Marydean Draws: homeschool

Showing posts with label homeschool. Show all posts

I told you I'd be back (two blog posts in one week--what?)!

Summer break is just around the corner for us. I'm freaking out a little bit about having everyone at home again, but believing that God has good things for us this summer, and that I will not go crazy and lose my hair . . . or my mind . . . or both.

Sigh. The anxiety is real, friends.

I want to have some loose rhythms for us this summer. Daily rest times with some books on CD, play time with neighbors, trips to the library and pool. One thing I'm brainstorming is doing some Bible memory work with the kids.

I want to keep it light and fun, but we haven't done any memory/Bible work since they've been in school, so I'm hoping the summer will be a good opportunity to introduce more truth to their hearts.

I realize only God can truly soften their little hearts, but I want to at least give them the opportunity to hear. After all:

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" Romans 10:14

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Romans 10:17

I created a super simple printable Bible memory work chart you can use this summer with your children (or all through the year).

Here's a sample schedule you could follow for each day of the week:

MONDAY: Read and repeat x2. Talk about any unfamiliar words. Color a coloring page and post somewhere where you'll see it often (car, fridge, dining room).
TUESDAY: Look up the verse in the Bible. Read. Repeat x2. What's one thing this verse is telling us about Jesus?
WEDNESDAY: Read. Repeat x2. Write or draw out the verse. A few years ago, I posted a fun little guide to doing Bible illustrations/doodles here.
THURSDAY: Read. Repeat x2. Talk about how this verse might apply to your lives.
FRIDAY: See if you can say the verse from memory. Celebrate with a special outing, reward, or treat. If one week is too fast, try memorizing your verse in two.
the NEXT MONDAY: Loop back to the previous week's verse. Repeat and then start on a new verse. Continue repeating the older verses each week.

Other ideas for using the the chart:

If they're old enough, let your child be part of selecting what they want to memorize. If you need fun illustrations, ahem (🙋), you can use free printables from this blog or choose a pre-made set from the shop. Many sets in the shop include full-color cards and coloring pages.
Create a bookmark or notecard with the verse and give it away to a family member, neighbor, or friend.
Post your memory verse, or your child saying your memory verse, to social media (and tag me so I can see!).

For younger kids, I recommend this Big Truths for Little Hearts set. For older kids, the Good News Story Set (also in Spanish!), Identity, and Character would be great. This black and white set would be fun to watercolor on top of.

I'm going to encourage my oldest daughter (nine) to pick some verses from the Comfort and Hope set (which also comes in pre-printed cards).

If you'd like anything from the shop, from now until June 20, you can use the code below (or just click on the image), for 15% off.

I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging this summer, but I do plan to revive my #marydeandrawssummer drawings for the second summer. We had so much fun creating these images last year and still look back at the book of them we made. If you'd like to follow along, I'll be posting on my Facebook page and Instagram.

So, help me out here! What do you do to stay sane in the summer? What kind of rythyms/routines have you tried or plan to try? Or, are you just as anxious as me?

You can download your printable Bible memory chart in COLOR here, and BLACK AND WHITE here or by clicking on the images below.*

*I'm so happy for you to enjoy my coloring pages and printables for your personal (not commercial) use! Use for Bible studies, church groups or events, and Sunday school classes are all fine! If you're in doubt, I'm happy to answer any questions. All artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. If you share this, you're awesome (!), and as a courtesy, please link back to this post and not the PDF file. Thank you!!

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June 6, 2018

Summer Bible Memory + Printable Bible Memory Plan Chart

Hi friends!

On a whim, the kids and I decided to jump right in and start school this week. It's feels good to be back in a familiar rhythm. We're studying the first part of American history this year (starting with the native peoples of the Americas using Sonlight Core D), and I'm excited to see what we'll learn. We've made a few small adjustments in organization and scheduling from last year that seem to be helping.

