back to me to ask the same question after some time has passed. So instead of saying not now I must clearly say no. We will not do that today. Or we will do that at this time. I must be very clear. When I am clear it makes things much easier for us all.

I challenge you to pay attention as you speak and see how many of these strange concepts you either say or hear. It will probably amaze you. Then think about those who will not understand what you are saying to them. We must communicate clearly. With the numbers of people with autism on the rise it is something we should try to pay attention to so we can communicate more clearly with others. It takes changing things but when you want to show love to others this is one way to do it. After all we could all be clearer in the way we communicate with one another anyway.

Angela Parsley, of the international ministry Refresh My Soul Ministries, is a wife and homeschooling mother to her 2 young daughters. Angela is also a contributing author to a devotional book entitled, “Standing on the Promises of God” and Radical Revolution, a devotional site for teen girls through Proverbs 31 Ministries.

When children begin learning a second language at birth, they have the capacity to learn them without getting confused — because, as the brain develops, so does the ability to separate one language from another.

Why learning a second language? There are many reasons but I think that in such a global environment now, you never know what you might need. Will a second language interfere your children’s English ability? Studies have shown ,and experience has supported, that learning another language enhances a child’s English ability. Children can learn much about English by learning the structure of other languages. Everyday vocabulary also helps children learn the meaning of new words in English.

This time we will learn 3 new colors: gray, black and white in Spanish

My goals for this lesson:

• To introduce new colors gray, black and white in Spanish
• To sort colors in a mat
• To relate colors in their oral and written form

I introduce Tacky, the penguin puppet and told my kids lot of funny things about him. It seems to be a very funny penguin. He is very friendly, too. He loves playing with snow and swimming in the cold sea.. And guess what? He is also learning Spanish!

Tacky told us he learned 3 new colors in Spanish:

• Gris / Gray*
• Negro / Black
• Blanco / White

We played “Tacky says”- our version of Simon says- and we had to look for gray, black and white things around us. If we found something of that color, we named it in Spanish. We gathered some of the objects and then sorted them by color. We also brainstormed more things white, black and gray.

*Note the British spelling of Grey

To practice and consolidate the new colors I made this filefolder for you. Teachable moments are there waiting for you! Happy teaching!  You can download the printables here.

Analia Capurro is the designer and owner of Ingles360.net® and the author of all the educational resources sold in her website. After 20 years of teaching children she found that the only way children love learning is if teachers love learning and teaching, too. Promoting a learning environment where laugh, fun and friendship and companionship are as important as any language structure, are the things she had in mind while designed her bilingual resources.

Homeschooling high school is full of focused, directed study; however, I do try to provide experiences for our kids that are really, truly fun. Each family is different and your idea of fun is going to be totally different than ours, but I’ll share ours with the hopes that you are inspired. Leave a comment or link back to your blog so that we can see the fun things that you do!

We’ve been very fortunate to have yearly drama camps in our area. These have consisted of a yearly high school One Act Play Competition, a week long drama camp, and a weekly Shakespeare Camp. Each of these experiences are quite different, and kids of all types are drawn to them because of the camaraderie and good, clean fun that is to be had. The initial drama camp (which morphed into the yearly competition) started with a group of homeschooling parents hosting a drama camp in their back-yard several years ago. Now it encompasses around 100 kids a summer, 2 nights of performances, and happy kids!

• Politics! We’ve been involved in campaigning since moving to our current state. We’ve had the opportunity to participate in local, state, and national elections and our kids get the fact that they have political clout even before they can legally vote! TeenPact has been a huge part of our political endeavors and opened the doors to a myriad of possibilities, including free Leadership Institute Training. Our kids have been flown across country to participate in political campaigns because of the contacts they’ve made through TeenPact. The “alumni events” for TeenPact students are terrific as well. Two of our older kids have both gone to Washington, D.C., for a week long walking tour of the city and to rub shoulders with notables such as Newt Gingrich.

• The Challenge Program, run by the Timothy group, is a male only camp run by IRL great friends of ours, former Air Force Major, Bruce Stansbury. If your son wants a physical and spiritual challenge, he should check it out.

• This might be an odd thing to add to the list of fun, but my older kids currently love their work situation. They are feeding baby calves one full day a weekend. My oldest son also hays with a friend of ours a couple of times each summer. It’s not regular work, but it’s outside, very physical, and pays well. Check out the opportunities where you live and talk to other parents. We have found out about all of our kids’ work sites through word-of-mouth.

• Create classes that you know your kids are interested in and invite others to join. This year I am teaching Creative Writing for high schoolers. My son is intensely interested in writing and has some serious goals surrounding it. The class gives him structure, gives me an opportunity to direct and encourage his work, and supplies the added benefit of getting lots of other kids involved in something we love.

• Do something physical. Anyone who’s been to any TeenPact event knows that Ultimate Frisbee is the official sport. Several kids in our areas organized a regular Ultimate Game after their first state class and 5 years later it’s still going strong. Homeschool high schoolers meet once a week, spring through fall, at a local park to play till its dark outside.

• Those same kids also go ball room dancing twice a month. Contact a local dance studio and see if they’ll provide a discount to homeschoolers with lessons to boot. Our kids continue the fun of the dance at the local Dairy Queen.

• Find cool field trips. This year our teens will go rock climbing, take a field trip through EROS, and a local radio station, visit a museum, have the opportunity to do the sculpture walk with an area artist and more. I’m sure your city has great opportunities for teens.

