Vacations to locations like Washington, D.C. aren't cheap. Our daughters came home from TeenPact (not an affiliate link), a hands-on leadership school for Christian students, in April 2013. TeenPact's mission " is to train youth to understand the political process, value their liberty, defend their Christian faith, and engage the culture at a time in their lives when, typically, they do not care about such things." Well, TeenPact's mission had a huge impact on Kelsi (15) and Brittany (13). When they arrived home, all they could talk about was making a trip to Washington, D.C. as a family! Hey, girls, how do you want to finance this trip to D.C.? (Good question, right?) This blog post is a bit lengthy, but I hope it will inspire you to come up with some great ways to help pay for a family vacation like this. We began to brainstorm about how we could come up with additional funding to pay for a family "fieldtrip" to Washington, D.C. We're a single income (lower "middle class") family. We became debt free in July 2013, except for our house payment each month...but in our area, food budgets are quite high, especially for those who eat healthy, whole foods. (To prove this, we spend more money each month on groceries/paper products/health-beauty products than we do on our house payment. Ouch. We also live in a low-income neighborhood, which may help explain why food is more expensive than our house payment. ☺) I don't have a smart phone; I rarely buy things for myself. I only get highlights in my hair twice a year...sometimes, only once a year. My husband and I have purposefully lived frugal lives since we married 18 years ago, in order to enable me to stay at home with our children. While we use a credit card for items on which we'll be reimbursed, like our church Awana ministry (my husband is the Awana Commander at our church), we generally pay cash for everything else. Other than our annual winter trip to a beach house shared with my parents and some of my aunts and uncles, held in the winter because the rates are so much less expensive, and a 3-day trip to Seattle in October 2012 to stay with friends, we hadn't traveled with our girls since 2008 (five years ago). Our ideas were:
How did things go? Well, we prayed about making this kind of trip. That was the best idea! If it wasn't within God's plan or will for us to make this trip, we didn't want to travel there. If you know anything at all about me, you'll know right away that robbing a bank wasn't an option. At least, not for long! I don't feel led by God to work outside of my home, other than a few days I work in the spring, and several times a year helping to provide homeschool testing in my county. The Lord has always taken care of our true needs without me having to go back into the full time workforce. I'm so grateful for that! We looked at our budget, and found that while there wasn't a lot of wiggle room, there were a few things we could do. While this may not be popular with some families, we made these decisions:
I realize that some of you are already living as frugally as this, and still may not be able to find the funds to go on a trip to Washington, D.C. We still didn't see how we could set aside enough money for four plane tickets, 7 nights of lodging in the D.C. area, food expenses, and entrance fees to some of the activities. It was time for a garage sale! I've heard some people say that it's not worth it to have garage sales. We hadn't held a garage sale for about 10 years, so we figured it was worth giving it a try. Items that we no longer use are generally given away or donated on a regular basis to a local organization - because we don't like clutter, but we did have an attic that needed going through, as well as some closets and drawers. It took us about two weeks to go through everything in our home, sort and bag small items, price everything, and set up our tables. We borrowed banquet tables and card tables from friends and relatives, and then spent a fair amount of time arranging items by type, in a visually appealing manner. We labeled items clearly and carefully, and we were willing to drop the prices except for two items (a very nice student guitar that was too small for our girls, and a child's bicycle, being sold at our garage sale for some friends of ours). We bought four very large "garage sale" signs at Walmart so they would be highly visible, posting them on busy intersections near our house. These were under $5 for all four large, waterproof signs. I spent a good 45 minutes very clearly writing out the dates/times of our two-day garage sale with a new black Sharpie pen, as well as drawing a black directional arrow on each sign, pointing in the direction of our house. Hint: write large enough so that anyone driving by can quickly see the date, time, and address of your garage sale. If you're not sure how large to make your letters, write a few words on a piece of scratch paper, and hold it 20 feet back from someone else to see if they can clearly read it as they walk by. I also advertised our garage sale on Facebook (to friends/family only), on Craigslist.com for our local area, and on our private local Yahoo group for homeschooling