“Subscribing” To Our Website

Did you know that you could receive any new posts & updates from our website right in your email inbox?  That’s right – you do not have to visit our site directly to stay connected.  Just look for this little box in our sidebar to the right & enter your email address.  It is that simple!  Then any new posts will be delivered to your email.

You also have the option to “subscribe” to our website.  If you are a blog reader, you probably are familiar with “readers” such as “Google Reader”, to add our website to your reader follow the following steps:

You will notice this little box in the right side-bar of our website:

If you click on the posts section this window will pop up:

This gives you the option to “subscribe” to our website in any of the readers listed.  Just click the reader of your choice & follow the steps to add our site to your reader.  By “subscribing” any new posts to our blog will automatic be added to your reader.

Finding USED Curriculum

Finding used curriculum is always the highlight of a homeschool mom’s curriculum pursuit.  Where do we find the deals?
1.  RRCH Yahoo! Group
Our members frequently list books & curriculum they no longer are using.
2.  RRCH Buy, Sell & Trade Facebook Page
You can check out the latest add directly on our Facebook wall & scroll the albums as well for pictures & descriptions.
3.  Home Educator’s Resource (in Lewisville)
This homeschool store carries new & used quality resources for your homeschool needs.  They even run up to 20% off sales throughout the year.  Be sure to ask for a frequent shopper card!  Too far? – They have an online store + they will ship directly to you.
4.  Homeschool Classifieds
5.  HSLDA Curriculum Market 
*You do NOT have to be a member of HSLDA, but you must create an account.
6.  Online Forums & Yahoo! Groups
- Most curriculum vendors (ex. Sonlight, Winter Promise, Tapestry of Grace) have online forums or Yahoo! Groups for their users.  Almost all forums/groups have or allow “Sale & Swap” boards.  *Be sure to check out the “rules”.
*You will find TON’S of used curriculum on The Well-Trained Mind Forum

What is Pinterest?

If you have friends who talk about Pinterest as if their life depended on it, and you don't understand the hype, we are here to help! Pinterest describes itself as a "virtual pinboard." I like to think of it as a MUCH-improved version of Favorites or Bookmarks. MUCH improved!

Go to www.pinterest.com for a little peek, and then come back here for the low-down.

See that picture above? That is a sample of my "Homeschool" Board. Each of those enticing photos is also a link. A handy-dandy link to an article, photo, recipe, or how-to.

This is a snapshot of my "Slow Cooking" Board:

Once you click on one of those pictures, you get to see it's zoomed-in version. Click on it one more time and go directly to the website featuring the idea.

Once you've set up your own Pinterest account, and created your own Boards, you'll need something to pin on those Boards.

Then you'll have a wonderland of Boards, like this:

Now, if you're still not feeling all warm and fuzzy, there's more.

At the top of each of those pictures, you'll notice there's a little "Pin It" button on my blue Windows Toolbar. This plain-looking little guy is what opens up a whole new world of bookmarking. With a quick installation of the Pin It tool, you'll be able to save anything from the WORLD WIDE WEB to your Pinterest Boards.

No more "Add to Favorites" episodes where you save something cool and then search a LONG list of saved ideas, in an unorganized picture-less fashion.

So say you've stumbled on a great site full of fantastic ideas and you want to remember them for the future. You can click on the Pin It button, add it to the appropriate Board (which is super organized!) and save it forever.

But wait! There's more...

It's also a social site. So when your friends catch the bug, you can follow their Boards and they can follow yours. How fun is that???

Now that you know all of THAT, the best part is that RRCH has its own Pinterest account. There are some wonderfully helpful categories like Toddlers, Math, School Rooms, Easy Recipes for Busy Moms, etc.

NOW are you ready to try Pinterest? The first step is to get accepted. But it's not hard. Simply send a quick note to Nicki at 400things@gmail.net or Tiffany at rockinc@ntin.net and we'll send you an official invitation. Then, click on the Big Red P here:

and follow RRCH and all of your other homeschooling friends!

Rattlers Athletic Association

Over the last 20 years or so, the group known as Red River Christian Homeschoolers has changed and grown in some amazing ways! What started as a handful of families meeting for park days has grown into a group that serves over 100 families in many delightful ways! One of the most impressive aspects of our group is the Red River Rattlers athletics teams, including some very talented basketball and volleyball players! And guess what? A track team is in the works!

As the athletics portion of our program grows, we need to continue to promote the Rattlers and everything we stand for. Our coaches have worked very hard over the last eight years forming relationships with public, private and homeschool groups. They know us as the Rattlers and respect our teams. We get compliments from refs, other players, and parents of other teams about the outstanding conduct of our players, coaches and parents. To continue to grow, we need a system in place that will help us deal with concerns that parents have about coaches or situations, and organize the program so that everyone is on the same page. For example, Steve Ayers is the current athletic director for the basketball team. If anyone has a concern or complaint they can address it with him and they sit down for a discussion with the people involved.

In order to accomplish setting up such a program, I believe our approach should be to promote cooperation between players, parents, and coaches of all sports. Our foundation for our athletics program needs to be founded on Christ and our conduct should follow accordingly.

In addition, it would also be very helpful if we knew what the other coaches/sports teams are doing so that we do not overwhelm our group with fundraisers or activities. Coordination of the schedules and season would be a big help. It gets to be very difficult for players and families when they are involved in more than one sport.

Basically, the point of all of this is to conduct a meeting to discuss the formation of the Red River Rattlers Athletic Association. Many parents have expressed interest in having an athletic director over each sport. These directors would form the committee over the association. This association would help to achieve many things, such as:

• Promoting cooperation between players, coaches, and parents of all sports
• Agree on a code of conduct for our coaches, parents, and players
• Create a mission statement for the group
• Verify a list of established coaches for each team and a determination of who is on what team
• Get 503(C) non-profit status, allowing a tax deduction for donations to the teams
• Provide conflict resolution

The Rattlers currently have a website: www.RRRattlers.com. We would like to develop our web-site so that all sporting events, coach’s information, etc. could be in one place. That would make it easy for schools to contact the right person for scheduling or questions. (Dallas Thunder has a good web-site, as does CHANT).

This meeting is open to all families who are currently involved with Rattlers sports or who would like to be in the future. Please join us on Friday, January 27 at the Cooke County Library in the Meeting Room. Meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. We look forward to all the great things God has in store for our group and our teams!

Go Rattlers!

Nicki Truesdell