Having the toddler a whole year older than last year (crazy how that happens) has made a big difference. We were able to buy some used Thomas the Tank Engine tracks and toys for him to play with during school in the morning. Unlike last year, he has been pretty content to play while we do school in the morning. We finish up later while he naps.

Well, enough about the inner-workings of our homeschool! This week, I pulled together some mostly-free resources for you to use as tools to encourage your kiddos and their teachers as you kick off another school year! Here they are:

A. "Be strong and courageous" coloring page.

B. Six encouraging black and white Scripture cards (free)

C. Three printable teacher appreciation cards (free)

D. 25 Printable lunchbox notes (free)

E. 4 Blank printable notecards (free)

F. Printable love notes and a second set HERE

G. Anxious Heart set from my shop. I love this one for little (and big) worriers to memorize! This one about their identity in Christ would be great as well.

H. 8 hand-drawn lunchbox notes (free)

I. Printable Rainbow thank you card. Why wait until the end of the school year to thank your child's teacher? You know he or she has already poured many hours thinking and planning for your child's year. Drop him a note telling him how you appreciate him and how you're praying for him this year.

If you're interested in any printables from my Etsy shop, make sure to sign up for my newsletter (below) or follow me on social media for news about a big sale next week!

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August 8, 2017

Encouragement for back-to-school printable round-up

If we sat down for coffee, these are the things that would probably trickle out in conversation, the things that make my heart happy, in no particular order and by no means exhaustive.

Homeschool and learning (or relearning)
Okay, I'll admit it. For all my complaining, I actually love homeschool. I love being part of my kids' learning and learning myself. We definitely have bad days and even bad weeks, but we have settled into a nice rythym together. We are loving our Sonlight curriculum, which is all reading-based.

Maybe it's me who has adjusted the most--bringing my expectations down to a reasonable level, growing in patience and love, and asking for God's grace for when all falls apart.

Sonlight readers are the best--we LOVED this one

journaling about our history lesson (first grade)

notetaking about Roman history

four-year-old math

This Caddie
We got ours from the Target dollar bins for $3 and it's been the best thing for keeping all our supplies into one place. Michael's has this fancier one.

The book of Galatians.
We are studying through this book with our community group, and it's been such an encouragement. I've been reading it through over and over trying to understand what Paul was trying to drive home to the "foolish Galatians." We can stand before God on the merits of His Son and nothing else.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

This book
I mentioned that I just finished Elyse Fitzpatrick's "Good News For Weary Women: Escaping the Bondage of To-do Lists, Steps, and Bad Advice." I found myself saying "Amen" over and over again. These are the kinds of truth I want on a slow drip into my bloodstream.

Here are two snippets:

"Many women don't understand the freedom that has been purchased for us, and we often get tangled up in legalism or moralism. We don't know what it would look like for obedience to be motivated by gratitude." Elyse Fitzpatrick

"What is our highest calling as women? Our highest calling is to believe. It consists of believing, resting, and rejoicing in the work that has been done for us by the Savior." Elyse Fitzpatrick

Can you imagine if we actually believed and lived these truths?

Elephant and Piggie in Spanish
We've been using these for homeschool Spanish class and they're perfect for introducing simple vocabulary in conversation. The kids are able to follow the stories because of the expressive illustrations. We get them from our local library's Spanish section.

This Song
"Out of Hiding" by Steffany Gretzinger and Amanda Cook. I found it while I was preparing to teach about the story of the Prodigal son.

I might even love this Spanish cover even better:

I'm compiling a Worship playlist on YouTube if you want to listen in and sing along.

These crayons
My mother-in-law finds us fun art supplies to try out. She just got the girls these Color Appeal Crayons. The paper unwraps when the crayon gets low.

Drawing with our new crayons from the Draw 50 Animals book by Lee Ames.
(This one is challenging for my little ones, but I enjoy it. I can walk them through the steps.)

These kids
I love seeing them grow and change. They bring out my need for Jesus EVERY DAY, and isn't that a blessing?