families. We made homemade chocolate chip cookies, and sold those as well, keeping fresh plates of cookies on the table where people paid for their purchases. They ALL sold quickly. Woot! Would you believe that those nickels and dimes added up quickly to end up paying for two plane tickets? Elmer and I were able to purchase our round-trip plane tickets from the Oregon to Washington, D.C., thanks to our garage sale earnings. We were so surprised! In our minds, spending about 20 hours of combined time (including the garage sale itself) was entirely worth it. Wow! Several people mentioned to us that our garage sale was very organized and neat/clean. We think that helped us do as well as we did, although the full credit goes to God. We also did something that some of you may find controversial. We asked our girls to buy their own plane tickets. The truth was, we figured out that even with all of our efforts, we wouldn't be able to buy all four plane tickets. At $380 per person ($1520 altogether), we knew that the girls were going to have to pitch in to help pay for their plane tickets. They did. My girls teach private music lessons after school, several days a week, so they saved their money for five months in order to help buy their plane tickets. You may think that's cruel. They were willing to do this, and showed their dedication to the idea of a family trip to a historical city, by putting their money where their mouth is. Over the next few months, my husband and I will probably pay them back for all but maybe $100 of the plane tickets. We wanted to know how dedicated they were to making this trip happen, and they showed us they were ready to make the commitment and to share the financial burden of the trip We prayed for the Lord to show us some miraculous ways to help our trip become a possibility. God tangibly provided extra funds in unusual ways:
There were other ways that money showed up, in smaller amounts. Every dollar counted! So we set the money aside, week by week, month by month. We ended up with exactly what we needed to make this trip, debt-free. God is amazing! Note: on our trip, we did use our credit card for all of our out-of-town purchases. However, we transferred the funds from our savings account to the VISA card as soon as we arrived back home. Well, okay, the next day - we were pretty exhausted the night we arrived home! I'll summarize our fund-raising like this:
I'll be sharing useful tips on staying and eating frugally in D.C. in the weeks to come, so if you haven't signed up to receive my blog posts via email, please do. You'll find the email sign-up on the right hand side of this page, in the pink box. Read all of my helpful tips about staying frugally in Washington, D.C.!
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Parallel parking. . . does the photo, above, pretty much sum up your feelings about parallel parking? In our small town, I haven't had to parallel park in many years. Probably since I was in high school. Yes, we do have parking spots downtown that are designed for parallel parking, only. But the downtown area isn't horribly busy except for a few times a year, so I can always find two open spots next to each other. That's why I've got away with not needing to parallel park for so many years! Things change when a high schooler is learning to drive, however! Even though my community doesn't require parallel parking on the driver license field exam, I still want my daughters to be able to parallel park and not be completely afraid of the process. However, since I hadn't parallel parked in so many years, I decided not to teach my 15-year-old yet. Then, my sister's friend posted a YouTube video for her that easily and quickly describes how to parallel park with ease. This is ingenious! I'm thrilled to have watched this helpful, quick DVD. You can bet that I'll be showing this to my oldest daughter tomorrow so she can learn how to easily parallel park - even better than her mom. :) Here's the helpful video. EnJOY your weekend - even if it requires you to do some parallel parking! Autumn is my favorite time of year! I love cool mornings and evenings, the sound of dried leaves skittering across the sidewalk, the colors of the trees. It's so refreshing to have a change in seasons, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we do see a nice change every few months! It can be difficult to find autumn / fall decorations that share a biblical worldview, so my daughter, Kelsi, and I made some for you. I shared these last year with Joy In Our Journey.com's readers, and they were very popular! You are welcome to print these off for your own family's use, or for your own Sunday School class or school classroom. They'll print well on cardstock or index paper, and you may choose to laminate them if you'd like, for years of use. Please note the copyright on the downloads, and use them for your own personal use only. These are not available for claiming as your own work, sharing on another website, etc. Thanks! I hope you enJOY using these as much as we enJOYed making them for you! I pray that the month of October is a blessing to you and your family. Thanks for coming by to visit!
