My husband is a professional wedding photographer and he recently started a new blog. His latest entry features a collage of Chase and Alyssa that I tried to get posted on my blog but could not get it to work.
He will be adding a lot of helpful wedding resources over the next few days so if you know of any good wedding resources, let me know.
If you have a chance, stop by over there and say hello. Let us know what you think.
Our updated Bible ABC Cards are ready! These vintage teaching cards featuring a capital letter, Scripture verse, poem and illustration are ready for your use. These cards, from around 1900, were further cleaned up and a study guide was added.
They are also now available as both wall cards and flashcards depending on your preference. Our new Deluxe Kit includes both the flashcards and wall cards along with an audio CD of the Bible alphabet.
Check out our offerings today! Click HERE to find out more.
I am finding that I can find great bargains and interesting products on eBay. For any purchase you have been thinking of making, first go to eBay. There is a search box at the top right-hand corner of each page for you to enter in the name or other keyword of what you are looking to purchase.
While you are there, check out my eBay store for framed photos of kids and prayers and other assorted items. I have even created one framed picture of a homeschool prayer. Let me know what you think.
There have been some blog posts about Christian women working outside of the home around here lately addressing the issue that many believe the Bible to be clear that women should never work outside of the home and therefore it would never be appropriate for a mother to work while a Dad homeschools. I will not take a postion on that right now but certainly, we know it can be challenging for families to have mom stay home and pay for the expenses of homeschooling with only Dad working (depending on career/employability of Dad, family expenses such as student loans, etc). One possible direction the Lord may lead some families to consider mom working from home or mom and dad running a home business together.If this may be your situation, I came across a company that makes crosses to sell and they are looking for people to create these at home as a home business. The company is called Disciples Cross and click on the link below for more information.
Check out this craft business idea making the Disciples Cross at home. If you enjoy crafting and want to make extra money from home while homeschooling and caring for your family, consider this opportunity.
I came across this offering from an online home business newsletter that I receive that has been very helpful to me. I have also bought eBooks from this author before. But this idea that he has is so cool and creative that although I may not have the time for a new project, I thought I would share it with my readers.
Baby newspapers are a clever way to post the announcement of a baby's birth. They almost look real! He also shows how you can create custom candy bars as well. This is really cute stuff! To find out more, Click Here! I hope someone finds this helpful. I must have a successful home business to allow me to stay home and homeschool my children because of our finances so I want to help anyone else who is in my predicament. Also, check out the FamilyEbiz link under Homeschooling Businesses for more ideas.
My husband has worked hard on cleaning up these vintage cards that we use with Chase for others to share. They can be used on the wall or as flashcards.
Come and check out our new line of HomeschoolBlogger.com gear. Show your support for the greatest homeschool blogging portal on the Web! Check us out at www.CafePress.com/homeschoolblog or www.HomeschoolMomStore.com for even more fun homeschool gear including calendars, journals, notecards and more.
Graphic is courtesy of fellow homeschool blogger trina at www.clipartbytrina.com . Check out all of her terrific designs on one of her many outstanding sites.
For your convenience, I have added RSS feed buttons for those of you who have RSS readers (or want to download one) to make reading your favorite blogs even easier. For wider exposure of your own blog, having buttons on your blog for readers to easily add you to their favorite reader can be a plus. For those of you who are like me and barely know what an RSS feed is, check out www.Feedburner.com. Setting this up could not be any easier.
Plus the Feedburner folks have really cool features that allow you to put your blog headlines at the bottom of your e-mails or on your other sites. I have noticed that many of the homeschool business owners here with websites do not mention their blog on their website but linking your blog to your website is thought to be a good marketing idea. Have fun with Feedburner.com and keep dropping by. Soon, I will post about some link sites on which you may want to get your blog listed. See these sites at the bottom of my blog for now.
Example One: I use this headline as my e-mail signature
Example 2: I use this headline on my other blog to drive people to this (my favorite!) blog
Send me your home business links! I am trying to compile a list of links to businesses owned by homeschoolers who blog on Homeschoolbloggers.com. It is challenging for me to try to remember what link I followed and then cut and paste the url into the appropriate place in my template one by one.
