Math Manipulatives for Sale

"Mommy I Want To Die With You"

"Can we go in the same hole"

-3yr old girl.

Visual Latin Giveaway

There is an awesome giveaway going on over at Home Educating Family Magazine.

It is a giveaway for Visual Latin.

We currently are using Song School Latin in the home but some visual reinforcement (other than the workbook).

So head on over and sign on up!

"Mommy I Was Trying to Sing My Heart Off"

Honey I think you meant "Heart Out".

Things I thought I would never say, "Go say you are sorry to the cat".

And earlier, "Take the salt away from the baby".

"Take The Hot Sauce Away from the Baby"

#43 Things I thought I would never say.

"Mom Jesus is John's Cousin!"

He comes up to me all excited saying this after reading his kid bible.

King Tut Exhibit Woodstock

I am so excited, we read Tut's Mummy: Lost...And Found (Step-Into-Reading, Step 4) last week. After reading about Howard Carter's amazing and exciting discoveries, my oldest wanted to get on a plane that day and head over to Egypt to find some more tombs.

I searched on the internet and could only find this King Tut exhibit in Houston. I thought God would somehow work it out for us to get to Houston to see the display. Atlanta has had King Tut exhibits but it has been a couple of years.

And then low and behold God worked it out. There is a brand new King Tut exhibit in Woodstock. Complete with dioramas and replicas!

Free Online Art Lessons for the Kiddies

Great for those who follow Charlotte Mason. Art Lessons by grade.

For first grade there are 10 lessons to download. The first lesson is Paul Cezanne.
I like these because it has directed questions to ask after viewing the piece.

What colors do you see?
What room in the house does this look like?

And so on... Check it out from the Concordia University of Chicago.

Baby Sling Cheap Slingling

Baby Sling Cheap Slingling: Today�s deal at Moolala is a baby sling for $22. The Slingling is for babies up to 35 pounds. I love baby slings

I am going to get some birds wings wet

so that I can catch them and eat them.

Horseshoe Magnet Sale-Cheap

Last week in the Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding (BSFU) we did a magnet study. I could not track down in Lakeshore Learning any magnets in price range (cheap). So I ordered off ebay a horseshoe magnet. In the picture it looked really big. Like I said in the picture (see picture #!)

I got it and it was about 1.5 inches long. Let me tell you trying to show magnetic field with iron fillings and that little ol magnet was a bit of a stretch.

And I paid $5.99 for it. Can you believe it? I put that study off for 2 weeks trying to find a reasonably priced magnet.

And then look what I just found tonight?(see picture #2)
A big ol horseshoe magnet for $5.99

Mommy your dress is soft

Your shirt is soft.

Can you be my pillow for my head?

Homeschool Planners 35% off

Great deal. I just got mine recently and have enjoyed using it.

I went to the Well Planned Day workshop at the Homeschool conference and got to hear her speak. I see a lot of benefits to this particular planner. The best part is that you can see any holes you missed in looking back if you use a planner more like I do, a recording of what we actually did get done.

Use code hedua927 to get 35% off. Don't worry the code is written all over their website.

Here are the details directly from the Home Educating Family site:

Spiral Bound with Three Hole Drilled to Fit into Binders
Over 230 Full Color Pages
Full Year Planner: July 2011 - June 2012
Home Management with weekly cleaning schedule, monthly projects, greeting card registry, and monthly budgeting.
NEW in 2011, Holiday Organization Section: Greeting card registry, activities and event schedules, gift giving, around town shopping, and internet shopping.
Organize and plan for up to 4 children in one convenient book.
Four Student Class Plans: Schedule each student's class assignments.
Four Student Time Schedules: Track each day by the hour.
Weekly Schedule: Organize your week with class assignments, weekly priorities, prayer requests, dinner menu, and notes.
Month at a Glance: Plan field trips, enrichment activities and books to read
Semester Attendance & Progress Reports
Perforated Report Cards
Menu Planning: Plan weekly meals and conveniently shop with perforated shopping lists.
Family Worship: Read through the Bible in a year.
Insightful homeschool articles and tips to inspire you throughout the year.
and much more....

Mommy Why Are Boats Called Girls?

He thinks for a second, I know a good one is coming.....

"Maybe boats are called girls because they break easily"

We just started a condensed Swiss Family Robinson and all the boat talk had us pulling out the dictionary for the words keel, outrigger.