I haven't decided if I will take these to the local printshop and have them wire spiral bound - or not. I think I'll try this in a 3-ring binder this year, and see how it all turns out. I hope these science lab record notebook pages work well for you this year. Please let others know about these free downloads that will help homeschoolers with their science studies! Thanks.
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Also, check out my free download of my Lab Record Notebook - perfect for using with Apologia science texts, or any other science curriculum you prefer. |
Joann Fabrics & Crafts has now opened up this next school year's sign-up process to receive a teacher/homeschool discount card for everything in their store! Yeah for frugal living and helping you save a little bit of money with each purchase during this next school year!
After you sign up, you'll receive a 20% off coupon in your email, and then after 3-4 weeks, you'll receive your 15% off discount card in the regular mail.
Here's the link to sign up:
They won't ask you online to "prove" that you are a homeschooler, but the first time you take your Joann's homeschool/teacher discount card in to the store to be validated, you'll be asked to show something to "prove" that you are a homeschooler. You could use a card or letter from HSLDA to show that you are a member of that group or any homeschool association; you could also show them the letter you receive from your local ESD or school office that you have registered your children for homeschooling.
If you are a teacher currently working in a school district (private or public), you'll need to show them evidence that you are teaching in that school district.
Have there been any other types of documentation you've used to show Joann employees that you are a homeschooler? Let me know!
Looking for some fun, educational, frugal choices for your family as summer wanes away?
I was surprised to learn that these DVDs are currently selling for a great price right now!
When my girls were younger, they didn't fully understand Liberty's Kids programs on PBS, although Kelsi did enjoy them. Brittany was simply too young at the time to figure out what they were about.
So maybe this seems silly to you, but it made perfect sense to me. When I saw that the complete series of Liberty's Kids on DVD was priced at under $7, I was thrilled! That's 40 episodes - woot!
We won't be diving back into U.S. history for a couple more years, so this is a fun way to watch the beginnings of our nation and have some fun while watching and learning together with the DVD!
Brittany, at age 13, definitely understands what's going on in the DVD now - and while history isn't her favorite educational subject, she'd rather "watch" history instead of "read" history, so it's a win-win for all involved. We're all enjoying watching this together!
Don't worry. I'll "make" her read more about U.S. history when we reach that point in our history studies again. :) I'm one of those "mean mommas."
My girls loved-loved-loved The Magic School Bus episodes on PBS when they were younger. I'll admit it: my children are officially too old for The Magic School Bus anymore, but I still think they are made very well and present a broad exploration of a topic. A few episodes point back to evolutionary concepts, which may or may not bother you as a parent - just so you are aware of this.
I don't remember us ever being able to view Where on Earth is Carmen SanDiego, but I do remember having an inexpensive computer game featuring Carmen SanDiego. It was a bit hit in our home!
These educational DVDs are priced well for families and libraries. I don't know how long they will be priced like this, although I do know that the Liberty's Kids DVD has been at lower prices off and on this summer.
What are your favorite children's educational DVDs?
I'm always on the lookout for historical fiction and fantasy books for my children which are not filled with magic, evolution, or humanism.
The Peleg Chronicles: Foundlings, by Matthew Christian Harding, was provided to my family recently for the purpose of reading and writing a review as a member of the TOS Crew.
Directly on the back cover of Foundlings are three statements that I noticed right away:
- No magic
- No Evolution
- No Humanism
Foundlings is a fictional story that takes place around the time of Peleg, an Old Testament Bible character. Foundlings is written in more of a "Lord of the Rings" style, if your children are interested in those kinds of stories. You can take a look at this chart and see where Peleg comes into the timeline:
McDougal is one of the main characters. Noble but clumsy, he does as much as he can to fight for what is good and true.