Can anyone think of a better way? For now, just leave your link and name of your business (and a little description if you want to)in the comments of this post.
I am thrilled to belong to a community of such talented entrepreneurs and I want to contribute and encourage all in any way that I can.
My husband is available to design and upload designs for others if you are interested in having custom-designed products for your family or family reunion, your homeschool, your co-op, your church or your business or best of all, your blog. Sam can have you selling your own merchandise online in just a few days for a very reasonable cost. We do everything through CafePress.com. The actual storefront is free- Sam will only charge for the services of making a design for you or uploading your own design according to the CafePress specifications. His costs are very reasonable (usually about $45 for most designs) because he really enjoys the creative challenges of working with Photoshop.
If you would like to make and upload your own designs to create your own store, click on the banner below to support our store through the referral.
CafePress, the online company through which we offer our homeschool, Proverbs 31 and Fruit-Crate Label country theme t-shirts, mugs and more, is allowing us to offer $3 off any apparel. That includes t-shirts for all ages, infant wear, sweatshirts and hoodies. Stop by and check out the store at www.cafepress.com/homeschoolmom. See the rotating images in the right margin for an idea of what we carry.
Sam and I are working hard to prepare a great course for homeschoolers on the basics of digital photography. We have received many great suggestions from homeschoolers about what you and your kids would like to learn about digital photography.
I responded to these questions over at my other blog, HomeschoolMomBlog, with yet another overly-long comment (it is difficult for me not to be verbose at times):
Leann,
Sam agrees with Daryl about sending prints out being the best method instead of printing at home. Fuji machines are definitely your best bet. Just ask and the photo lab tech can let you know what machine they are using. Sam has found the best quality from Ofoto online (now KodakGallery.com) and Sam's Club offline (in most areas Sam's Club has online services as well but uploading can be laborious with large numbers of photos to process). He has had spotty results with WalMart.com.
Backup is crucial in digital photography and an area in which many of us are lax. Read my post at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/hsmom/1552/ for some things you can do starting today to protect your precious memories.
Depending on exactly what you are trying to do, Sam recommends the Adobe products such as Adobe Albums or Photoshop Elements 3 for organizing and working with your photos for scrapbooking. Sam prefers Adobe products because they are cross-platform. For Apple users, he recommends iPhoto 05 for most applications. Organization has becoming easier with the use of tags that allow quick organization and retrieval of photos by subject.
I had some digital photography questions in the comments area of my post about my husband's upcoming digital photography online course so instead of merely leaving an overly-long comment which I have a tendency to do, I decided to create a whole new post.
Questions: How can I get better action shots?, What is the best type of camera, depending on your needs?, and what about back-up and storage of photos?
Sam Says:
Action shots can be tough with digital. The secret is in "Pre-focusing". As you probably already know, when you press halfway on your shutter release, that will usually lock in your focus. Pre-focus on the area the action is likely to take place and then snap as the action occurs. Sam's example is that if you want to catch your child running across the finish line at a race, get the finish line in focus and then wait for her to run across. If you have a prosumer or professional camera, this is not an issue as most come with continuous focus features.
In considering the type of camera best for various needs, Sam's basic advice is to go with the most compact model that you can afford. Most are relatively easy to use. For moms and dads who want to document everyday life and document it often (ie. bloggers), very small cameras will be used more often because they can be worn on your belt or carried in your purse (in a case of course). It is not helpful to have a big, fancy camera you rarely use because it is not with you and it is a hassle to set it up. For bloggers, resolution is not such a big concern and is not a reason to go for a pricier, bulkier model. Sam's hands-down choice for parents: the Canon Elph S400 or better. Yes, Sam (and most of the professional photographer parents that he knows) wears this camera on his belt at all times and catches some great pics of the kids that way. I wish Sam could get paid for each family who has bought an Elph because of his recommendation! Added bonus: The Canon Elph is also very stylish or "easy on the eyes" as Sam says.
