New Family Photo Shoot

A friend of ours took these amazing pictures Thanksgiving weekend and I just wanted to share.

A Real Mom's Guide to the Latter-day Prophets

IT'S READY!! A Real Mom's Guide to the Latter-day Prophets is now available to ship.

36 week schedule includes:
Memorization of well-known quotes from each of the Latter-day prophets
Children’s Songs and Hymns - favorites of the prophets, ones written by the prophets, or songs to go with the memorization for the week
Biographical information
Selected teachings for each of the Latter-day prophets

Highlights of each Presidency
Timeline and Map information
Creative Writing Ideas
FHE Ideas
Bonus Conference Weeks
Weeks for each of the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve – including our newest!

HARDCOPY $14.95 CD $12.95

A Real Mom's Guide to Homeschooling with the Book of Mormon is a 36 week study guide for use with children of all ages. The guide is set up with an easy to read, week-at-glance format. Each weekly schedule includes the following:

Book of Mormon Reading Schedule
Book of Mormon Stories Reading Schedule
Scripture Mastery
Gospel Art
Children’s Song and Hymns
Timeline and Map Information
Creative Writing Ideas for older and younger children
FHE Ideas

Hardcopy Price $14.95 CD Price $12.95

Here's what folks are saying:

"I appreciate how your guides just lay out the books to read with some activities - no preaching or lecturing or anything. One of my big gripes about most 'canned' curriculum is that I have to wade through lots of stuff I won't actually read to my kids in order to get to the stuff I do want to read to them...." Heather

"It's great and super simple to use. Thanks for working so hard on it!..." Mary

"It's GREAT! Two Thumbs up." Rochelle

" I love it. It is awesome." JoDean

A Real Mom's Guide to American History is a literature-based program which is structured so that it can be used with children of all ages. It begins with Early Americans and goes up to the Civil War (American History part 2 is in the works). It includes a literature list, a timeline, an overview of the 36-week program and a 36 week schedule. Like the 36-week BOM guide, the schedule has a very friendly week-at-a-glance format. Each weekly schedule includes the following:

Scripture which corresponds to the week’s study
Memorization exercises (songs, poems, famous quotes, etc.)
Optional “textbook” type reading
Wide variety of literature selections for both older and younger students, including historical fiction, non-fiction and books that go with the theme of each week’s study
Supplementary activities such as crafts, science ideas, field trips, and so forth
Timeline and Map information
Creative writing ideas, including suggestions for tying your Book of Mormon studies in with your History studies.

LDSEHE Conference

Well, I'm back from this year's conference feeling rejuvenated and motivated. I hope you are too!

Just wanted to give a quick "THANKS!" to all of you who stopped by my table to tell me how much you've enjoyed A Real Mom's Guide to Homeschooling with the Book of Mormon. I'm always happy to hear the feedback! Some of you asked about my upcoming American History project. There have been some delays, but I am hoping to have it ready soon. Also coming soon is my Real Mom's Guide to the Latter-day Prophets. If you would like additional information or sample pages on any of these products, please just e-mail me at swinson@skywireusa.com.

I was so thrilled to be able to bring some of my other favorite products with me this year - Sing the Scriptures and Children's Miracle Music. I can also provide you with information on these if you want to e-mail me. If you are stopping by this site after purchasing any of our products, I just want you to know that we would love to hear from you!! If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions - we want to hear from you!

Congratulations to our four lucky winners!! Susan A., Lindsay F., Erin B. and Michelle H. If you did not pick up your prize on Friday, look for it in the mail.

Thoughts from Les Miserables

I had a truly rare opportunity recently to spend a week alone with my sweetheart for our anniversary. I grabbed the chance to tackle rereading Victor Hugo's masterpiece without interruptions from the children.

On page 369, Hugo describes the ship Orion:

"A vessel of the line is composed at once of the heaviest and lightest materials, because it has to contend simultaneously with the three forms of matter, the solid, the liquid and the fluid. She has eleven iron claws to grasp the rock at the bottom of the sea, and more wings and feelers than a butterfly to catch the breezes in the sky. Her breath is expelled through her hundred and twenty guns as through enormous trumpets, and proudly answers the thunderbolt. The ocean strives to lead it astray in the frightful similarity of its billows, but the ship has a compass, its soul, always counseling it and always pointing toward the north. On dark nights, its lanterns take the place of the stars. So, to oppose the wind, it has its ropes and canvas; against the water its timber; against the rock its iron, copper and lead; against the darkness, light; against immensity, a needle."

Anchors....wings....stars....How like the vessel we are, and similarly equipped.

"Real" Dads

With Father's Day approaching, I felt to say something about "real" Dads. Some have questioned the picture shown on my cover saying that it looks as if I'm a single mom. Indeed, there are times I feel like it. My husband works full-time, is in his sixth year serving as a bishop, and keeps our little homestead up and running. So naturally, there are days and weeks and occassionally even months when we see little of him. Any official homeschooling we do is Mom's job. But there is no substitute for the things they learn from Dad. Much of it comes from watching his willing, steady service - to his family, his ward family and his work family. Then too, are the priceless moments where testimonies are forged over dinner, on dates and in quiet conversations with Dad. Make no mistake about it, my children have a "real" dad.

And speaking of "real" Dads
I dedicated A Real Mom's Guide "To my father, who taught me all about Polar Stars..."

President Hinckley talked about the Polar Star when he said
"...the Polar Star came to mean something to me. I recognized it as a constant in the midst of change. It was something that could always be counted on, something that was dependable, an anchor in what otherwise appeared to be a moving and unstable firmament."

We lost my sweet father to lymphoma just two months ago. No words can describe the amazing man that he is. But as a "real" Dad, he gave me both a solid grounding and wings to fly.

Happy Father's Day to all you "real" Dads out there. May you continue to be the anchors and the guiding stars we so desperately need.

"Real" moms welcome here

Some years ago I decided I was a "real" mom. Didn't much like the title "stay-at-home" mom. Something about the word "stay" sounded too inactive for what I was doing. I did like the term "SUPERMOM". Then I met a woman with three sets of twins - yes THREE SETS - born in six years. I felt suddenly under-qualified for the title. There is, of course, the constant and age-old struggle to be the "perfect mom". But I woke up long ago to the facts that my house will never be all the way clean, my children will never be all the way fed (certainly not with meals made and frozen a month ago), I will never be all the way fit, and those cute little matching dresses will never be all-the-way sewn (at least not before they're outgrown). So I am a "real" mom. Nothing more, nothing less.

It was on this premise that I started the Real Mom guides. There are some other great products out there - I've used more than one - but I was hoping for a simplified, flexible, practical way to homeschool all my children with the Book of Mormon as the central facet of our program. I didn't really want a one-size-fits-all daily lesson plan. I also didn't want to spend 15 hours replicating the Jaredite "tight-like-unto-a-dish" boats while my six-month old ate glue and scraps off the floor. I did want a concise, practical schedule which incorporated music, scripture memorization and reading from the Book of Mormon. I wanted one with ideas about tying into other subjects without me having to buy into the whole curriculum. I wanted one that used the full text of the Book of Mormon for study, with a reasonable amount of reading each day. I especially wanted one I could use with all of my children at once. When I didn't find just what I wanted, I put it together myself. The results, I think, are pretty good.

If, like me, you consider yourself a "real mom", come on board - all real moms are welcome here.