More Molly--Less Money (review)

Would you like more Molly for less money? You can have it! That’s right, Econobusters has a brand new, subscription-based, members-only program! The best part is that it is only $3.95 per month. That’s right, a dollar cheaper than just buying Molly’s Money-Saving Digests each month. And, you get a lot more. Here’s a look at what you receive:

The Members’ Resources section includes free downloads (mostly menu related), links to coupon sites, price comparison sites, grocery saving sites, deal sites, and cash-back sites. These links alone could save you hours of online searching! Each month the page will change.

The “March: Spring Is in the Air—Frugal Choices Everywhere” resources include substantial sneak peeks into some of Molly’s newer recipe e-books, FREE e-books from guest writers (recipes and cleaners), and a bunch of miscellaneous, fun goodies with a Spring emphasis. Molly doesn’t forget the kids with a slew of homeschool/kid-friendly links to gardening resources. What kid doesn’t love to get his hands dirty? I might even use the garden checklist for myself.

Of course, Molly’s March Money-Saving Digest is included in your exclusive Econobusters membership. Molly’s “Begin with the Basics” section is all about grilling—there’s more to it than you think. She’s also included some yummy looking marinade recipes. Speaking of recipes, you’ll find the usual week’s worth of menus (and mouth-watering photographs), complete with a shopping list. Forms included are the March month-at-a-glance calendar, contacts, and a daily spending account form. Need a few ideas to make your home look a little more spring like? Molly’s got some great tips. My favorite ideas are how to make the most of your outdoor living spaces—frugally.

The new digest and downloads will automatically show up on your member page the first of each month. You will be able to access prior month's subscriptions and digests from this page as well. Your credit card or PayPal account will be auto-charged $3.95 on the first of each month, unless you cancel before the first. Hurry on over to Econobusters to become a Molly Member!

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Schoolroom Makeover

A few weeks ago, I posted several articles to help get us all through the winter season (weather wise and school wise). Here are the links in case you missed them the first time or "Chicken Soup for Mom's Soul" and "Beyond Blah."

Anyway, I just know y'all are dying to know what I really do to combat the winter blues, so here's my true confessions (haven't had one in a while): I eat chocolate, and I rearrange and reorganize rooms.

This time, the school room got a makeover. This is before:



This is after:

Note that we were able to get rid of one of the desks. That shiny built-in cabinet in the back housed our desktop computer until this past fall, when it died. So, my messy teenager inherited that space (yes--I can close the door on her disaster zone!!), my younger daughter inherited the desk with the hutch, and I kept my desk the same. We've got much more floor space and it looks a lot brighter.

Aaahhhh, I love rearranging furniture! Now all I need is some (more) chocolate.

Q4U: What's your favorite room to rearrange?

Christian Classical Education Defined

Wait! Before you all bury your heads in the sand and run screaming in the other direction, let’s look at what a classical education actually encompasses. I think you’ll discover that it’s not as scary as you thought it was and that it’s the type of education you really want your children to have by the time they graduate from your homeschool. “Classical education is about equipping children for the future with what has been successful in the past” (Classical and Christian Education, Gregg Strawbridge). In other words, it’s the antithesis of this new-fangled math that confounds all of us parents. It trains the mind to learn. It is academically rigorous, well-rounded, comprehensive, and can be used from kindergarten all the way through high school graduation and beyond. It emphasizes languages, structure, living books, the chronological study of history, and excellence. Classical education dispenses with the fluff to cut straight to the heart of the matter.

That all sounds good to me. I want my kids to have that kind of an education; what about y’all?

Take a deep breath. Here comes that ubiquitous word that seems sends people cowering: the trivium. It’s not that scary, really. The word trivium is even in my dictionary (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition), “A group of studies consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric and forming the lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval universities” (and is completed by the quadrivium). These three stages are the grammar stage, which is roughly equivalent to the elementary ages; the dialectic stage, which is comparative to the middle school or junior high school years; and the rhetoric stage, which encompasses the high school years. Notice that these are stages, not cut-and-dried ages.

