Guess Who is Turning TWO!

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Heart of the Matter is turning TWO!
What a fun adventure we’ve been through!

From baby to toddler, we started to crawl.
We took our first steps in front of you all.

Blessed by our writers and readers, it’s true.
Let’s celebrate with some gifts from us to YOU!

To enter the giveaways, please leave a comment below, telling us something about yourself or your family. We love getting to know our readers! If you are viewing this on Facebook, or any other website other than heartofthematteronline.com, please click here to be taken directly to the post to leave your comment. The goodies are numbered so be sure to include their numbers in your comment so we’ll know which prizes you are registering for.

The giveaways will close Friday, January 15th at 10:00pm EST. The winners will be notified via email by Monday the 18th and will have until Thursday the 21st to confirm with a mailing address.

$15 Starbucks giftcards (two available)

Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 16,635 stores in 49 countries! Starbucks sells drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, snacks, and items such as mugs and coffee beans. Through the Starbucks Entertainment division, the company also markets books, music, and film. Your gift card may be used for an online purchase or in local store.  Goodie #1

$50 Target giftcard

Win a $50 gift card to Target, everyone’s favorite retailer! Shop one of more than 1500 local Target stores or online at Target.com for Furniture, Electronics, Toys, Men’s and Women’s Clothing, Gifts, Appliances, Video Games, Bedding and Shoes. Expect More. Pay less.  Goodie #2

Amazon.com Gift Card
Win a $25 Amazon gift card! Amazon.com is America’s largest online retailer. With your Amazon gift card, you can purchase movies, shows and documentaries on DVD, music CDs and MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and certainly don’t forget the amazing selection of thousands upon thousands of BOOKS. You choose your own book(s) for your child or yourself.  Goodie #3

Tickets to A Woman Inspired: An Efficient and Creative Life conference (5 available)
A conference you can attend in your jammies!! You don’t want to miss such speakers as Laura, of OrgJunkie; Sandy Coughlin, of Reluctant Entertainer; Meredith, of Like Merchant Ships; Rhoda, of Southern Hospitality; Jennifer Schmidt, of Beauty and Bedlam; Karin Katherine of Mommy Matters; Erin Chase of $5 Dinners.com and many more!!

You’ll learn how to:

• develop your God given talents and gifts
• push past creative blocks
• further your education in the area of your choice (at no cost)
• be more productive
• be more focused
• let your light shine!  Goodie #4

Life Cycles Collection by David M. Schwartz
The Magic of Growth & Change is featured in this stunning 12-book science series for beginning readers. (Creative Teaching Press)

Titles as follows: Monarch Butterfly, Ladybug, Jumping Spider, Green Snake, Bean, Sunflower, Wood Frog, Chicken, Horse, Maple Tree, Green Snake, Fighting Fish. Goodie #5

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise
Parents can assure their child’s success in language arts with this simple-to-use, scripted guide. First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind uses picture study and other classical techniques to develop the child’s language study in those first two all-important years of school. Each lesson leads the parent, step-by-step, through the simple oral and written projects that build reading, writing, spelling, storytelling, and comprehension skills. Use this book to supplement school learning, or as the center of a home-school language arts course.  Goodie #6

Real Moms…Real Jesus: Meet the Friend Who Understands by Jill Savage
What does Jesus know about the peanut-butter-and-jelly life of a mom? Plenty! Jill Savage, founder and director of Hearts at Home, introduces the real Jesus to real moms. In chapters that examine key behaviors and decisions Jesus made during His life on earth, Jill brings those lessons right down to the laundry-filled, sticky-fingered days every mother knows.

Between the chapters are interactive vignettes that turn the concept of the book back around. If the meat of the content is looking at Jesus’ life on earth and understanding how to apply that in our everyday lives, these perspective vignettes are brief, refreshing glimpses starting with our own messy, busy lives. Jill continually reminds the reader that Jesus is not an unattainable deity, but a Friend who understands.  Goodie #7

Handwriting Without Tears: Letters and Numbers for Me
Letters and Numbers for Me is for kindergarten students or older students working at that level.

Students learn to write capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, words and simple sentences.

