Reflecting His Image: A Practical Application to Christian Living, shared in the Atlantic Union Conference Teacher Bulletin, was written for an academy classroom setting but can be easily adapted for a homeschool setting. The objectives of this nine-week study for high schoolers include learning methods of effective witnessing and living a life completely surrendered to God . The link below will take you to the main page with the free unit lesson plan and supplementary materials.
Alphabet/phonics/word work manipulatives add enjoyment to the process of learning to read and spell. These hands-on materials can be found very inexpensively if you know where to look.
Next time you are in a dollar or discount store, be sure to check for potential manipulatives. Don’t limit your search to just the educational supply section, also take a look in the office supply aisle, and the dollar bin area. The toy aisle might reveal manipulatives as well – think wooden alphabet blocks!
The blue foam letter squares, the letter magnets and the alphabet bingo game shown above were each found for only a dollar. I’ve also found simple file folder games and sight word strips, and even the pocket chart for one dollar. Don’t forget to look for blank sentence strips!
Next time you are at a yard or jumble sale, look for old Scrabble or other word games. Doesn’t matter if all of the pieces are there, you just need the letter tiles or word pieces. Many times these games can be had for free. That was the case with the wooden Scrabble tiles shown above. I love those Scrabble tiles because they are very sturdy and will hold up to lots of word play.
Keep your eyes peeled for cheap letter & word study manipulatives – they’re out there!
Thinking ahead to college with your high school student? Preparing for the SAT test does not have to be a costly endeavor. Free SAT preparation resources are available. Follow this link for more information: SAT Prep Resources
“Too much importance cannot be placed upon the early training of children. The lessons learned, the habits formed, during the years of infancy and childhood, have more to do with the formation of the character and the direction of the life than have all the instruction and training of after years.”
The Ministry of Healing, 380
Math cubes are such fun to play with, but how can you integrate learning with the play? Here are a few ideas:
Simply Kinder 
has a nice printable to help your child practice forming numbers with the cubes. There’s a cute number poem to go along with the activity as well!
The Univ. of Cambridge has a page with 40 ideas for using math cubes that fit a variety of levels.
T. G. I. F. offers a free printable that practices addition with math cubes.
Frugal Fun for Boys has a great math cube game idea – Race to fill the cup!
GYC (Generation of Youth for Christ) is a conference once a year that is for a targeted age group of 18-35 in the Seventh day Adventist church. http://gycweb.org/ However, did you know a lot of families also attend as well as older folk?? It is true!! I would encourage you to check out the GYC website and click on the ‘At the Cross’ convention box on the main page for more details on this year’s conference. This year it will be held in Phoenix, AZ, December 31, 2014—Jan 4, 2015. For those of us on the west coast this is GOOD news!
When our family attended GYC for the first time 7 yrs ago my husband and I were shocked. We had no idea that there was that many young adults (thousands of them) in the Adventist church that were wanting to do more than just go to church every week! These kids were on fire for the Lord and we were amazed and thrilled to see this!! We then looked at each other and said we have to go to GYC every year! Besides hearing about what these young people are doing for the Lord, you will also have many opportunities through individual seminars speakers and evening meetings that will grow you spiritually and inspire you to be the servant the Lord wants us all to be.
The food is good and is vegan. They provide two meals a day, breakfast and late lunch. People that want to eat supper just go to eat at area restaurants. There is a exhibit hall where many ministries and schools have booths. This also gives students a opportunity to learn about several SDA colleges or academies as well as ministries.
Is there evangelism? YES! Half of one of the conference days there is opportunity to evangelize the city where the conference is being held. In the past there has been health expo, door to door work, local area door to door work as well. Last year many buses picked up conference attendees (all ages) and took them to go door to door in different communities. Many people sign up for Bible studies….it is really amazing to hear what happens during the evangelism report that evening or the next morning in the mtg. There no meetings for small children. They have also had a volunteer orchestra as well as choir almost every year I believe.
We continue to attend GYC as a family vacation. We get to see different parts of the country each year and attend a conference that continues to inspire us to grow our Christian walk with the Lord. We hope to see each of you there this year!! Email if you have questions: Tami: beatys4@hotmail.com
The Adventist Home Educator 