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$250 (2 winners) Why Do We Call It Christmas? DVD from What’s in the Bible (10 winners) Wright on Time: Arizona (Kindle Edition) by Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley (10 winners) Simplified Pantry by Mystie Winckler (5 winners) Nature Study Through the Holidays from Shining Dawn Books (5 winners) Honoring the Rhythm of Rest by Daniele Evans Wooden Block Pillar Set from Blessings Unlimited With Meg Bottle of Thieves Essential Oil from Granola Mom for God Christmas Angel doll & book set Kindle version of Betrayal’s Wake by J. Heather Leigh Lilla Rose FlexiClip and 2 sets of Hairsticks $25 Credits to Little Learning Lovies (4 winners) File Folder Games Ebook and Fall Fun Pages Ebook from Mama’s Learning Corner (5 winners) iHomeschool NetworkiHomeschool Network is a group of around 90 bloggers who provide outstanding content in the homeschool niche. ihomeschoolnetwork.com/

This Stocking Stuffer is all about giving and blessing others. We, as a group of homeschool bloggers and companies, would love to bless the socks off of several moms this Christmas season. Two of you will win $250 in cash! Or if you would prefer an Amazon gift card, we can do that too! What would YOU do with $250 this Christmas? Thank you to these ladies who made this giveaway happen! To enter the giveaways, simply leave a comment. The comment can be left here on my blog or on any of the other participating posts. Only one comment is needed. You gain up to 70 more entries (whew that is a lot!) by doing the activities in the Rafflecopter. a Rafflecopter giveaway iHomeschool NetworkiHomeschool Network is a group of around 90 bloggers who provide outstanding content in the homeschool niche. ihomeschoolnetwork.com/

The Joys and Challenges of Homeschooling Twins by Jenn from Mama Jenn Homeschooling twins presents a unique set of joys and challenges. However, I believe the benefits and blessings definitely outweigh those challenges. As a mother of five including two sets of twin boys, my greatest joy in homeschooling is seeing them learn together. They are each other’s best friends and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Read the rest of this article at Jennifer’s blog.   Teaching Twins at Home by Ticia of Adventures in Mommydom When the sonogram technician first told me I was having twins, I thought he was kidding.  He had to repeat it about 5 more times before I believed him. I think my having twins is proof God has a sense of humor.  I have never been able to tell twins apart, it doesn’t matter how different they look, I can’t do it.  Now I have twins, and I routinely get them mixed up. But there are so many joys in having twins.  My boys always have their best friend right there with them.  I don’t have to worry about entertaining them because they will come up with something to entertain themselves.  I may not be thrilled with their entertainment or it may get my heart rate up when I’m taking them to the ER, but they can always entertain themselves. Being the mother of twin boys means I keep a large supply of band-aids on hand, because you never know when the BEST thing in the world will be to hit each other with a sharp stick. It also means I get jump hugs.  What’s that you say?  It’s something they invented, where they suddenly jump at you from a piece of furniture or the stairs yelling “JUMP HUG!” and expect you to catch them as they hug you.  We haven’t broken any bones yet. When I say I’m homeschooling and people find out I have twins they automatically think, “Oh good, you can teach them the same thing at the same time.” That’s not true.  But, they’re the same age, you might argue.  That is true, but they are not the same person.  “Batman,” my younger twin (all of two minutes), is great at all things physical, he’s great at throwing things, can go somewhere once and direct you there the next time.  However, Batman struggles with reading.  He’s not terrible at it, but it doesn’t come naturally to him. His brother, Superman, had a sudden epiphany a few months ago in reading.  He was suddenly zooming ahead of his brother and at this time is over 20 lessons ahead of his brother.  I don’t know why, it’s not like they’re horribly different in personality. I struggled with that at first.  I wanted it to be easy and be able to teach them both reading at the same time, that would save me 20 or 30 minutes of lesson time if they could be together, and they could get the reinforcement of being together.  But, it would have been holding Superman back or pushing Batman and frustrating him. So I split them up.  It was the best thing I ever did.  They’re both happier now, there’s no unspoken competition going on during reading lessons.  There’s no comparison.  They’re happy. I learned, they don’t have to be doing the same thing for them both to be learning a lot. One is going a bit slower and one of them is sprinting ahead in reading. And that’s okay, that’s why we’re homeschooling, so I can give them an individual education.  Superman can sprint through his reading lessons and can get tips from his brother on how to hit a ball. Batman can direct me to the Children’s Museum, because I have no sense of direction and slowly work on his reading Now there are some challenges every now and then in school work.  Like when they decided to impersonate each other.  Thankfully they’re only seven, and their acting skills aren’t all that good.  I was able to get their voices right.   Or their intense dislike of writing.  Now their sister……  She’ll write you a small novel. Homeschooling  Our Twins by Mary of Really.Truly. I never imagined I would be the mom to twin boys, or that I’d be homeschooling.  Through God’s amazing grace, I am doing both. During the 10 years I’ve been parenting my twins and the 5 years we have been homeschooling, I’ve learned that both parenting and homeschooling bring daily joy as well as daily challenges. I’ve often heard that it must be so easy homeschooling twins. It’s not as easy as you might expect. Like any family with multiple children being homeschooled at the same time, I try to remain flexible, patient and aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each child. There are some specific obstacles that twins face. At times I experience people wanting to treat each of the boys as equals; equal in their likes and dislikes, creative ability, athletic interests and learning ability. They are sometimes treated so similarly, that people even see them as one person. For example they may get one shared gift at Christmas or a birthday. And it is common for people to refer to them as “the twins” rather than by their individual names. Since their birth, I’ve be very deliberate to treat them as individuals, never dressing them alike unless they request it, of course, which often happened when they were younger. I have always used the same curriculum with my twins, but that alone can cause problems. If one child is not “getting it” the way his sibling is, he can feel very discouraged. On the other hand, sharing a curriculum can motivate him to work harder because he wants to keep up with his sibling. It can get a bit complicated, but understanding how our twins groove, how they react, and what motivates them has been a big help. When they were young, they enjoyed being similar, but