Backing up digital photos is an essential step that many consumers avoid. Multiple backups in different locations is the key concept in digital photography archiving systems. Sam uses this term to refer to the fact that your pictures should be maintained in different formats and in different locations to prepare for the worst. The first step in saving your photos is to copy them from the memory card in your camera and transfer them to your computer or preferably an external hard drive. (Did you know that your iPod can be used for file back-up and storage? See my article for more nifty uses of your iPod). Photos should also be saved on CD's. For professional work,CDs should be burned directly from the CF card. Once your CD's are burned, a copy of each should be kept in a safe deposit box or another offsite location. Seem like too much trouble? Ask a family who has lost everything in a fire and the one thing they usually miss most are the priceless photos that they lost. I have only given an overview on this very important topic. Sam has much more to say but this post is getting pretty long.
Well, Alyssa is sleeping now and Chase is watching a video with his Dad so I will get to work on some articles that I have due. I should let my readers know more about my writing career but that will have to wait for another day. Maybe next I can answer questions about "breaking into freelance writing as a home business".
My husband is a professional photographer who wants to formally share his knowledge with homeschoolers. Around our town, for instance at family or homeschool functions, someone will ask Sam an innocent question about digital photography and the listener ends up really getting an earful. It seems his advice must be useful as people start pulling out their pens and little pieces of paper to jot things down.
Last night was such an occassion. My sister and my nephews came by for a cook-out. (Yes, it did rain briefly but no one cared too much about that.) Sam got very involved with a very animated discussion about wedding and digital photography with one of my nephews and before I knew it, he was whipping out his Fuji S2 and taking demo pictures of everyone.
I am thrilled (it is an answer to a prayer actually) that Sam says he is ready to begin teaching in an organized way so that he can share his knowledge with others. Both kids and parents around here have expressed an interest in having Sam teach digital photography. His question for you, dear homeschoolers reading this blog, is what do you or kids want to learn about the topic?
Here are some potential topics for an online course:
Basics of photography-lighting, focusing, filling the frame, etc.
Brief history of digital photography- understanding the myths (re: archival quality and more), how far we have come, how different than film, why learning only about film, darkrooms, etc. is like "learning only about making horseshoes after cars were invented"
Hardware- a rundown of consumer, professional and prosumer cameras with pros and cons and tips on maintaining and using.
Software-discussion of important software to help you get the most out of your digital photographs including the latest version of Photoshop (this will not be a Photoshop class, however, but entry-level tips and general overview will be given- would there be interest in an entry-level Photoshop online course?)
Accessories-discussion of batteries, chargers, back-ups, memory cards, flashes, etc. to help you get the most from your camera
Special topics- What is photojournalism?, Photojournalism for child photography, photojournalism for events, tips for photographing children, architectural photography (or taking great pictures of your home or investment properties)
Home business- Careers in photography: industrial, wedding, child. Photography as a great home business (child, wedding, seniors), importance of intellectual property and passive income. Work as a Photoshop Professional from home- a growing business. Design websites and blogs for photographers. In-home photography. How to build a photography business and get clients.
Announcing new lower prices on all t-shirts, mugs and bags for summer. Check out our homeschool logo products, designed by my husband Sam. Sam is a photographer and a graphic designer and he has come up with many terrific designs.
I can not yet reveal all of the details but it is definite now. We are opening an online store to provide homeschoolers with cool, elegantly designed gear. Baseball caps, hoodies and tote bags are some of the items we will be offering. We will also be assisting you in making your own apparel for your homeschool co-op, support group or sports team.
This is a dream-come-true for us as we want to let the whole world know about homeschooling and how proud we are of our homeschooler (and homeschooler-to-be) and we want to you to do the same.
Check back for more updates. We are looking for a grand opening around the end of April.
Until then, don't forget to check out the Online Homeschool Convention over at Spunky's.
Come with me as I find my way in the world of homeschooling and raising young children for the Kingdom of God. I will share my heartfelt prayers and inspirational images for your journey. May this blog, as all that I do, be for the glory of God alone. Soli Deo Gloria!
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