Review-Lego City #7286 Police Transport & Lego City #3366 Satellite Launch Pad

I was officially inducted into the unofficial Lego club around here today. For the first time we built a Lego City set. It was like putting together Ikea furniture but with detailed color directions. I received today from Son#2, "I love you". Maybe I earned his sentiment because I probably spent 3 hours putting these together. I found these on Amazon so I could show you, but we bought ours at Target.

When you open the package for the boxes there are 2 baggies of Legos, bag#1 and bag#2. DON'T MIX THEM TOGETHER! :) You make these Lego projects in stages. So first off we did bag #1. I am in my late thirties and have a college degree so together with my 6 year old son who had the Lego Police Transport package we were able to do this quite easily. Occasionally I had to snap the smaller pieces together. The windscreen was a little difficult to snap on but I found if you stretched it and then pushed down it would go in.

For the Lego City Satellite project we put together the vehicle first. Son#2 is five and he was pretty good at looking at the picture and figuring out where to put things. He needed more help than the six year old snapping the smaller pieces together. I will say that even though the red coffee cup is on the dashboard in the color photo on the box, it does not fit there and that is why in the instruction book the coffee cup is next to the computer that fits on the track in the back.

Details: Ages 5-12
Cost: About $20
Time: 1-2 hours (but you can do it in 2 parts which I did)
Fun Rating: 5 stars, I can't believe they focused for so long. There was a little wandering in part 2 this afternoon but they pulled it together.







The links above are Amazon affiliate links

"Mom I met a girl on the mall train and she was...

cold blooded.

She can wear a tank top in the winter."

The Braves

The Braves won, they got 7 points. The other team lost they got one.

Mommy did you know if the balls comes into the people you get to keep the ball?

At the end the fireworks shot out of the green bottle. (BIG SMILE HERE)>

There was a man yelling stuff at the players and it was really funny.

Where to Put Library Books?

We have two big baskets in the living room. One for our books and one for library books. And if you ever lost a book you know how expensive that can be. Since we check out 20-30 books at a time, we have to have a system.

That being said, they just weren't getting read as often sitting in that basket.

So I dumped them on the couch. Now they all get read.

Today we came home from the library and everyone just ran to the couch to read. Well the oldest read, the others looked at pictures.

Ahhhh, I love homeschooling.................

And if you would like to know my take on preschool here it is......

I didn't push reading to early on my oldest, in fact I could of let him go longer, but I wanted to show some progress for family. I am taking reading real slow for #2 who is almost five. Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons worked for us, although we split the book up and make it into 150 lessons........

Not One but Three

I saw a lady driving down the road with not one, not two but three garbage bags on her roof. Yes she was talking on her cell phone (oops almost wrote self phone- hahahah).

And if you would like a little joy in your moment of scanning here is a nice song.

We don't watch TV around here much

So guess what an old Pampers wipe container is pretending to be?

A television set for the stuffed animals to watch..........

And then there was a knock down screaming match because the Denise the Menace had taken it away to play with.

Butterfly Cage with Caterpillars-$10!!

This is a great deal for those wanting to hatch some butterflies!


This is a really good deal, $20 worth of product for $10! Insect Lore cages are great! We borrowed one last year and were quite happy with it.

I paid $14 bucks for just caterpillars last year. Shipping is $5.99.

Its an awesome Groupon deal!

The benefit of your 4 year old leaving the bathroom sink running and it flooding into the basement?

Your floor has never looked cleaner.

Cheap World & US Wall Map

I spent hours (I bet at least six) trying to find a decent world map last year online. The cheapest I could find was about 10 bucks plus shipping.

And then I was walking in Office Depot yesterday and they sell them for only $4.95 and $5.95!

Just thought I would let anyone else know in case they are looking.

I know there are free maps out there too, but for those who don't have one....

PS I can't find this price online, it was only in the store.

$15 for National Geographic Subscription-79% off the Cover Price

A good deal on a National Geographic subscription.

I got this last year for the kids, however I am the one who reads it the most. One day they will....

$15 is the lowest price I have seen.

Did You Learn That In School?

What is homeschooling from the perspective of a young boy.

What do you learn in school the article asks? What do you learn in the world?

Okay I am Just loving this site Besthomeschooling.org

If you are new to homeschooling and don't want to sift through tons of stuff, this site is a great start......