Fergus is a soldier-protector of McDougal. He faithfully follows wherever McDougal needs him.
There are many other minor characters throughout the story. They are all colorful and contribute well to the theme of this book.
I liked reading Foundlings. It was really nice to know that the author understands the importance of our children taking for granted that a "young earth" philosophy is not only food for thought, but true and accurate. The story was lively, adventurous, and funny. There was no extreme gore or anything that I would caution parents about.
My oldest daughter started reading Foundlings right away after it arrived, but for some reason, after a few pages, she lost interest in the book. (I suspect that this was due to checking out from the library 3-4 books of a series that she was enjoying reading and didn't want to interrupt "her" series.)
Over the next two weeks, I read and finished reading Foundlings, so I reminded her that it was her turn to finish reading it. She resisted, but obeyed, and after 20 more minutes of reading, she said to me, "Mom, I don't know why I didn't want to read this a couple of weeks ago. It's a fun and interesting book!"
I wouldn't say that this book was the most captivating book I've ever read, but its audience is between ages 10-13. The only thing that I found distracting in this book was that it had a need for some significant editing of punctuation and grammar. However, I don't think that most children would notice this.
Now, it will be Brittany's turn to read the book. I suspect that we are going to need to order Paladins sometime very soon!
Disclosure: I received a copy of Foundlings at no charge in exchange for an unbiased opinion and review here for you, my readers. No other compensation was provided.
But we still have about three weeks to go until we will officially "end" our school year.
While most public school students will turn in their textbooks despite having not completed most of their texts, my daughters will complete their textbooks and curricula in full, some by June 1st, and some through the summer in order to finish at a pace that meets their needs.
This was the first year that I made weekly lesson plans for all of the girls' school subjects. They have known all year that in order to "graduate" to the next grade level, they will need to finish their assignments through the end of their curricula and textbooks.
Why do I have them finish their books completely, even though public schooled students rarely finish a text?
Homeschool textbooks and curricula are designed to be used, modified, and adapted by the home educator to fit well for each family. Often, though, if curricula is used in a series, as in Math-U-See being used from kindergarten through Calculus, it would be a hindrance for the student to not complete the previous text.
Public schooled textbooks are generally written so that the first couple of months are a review from the prior school year.
Homeschooled texts aren't generally written in that way.
I've found that homeschool moms regularly beat themselves up if their child doesn't finish a particular text or course of study to completion. Since I was a teacher in the public schools before becoming a mother, I know first-hand that the schools at which I attended and taught did not require any of our textbooks to be used in full during the school year.
So here's my word of encouragement to those of you who are educating your children at home:
Give yourself a break.
Please! And lose the guilt! Just give it away to some unsuspecting customer. ☺
If your children are able to complete their curricula for the school year at home, wonderful. And if they are not going to be able to finish it without stringent focus during the summer, that's okay, too.
I'm not suggesting that families slack off and just lackadaisically meander through the school year with no purpose, no planning, and no learning taking place.
If you and your children are diligent and they learn a lot throughout the school year, but they haven't finished the last chapter or two of their text, take a close look.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Is this last bit of material imperative to my child being successful in their next grade level of curricula?
2. Is the material either too difficult or too easy for my child? If so, maybe some modifications need to be made, or your child might need a summer off to mature and then finish the material when school begins again in autumn.
3. Is my child being lazy with his studies, or just needing something different that will better meet his learning style?
Now...it's time to plan some end-of-year fun activities for my girls! How do you handle curricula that might not be completely finished by the time summer rolls around for your family?
Hi! I'm Julieanne!
You'll find me in the kitchen
trying new Trim Healthy Mama recipes, loving God, and carrying out that love as I bless my husband and teen daughters.
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