There are obviously lots of other ways for high schoolers to have fun, even while they are working hard academically. What do your teens do?

Lisa Nehring has been homeschooling her 5 kids (2 of whom have graduated) for the past 20 years. She holds Master’s degrees in Human Development and in Marriage and Family Therapy. Lisa has been involved in creating co-ops, class days, and camp experiences for homeschoolers, and was instrumental in bringing TeenPact to South Dakota. She writes regularly for the Homeschool Village as well as other magazines, websites and newsletters. Lisa and her husband of 25 years, David, a Christian Psychologist and Biblical Counselor, speak on marriage and parenting, education and homeschooling. Lisa blogs regularly about “crafting the extraordinary from the ordinary” at Golden Grasses.

Glass jars can easily be turned into an inexpensive Christmas gift. I like to use the 8 oz pickle jars, as long as you wash it well, the smell will go away. I usually just rinse it and turn it over in the drain board to dry and have never had a problem. If you are using it to put food items in I suggest putting through the dish washer or soaking well with water and dish soap.

The great thing about gift jars is that there is so much you can do with them. One Christmas, finances were really bad and I made a variety of gift jars for my family. For my niece and nephews I took their interests and decorated the jars with images I retrieved from Google. I cut them out and used Modge Podge to put them on the jar. I did paint some of the jars with acrylic paints and others I left, depending on the theme. I found a recipe on line for homemade hot chocolate mix that cost very little to make and was easy. I put that in the jar with some festive plastic wrap on the top, tied it with holiday ribbon, and stuck a candy cane in the ribbon. I figured once the contents were gone they could use them to hold pencils and pens on their desks at home.

I also made my pastor’s wife a jar. She loves snowman and I happen to have some glitter Modge Podge, so all I needed were some snowman images. I purchased those at Hobby Lobby. For the snowman I used white acrylic paint, placed the stickers around the jar and then with a paint brush applied the glitter Modge Podge. To tell you the truth I do not remember what I put inside of hers, but you can put potpourri or even candy.

Here are the items I like to keep on hand for this craft: stickers and scrapbooking paper for images, gloss Modge Podge, various colors of acrylics, different size paint brushes, tissue paper, ribbon and embellishments. For embellishments I have used beads, scrapbooking items and little Christmas ornaments. I use a hot glue gun to put on the ribbon around the rim, which you can leave plain if you want. You may also want to use the glue gun to attach beads or other embellishments. While I love tacky glue I have not been able to successfully use it with this craft. I have also used clear bead ‘n stretch for adding embellishments like the one shown with the utensils in it. I also want to add that I have tried to use the self adhesive ribbon with this project but was not successful. With this is the type of craft you can really be creative and let your imagination fly as far as what you are using to decorate.

Be sure to plan out your theme before you start and be sure you have all materials on hand. If you have never used acrylic paints before beware that while they are water soluble and very forgiving to work with, they will stain materials. One of the nice things about acrylics is that they dry fast, so when you need to add a second coat, which you most likely will, you do not have to wait long. The Modge Podge is also water soluble and for this reason you should inform your recipients that they are strictly for decorations and cannot be washed. I recommend just dusting them off with a dry cloth.

I have saved the best gift jar for last, after receiving a Bali jar with potpourri and Christmas lights in it my daughter came up with this wonderful idea. When you plug in the lights it heats the potpourri and fills your room with a wonderful scent and no flames. You will need the following items for this project: pastel tissue paper, potpourri, Modge Podge, a paint brush and a strand of mini lights, I have used various counts such as 50 and 70 which work fine. You should also have a 24 oz jar, the ones from applesauce work best. Remove the label and any access paper and glue from the jar and wash.

Once the jar is completely dry you are ready to begin.  First, choose which colors of tissue paper you will use. Tear off a piece of the tissue paper and using the Modge Podge adhere it to the jar. The more jagged and random the shapes the better.  Place some Modge Podge on the jar where you want to place the paper and than put a coat of Modge Podge over that continuing to add paper. Overlapping the pieces will give it a stain glass effect after you plug in the lights. This is why it is important to use only pastels for this project. Do this to the whole jar.  You can choose to do the rim or decorate it with ribbon or something else such as raffia. If you have any creases you have some options: try to straighten them out gently by using the paint brush or tooth pick, remove that area, or cover over it. In the past we have never had to remove an area. Once the jar is covered look over the jar carefully for any empty areas.

Now it is time to insert the string of lights and potpourris, and this is where things get kind of tricky. Make sure you have the lights on so you can see how it will look when you are done. Starting at the bottom of the jar put some potpourri into the jar and then put in some of the string of lights. You will need to continue with this process adjusting the lights and potpourri as you go along. Do not worry if you add to much just continue adding the lights and arranging them until you achieve the look you want. This is why the applesauce jar works best, it has a big enough opening to get your hand in. If you are unable to get your hand in, use the end of the paint brush or another item to aid in the arranging process.

I hope the images have helped you to understand this project, if you have any ideas for gift jars we would love for you to share them with our other readers.

Joyce Wheeler is the mother of three and has been homeschooling since 1997. She has one daughter, already graduated, a son she is homeschooling through high school, and the other is a junior high student. Currently she is re-organizing her nonprofit organization, Education Jump-Off. Her mission is to aid in the education of the world’s greatest natural resource, the children, and “never stop learning” is her personal motto. A blogger and free lance writer you can find her at Homeschooling High School and Baton Rouge Homeschool Examiner.