My sister got us these Mama Beat and Man Cub raglan shirts. You can find them HERE!

watching the snow

Calligraphy inspiration
I got out my sketchbook a few nights ago and sketched letters from a book about the history of calligraphy. I loved trying out the illuminated capitals and flowers and decorations from really old illuminated manuscripts. You'll see some of this inspiration in new Scripture cards coming soon to my shop!

New artwork
I'm working on new printable Scripture card sets for the Etsy shop right now. Here's a little peak:

This print & blog post
I don't have a printable for you to this week, but I'm sending you over to Emily at Jones Design Company, who made this beautiful Gospel printable. I couldn't have said it better myself! Sometimes I wonder if I ever really knew the Gospel before now. I know I did, but it feels new again.

Image Source: Jones Design Company

So, there you go--my current favorites. What are yours? Leave a comment below and I'd love to check them out!

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February 17, 2016

A few of my favorite things this February

It's back-to-school time again and I know there's some kiddos (or adults!!) out there that need some words of affirmation and encouragement.

I think of these words:

"The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness."

"Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body." Proverbs 16:21 & 24 ESV

I made some simple printable cards you can use to share some sweet, life-giving words wtih your kiddos. This file is formatted for standard 8.5 x 11 paper. To cut in fours, make cuts at the 4.25 and 5.5 inch marks.

You can download the file HERE! All my printables are free for your personal use!

If you like this, you can get these posts in your inbox by signing up HERE! You'll also receive occasional news from my Etsy shop.

August 19, 2015

PRINTABLE Love & Encouragement Notes

Hi friends! I have another memory verse printable coloring page for you! You can see them all here.

You can ask your kids (or adults!) a few questions about this verse:

What's required of us to become children of God? (receive Him/believe on His name--remember that the faith to do this is a gift as Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us)
What is the gift that we get from God?
What does it mean that you get the right to become a child of God? Why is that a good thing? What are you before this?
Who's "name" is "His name" in the verse? Why does His name have power?
What do you think it means to be part of God's family?

I just got a free Kindle version of a book called Messy Church by Ross Parsley, and started reading it last night. He talks about how church should be more like family and less like an institution. And that's what this verse says we are, right--family? Parsley writes,

"But when you evaluate a church from a family perspective, it changes the way you analyze everything. Love become the motivation that guides your critique [he's talking about the idea of "church shopping"]. You approach the process from a completely different paradigm. You think about what you can add to this family rather than what it can do for you."

My church is my family. Not an organization. Not an institution. Not a club. Not a support group. A messy, lovin' and loved family.

You can download the printable HERE. Please remember that these are completely free for your personal use only. Please ask me if you'd like to use them in any other way!

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May 20, 2015

Printable Scripture Coloring Page: John 1:12

The girls and I have been working on these memory verses the last few weeks, so I thought I'd share printables for you to use too!

You can download them by clicking here:
As in Adam/1 Corinthians 15:22
For by Grace/Ephesians 2:8-9

My printables are free for your personal use!

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April 22, 2015

Scripture Coloring Page Printables: As in Adam & For By Grace

My girls and I have been memorizing Isaiah 53:6 this week in anticipation of Easter. We've been talking about what it means to go astray from God and how we all do it! God is so good and isn't okay with losing his wandering sheep. He loves us so much He planned for Jesus to lay down His life in order to take the punishment for our sins.

Here's a coloring page you can work through with your kids any time (but Easter is really great).

These are the instructions (also printed on the page):
1. Draw some sheep wandering away from the Good Shepherd. Write your name on one of them.
2. Write some ways that we go astray from God in the boxes under “sins.”
3. Thank Jesus that He loves us so much that He took the punishment for our sin on Himself at the cross!

You may also want to read the whole Isaiah 53 passage and see how it amazingly points to Jesus long, long before His coming!

Click HERE to download and print. The page is a standard 8.5x11. All my printables are free for your personal use!

Happy Easter!!!