By the time I was 18, I already had years of experience working at my family’s business. I never needed to go look for a job because I already had several: cleaning rooms in my parents’ motel, pumping gas at their Mobil station, stocking shelves or ringing the cash register in the country store, and waiting tables in the restaurant.

Fast-forward 26 years…. As a homeschool mom, the idea of internships for my kids never occurred to until after my oldest had already graduated. Was it too late for her to benefit from an internship?

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How can I afford to homeschool a houseful of kids? One of my secrets is a Yearly Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com. For an annual fee, I have access to resources that help with specific stages and issues in homeschooling, complete courses for every level I teach, recordkeeping software, an online library, engaging video content, and more.

In November, I wrote a blog post introducing SchoolhouseTeachers.com. As part of the 2018 Schoolhouse Review Crew, I was asked to write an additional review. As I peered at the site through fresh eyes, I explored sections I had not noticed before.

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My mom is the keeper of our family tree. When she is not chasing after grandchildren or cooking an amazing meal in the kitchen, I often find her hunched over her laptop uncovering yet another secret of our past.

When we visited my parents over the summer, my 13-year-old daughter started to get excited about genealogy as well. She and I spent hours at my mom’s computer tracing our lineage and learning about ancestors we never knew we had. It was fascinating to discover family members who sailed on the Mayflower, others who rubbed shoulders with founding fathers and presidents, and quite a few who fought for our country in wars we read about in history books.

I took some time during our New Year’s visit this week to interview my mom and daughter about their interest in genealogy.

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Have you ordered groceries online yet? In previous blogs, I described how ordering with the Walmart Grocery app and picking it up at the curb is a big time saver which simplifies my life and saves me money.

Has my experience been completely flawless? Not quite. I have experienced a few minor glitches while catching up with the learning curve.

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In my previous blog, I shared how using Walmart’s Grocery app to order groceries and then pick them up at the curb can save me up to an hour each week. But time-saving tools do not always make my life easier, and they often come at a significant financial cost. Can ordering groceries online simplify my life and save me money?

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I would love to have extra time in my day, but I am often skeptical of supposed “time-saving resources.” Do they really save time? Is it worth spending extra money? I usually assume that there is little overall benefit, knowing that something that sounds too good to be true usually is.

A few months ago, a friend from church ordered groceries online from Walmart and took my daughter with her to pick them up. While visiting my brother-in-law in Colorado last month, he used the same service to purchase all the ingredients for our delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I heard that ordering online and picking up at the store was faster, easier, and less expensive than shopping at my local grocery store, but is it true?

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Do you ever wonder how a mom with a houseful of kids can homeschool them all? How can any one person be able to teach every subject to each student at a level the child can understand? My primary strategy is to provide self-paced curriculum which my children can complete independently, especially for subjects like English.

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When Joshua, Caleb, and ten other reps from Israel went to check out the land God had promised them, it was overwhelming. The cities were fortified. Their enemies seemed like giants. The opposing armies appeared to be undefeatable, the cities impregnable. Even though Joshua and Caleb knew they could not lose with God on their side, the other ten said they could never take the land. Most of the people decided it would be suicide to even try.

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One site
300 courses
All levels
Videos
Curriculum
Planning tools
Core subjects and electives
Under $100

Several years ago I had an account on SchoolhouseTeachers, a site which offers a variety of homeschool classes for an annual membership fee. I used the resource sporadically but forgot about it when the new school year arrived. Eventually my membership expired.

Last year I rediscovered the site and learned they now have more than 300 courses available for their members. This includes the basics – English, Math, History, Geography, and Science…as well as electives like Computers, Art, Speech, Business, and Logic. The courses I had originally explored with my kids were still there, and new lessons have been added to most. In addition, the site provides streaming video content. When I realized that the special membership rate was under $100 for the year, becoming a member was a no-brainer for me.

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In a previous blog post, I shared how my 12-year-old daughter was able to be a blessing to others and build life skills through an internship. After seeing how beneficial the experience was both for her and for the music store where she interned, I started to seek out an appropriate internship for my son.

What could a quiet, techno-driven 17-year old do?

Minecraft, programming, video games, Android apps, digital music creation—anything that has to do with technology is a natural fit for my 17-year-old son, Jacob. A true digital native, he acquires new technological skills at the drop of a hat! Internship opportunities in the digital realm must surely abound, but where would I find the positive, Christian atmosphere I wanted him to have for his first internship?

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