Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Are you a Super Member yet?

In the Hands of a Child offers a great add on program to their already awesome collection of lapbook project packs, Super Membership. Purchased as a subscription in 2 month, 6 month , 1 year, or Lifetime increments, the Super Membership has benefits that will far exceed the subscription cost.
First, 15% off all e-book purchases, an e-book runs from $6.00 - $27.00 so 15% will add up fast. Second, new release free e-book project packs once a month that stay online in the Super Member area for 2 months. Currently the Super Member project packs include "Inca, Mayans, and Aztecs" , "Beatrix Potter: Author Study" , and "The Tales of Peter Rabbit: Literature Study".
Each month on the 15th (or the next business day) the newest Super Member project pack is uploaded and the oldest one is released to the general area for purchase. Next to the Super Member benefits is the great resources in the Super Member area; these include planner pages, mini books, and tools for lapbookers. Finally, the brightest star of the Super Member area, Unit Extenders. Currently there are over 30 unit extenders in the Super Member area. Unit Extenders are the product of a yahoo group that works as a Co-op adding Curriculum activities to a daily planner that adds cross curricular themes to the unit. There are 2 other great benefits to being a Super Member; first a free Birthday Project Pack sent about 2 weeks prior to your birthday, and $10.00 off the price of a custom design unit.

Here are the current prices for Super Membership:
2 Months: $35
6 Months: $45
1 Year: $65
Lifetime: $250

Lapbooking is great way to work through any unit study, for our family it is our main method of homeschooling. We love the project packs that In the Hands of a Child has created and will continue to grow our library of project packs through Super Membership.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Christian Heritage Home Educators of Washington 2009

WOW! What a blessing this weekend has been. We had the privelage of being a a vendor at the annual conference for Christian Heritage Home Educators in Redmond Washington. The facilities at Overlake Christian Church were amazing to begin with and the hospitality shown to the vendors and their families was incredible, not to mention the pure honest Christian Values displayed by the staff and attendees was inspirational.

Since I was working at the In the Hands of a Child booth, I did not get
chance to hear many of the speakers, however I did get to chance to hear Dr. Voddie Baucham Jr. speak what an amazing and inspirational message.
Friday evening, he spoke poinently about the blessing we as parents are to our children and how our children are a blessing to us. He also talked about the role we as parents have in teaching our children.
During the conference on Friday I was able to hear Dr. Baucham's talks only briefly, but he did make a very strong statement that made me realize I am doing right by my children by homeschooling them. Many Christian schools boast their staff is certified; "certified by whom?" was the question Dr Baucham poised. If you want to maintained your value systems influence on your children why send them to schools that require certification from a flawed world view system?

We also had the privilege of listening to a selection of music performed by very talented homeschoolers; from voice to a string quartet and even a bagpiper (which Cameron was ecstatic about). I am happy to report that both boys showed Mike and I that they are capable of sitting still and showing due respect to performers as well as speakers during a long session.

As a newer vendor to the homeschool conference circuit I did learn some things about presentation and sales techniques. I found homeschool parents are interested in new ideas but cautious to purchase a new method. I also found that fathers where as interested in the idea of lapbooking and unit studies but wanted to really dig into the meat of the idea. I handed out flyers and business cards to probably 25 people in the last rush hour of the conference, my hope being that with the business card and flyer they will take a look at the website

I did get one photo of the booth this time. I uploaded to my facebook page.. I have some ideas for arrangement/setup for this next weekend that I will be trying out.

If you happened to stop by the booth at CHHEW, let me know by leaving a comment.
I hope to have a giveaway on my blog later next month so stop by often.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Titanic Unit:

We have been preparing for our Hands of a Child Co-op Unit The Unsinkable Titanic by reading various books about Titanic and watching documentaries.
Currently we are reading "Tonight on the Titanic" Magic Tree House #17 by Mary Pope Osbourne. This is a wonderful book series featuring 2 children and their adventures in the Magic Tree House.. We will be adding these to our library of books. If you haven't checked these books out, head of to RandomHouse.com/treehouse and find the extra activities that go along with the books including a passport for the kids to collect "stickers" for reading the books and responding to the questions.

Back to Titanic; Cameron is fascinated with the ship and her story, so I have let him watch both National Geographic documentaries about the ship and the work to find and preserve her final resting place. I remember as a child being fascinated with the ship's story as well so this is a great time for the two of us to share our passion about something.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Upcoming Events

I know I need to post pictures and I have tons to post, but I wanted to post some information on upcoming events.

This weekend I will be in Redmond, Washington at the Christian Heritage Home Education of Washington Conference with In the Hands of a Child with convention only pricing and some awesome weekend only specials...
If you are attending the conference stop by and say hi...

Next weekend I will be at CAPE in Yakima, Washington.

Yakima CAPE Homeschool Convention

again with convention only pricing and a different set of specials.

If you aren't sure about lapbooking and want to see what all the buzz is about I have several examples of projects we have completed. You can also check out In the Hands of a Child online before the conferences and then order at the conference for special pricing...

I will try and post during the weekends this time around...