Letters are taught in a developmentally appropriate teaching order.
Learning capitals and numbers is reversal free using the slate.  Goodie #8

Biographies that Build Character by Kathy Rogers
This book contains short biographical sketches of Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Booker T. Washington, Albert Schweitzer, Abigail Adams, Robert E. Lee, Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Sitting Bull, George Washington John Muir, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sacagawea, Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, Frederick Douglass, Dorothea Dix, and Mother Teresa. These are organized by character trait that is stressed in each story. There are four activities suggested at the beginning of the book that could be used with any story. Then, with each story is a teacher’s guide, the story itself, and a reproducible written activity.  Goodie #9

Building Christian Character by Robin Wolfe
This book contains 13 units, each unit focusing on a different value. Children will learn about honoring God, obeying rules, telling the truth, and other values that help to build Christian character. Each unit contains a teacher’s resource page that supplies ideas for games, crafts, object lessons, and simple songs. Complete, simple instructions for each activity, as well as illustrations, make teaching easy. A Bible story is provided to teach each value lesson. Questions at the end of the story will provide an opportunity for the children to think about what the story means and how to apply it.  Goodie #10

Economics: Concepts and Applications Student Text and Teacher Guide by Larry D. Hodge
This book covers the basic concepts of all parts of the economy ranging from personal, individual microeconomic issues to large-scale, global macroeconomic issues. It is divided into 7 units (18 chapters in total) and covers the following topics: introduction to economics; capitalism, communism, and socialism; America and free enterprise; money, banking, and investment; government and the economy, measuring economic performance, and trade. Although comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking activities are provided in the worktext, the answers are only available in the teacher’s guide. The teacher’s guide also includes additional skill builder lessons covering skills like reading a stock market report and comparing costs using the consumer price index. Unit reviews and a test are included in the teacher’s guide.  Goodie #11

Mommy Grace: Erasing Your Mommy Guilt by Dr. Sheila Shuller Coleman
Remember when you were younger and did not have children yet? Do you remember when you had it ‘all figured out’…marriage, finances, motherhood? Then reality set in and all that was believed to be figured out became question marks. Every step you took as a mother was tested and challenged and then it dawned on you: no one has the answers and the child in all of the child-rearing help books did not actually exist. Mommy Grace is about that process and how as mothers we carry the guilt that comes from daily parenting and we make mistakes.  We can be ‘redeemed, forgiven and loved‘ daily through Jesus Christ.  Goodie #12

Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach by Howard Glasser, MA & Jennifer Easley, MA. Included: Transforming the Difficult Child: An Interactive Guide to the Nurtured Heart Approach by Howard Glasser, Joann Bowdidge, & Lisa Bravo

Tried all the other ‘proven’ methods of discipline only to find that they did not work on your child? These books help you re-evaluate those methods and help you develop a customized for-your-child approach.They provide solid tools for dealing with your child’s behavior and even gives predictable responses from your child and how to approach them from those situations. The workbook offers positive activities, not only for you and your child, but also for YOU! If you’ve tried all of the ‘best’ and gotten nowhere, don’t give up, give this book set a try!  Goodie #13

Montessori Today: A Comprehensive Approach to Education from Birth to Adulthood by Paula Polk Lilliard

Have you been thinking about trying the Montessori Method with your little one and don’t know where to start? This book will get the ideas flowing with practical tips and applying the Montessori Method to your child’s life. The author brings over a decade of experience as a Montessori teacher and administrator to this overview of Maria Montessori’s teaching methods which “balance freedom with responsibility in the classroom and also set high standards of intellectual and social development for children.”  Goodie #14

Teach Your Child to Read  in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox & Elaine Bruner

A homeschooling favorite! This book guides you through the painstaking task of teaching your child how to be an independent reader. By applying the tried-and-true method of using phonics you can have your child reading in as little as 20 minutes a day. This is an added bonus for those who have children that are reluctant readers or have short attention spans. Goodie #15

I Spy Two Eyes by Lucy Micklethwait

Employing the same clever contrivance she used in I Spy: An Alphabet in Art , Micklethwait combines a favorite children’s game with a pleasurable exercise in art appreciation. On each left-hand page of this handsome book, a number appears, written both as a word and in extra large numerals. Along with it is the name of an object–1 fly, 2 eyes, 17 birds, and so on–to be spotted, then counted, in a reproduction of a fine painting found on the opposite page. Micklethwait has taken great care not only to find pictures that will challenge children (it’s no snap to find 12 squirrels in Abu’l Hasan’s “Squirrels in a Plane Tree” or 15 hands and feet in Fernand Leger’s “Divers on a Yellow Background”), but also to represent a wide range of art styles and subjects.  Goodie #16