To borrow from Strawbridge again, these three stages suggest an approach to learning. The grammar stage approach emphasizes knowledge mastery and basic facts. This is the age when children delight in memorizing long lists of facts and then spouting them off at every opportunity. Classical education provides children with information (Latin vocabulary words, history dates, spelling words, scientific facts, etc.) to memorize that they can pull out of their memory banks later when they are trying to synthesize what they know.

The dialectic or logic stage teaches preteens to do well what they naturally want to do at that age anyway: argue. The approaches utilized during this stage are principle comprehension and the capacity to reason. Classical education helps children to think more analytically and logically. Students are taught to evaluate statements for logic and truth.

The rhetoric stage approach emphasizes expression and application. Classical education here seeks to teach students to take all of the facts that they learned during the grammar stage and to synthesize them, make sense out of them (the logic stage), and to present them in a pleasing, sensible format. Teens learn to form opinions intelligently.

Dorothy Sayers, in her epic 1947 essay The Lost Tools of Learning, laments the loss of good education in public schools. I am quite sure that the overall quality of public school educations has not improved in the sixty plus years since then. The lost tools are the subjects that build a solid, educational foundation.

These days, people are all about handing the school reins over to the children. I’ve overheard comments such as, “Well, they’ll be more into school if they get to study whatever they want.” Nonsense! How can children decide what they need to study when they don’t even know what they need to know? If it were up to my girls, there would not be a single math textbook in our house. One can’t get by in the world without knowing some basic math facts (although I have my doubts about the necessity of Algebra 2!). Many questions and areas of study require systematic instruction. That just doesn’t happen when one skips from topic to topic. History happened chronologically; doesn’t it make sense to study it chronologically? How else would one know whether the Civil War happened before or after the Spanish-American War?

So, how does an education go from being simply classical to being Christian classical? It studies the Bible and its history right along with the history of ancient Rome and ancient Greece. It uses the Bible as its foundation for truth. It forms its worldview from a biblical basis.

All of this makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you? Let me know your thoughts, please!

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Winners!

And, we have our winners! Thank you everyone for visiting my blog and leaving such fun comments. I love getting to know my readers. :-)

The winner of Mother-Daughter Duet by Cheri Fuller & Ali Plum is Cheryl (but I'm still waiting for her to confirm her snail mail address).

The winner of Dancing with My Father by Sally Clarkson is Charlotte.

Please stop by my blog again, and if you didn't win this time, I have more giveaways in store for the future!

GIVEAWAY! Mother-Daughter Duet (review)

No relationship is more complex than between mothers and daughters. As a mother, my ultimate goal is that my daughters will grow up to be my friends. As a daughter, I know that that friendship can be pretty rocky at times. Mother-Daughter Duet was written by the mother-daughter team of well-known author Cheri Fuller and Ali Plum. Who better to show the way than women who have successfully navigated the minefield from distance and tension to acceptance and friendship. While written mostly from a mom’s perspective to other moms, Ali adds just enough of a daughter’s perspective to balance it out. The authors include personal anecdotes and proven principles to help you improve your relationship with your daughter(s) and daughter(s)-in-law.

Even though Mother-Daughter Duet is aimed towards mothers of adult daughters, I found many helpful insights to apply to my relationships with my teen and pre-teen daughters. Cheri and Ali discuss validation (needed by daughters of all ages), respect, crises, motherhood, and more in a relaxed, open tone that makes every mother—and every daughter—want a relationship like theirs. I think I’ll have to read this book more than once to glean all of its golden nuggets!

Giveaway! Yes, this is 2 giveaways in 1 day! I’ve discovered that I love giving stuff away, but I can’t afford to do it unless the company for whom I’m writing the reviews sends me an extra. Sigh. So, enjoy it while it’s here. To enter, leave me a comment in the comment section below and tell me in 1 sentence about your mother or about your daughter(s). I’ll choose a winner after 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Disclaimer: These books were provided for the review and giveaway by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.