Seriously!

Pressure in Homeschooling

I have met and now read about a late reading child and how they turned into someone brilliant.

Some people ask me why homeschooling? Its articles like this that inspire me. I want my kids to love to learn. And I keep hearing from the veteran homeschooling moms, enjoy the younger years, read to them, let them soak up life. Plenty of time for pressure later.

And because of this while the Charlotte Mason approach was always quite interesting to me (for one I have read and believe Pre-K and heavy duty Kindergarten is detrimental) I ended up going with the Well Trained Mind approach. In a perfect world I might unschool (or at least let the curriculum be 100% child led), but there is some family pressure to produce results.

Pray for me, I have stepped off the boat these past 4 months (we started 1st grade in February, but hit the brakes in April) but I am ready to get back on.

Want to Feel Inspired About Homeschooling

Read this little poem. Awww.... Takes the pressure off.

New Homeschoolers-Buy This Stuff Now!

UPDATE: My favorite site ever is Southern Savers, she has an exhaustive post about school deals this week.

There are sales going on this week. This is the time of the year to stock up for homeschool. Boy do I hate paying full price in the middle of the year knowing full well I could of gotten it for a penny or a nickel during the summer sales! CVS gives away free stuff soon and even Walgreens has some deals like 2 for $1.00 Crayola Crayons (so much better than the dollar tree ones) this week.

Things to stock up on-for those new to homeschooling.

Glue Sticks
Posterboard (I paid full price last year after I ran out of my 5 for $1.00 Wags summer sale ones... it hurt so much to do that!)
Erasers
Crayons
Pencil Sharpeners
3 Hole Punch (quite handy for filing up binders of completed schoolwork)
Binders
Reams of Paper (see below at Office Max sale this week)
Rulers (those plastic ones break when using them as catapults for action figures)


Here is ARE the first sales at Staples and Office Max........


STAPLES AD 7/10-7/16
.50 2 pack of Mini composition books
.50 Mini clipboard
.50 Single Metal Holepunch
.50 Dividers 5 tab
.50 Plastic Ruler


OFFICE MAX, on page 9 of the Ad is a $5 off $25 coupon!
$1.00 Sharpies 12pk ($5 special price minus $4 in AD coupon)
.01 Ream of Paper after REWARDS ($5.99 Ream of Paper, get back $5.98 OfficeMaxRewards), Limit 2
.01 Plastic mini sharpeners, Limit 5
I am not an Office Max expert but if there is a way to hand them the $5 off $25 first and then the Sharpies $4 coupon you could do really REALLY well.

Summer is Slow

I am glad we homeschool year round. I can do a little bit here and there and its less pressure. Just saying.

Mommy Can You Play Frisbee By Yourself?

Yes, but there is a lot more running.

I would of been a terrible Ancient Egyptian Priest....

I am sorry but my life has been too weird lately for me to keep up with everything and that includes resalting our chicken mummy.
The smell finally starting leaking through its double ziplock bag layers. I think mummification for chickens is a cool idea, it just requires a lot of product; salt, baking powder and baking soda and..... TIME! I was supposed to resalt the bird every couple of days (every other day in the beginning).

Oh well........

Attention: Missing Gingerbread Boy!

We are missing a Gingerbread boy. He is about 5 inches tall, has 3 purple stars on his belly, 2 chocolate sprinkle eyes and 1 sprinkle mouth. (NOTE IN PICTURE HE IS THE ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT SIDE OF COOKIE SHEET)

He was last seen in a White GE Oven Model #7040 about 11:14am on the 200 Block of (BLOCKED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT) Trail.

According to one witness at the scene "He was the biggest Gingerbread that we made today".

Mrs. M-y, the homeowner, commented, "The timer had gone off and while my son was about to check and see if the cookies were burning, I noticed the kitchen door was slightly cracked open. I opened the oven door and he was gone. In all my years, I have never seen this happen".

The 3 M-y children all have their theories.
"Maybe he was eaten by the neighborhood hawk".
"Maybe he is in our brother's room".
"Maybe he run away with a leaf".

The homeowner also commented, "The bottom of the oven has been checked to see if he fell down, but there is no sign of him".

If anyone has information about this case please contact us right away. Or if anyone has eaten him, please let us know.

UPDATE: 5/20/11 The occupants suspect he is in the attic, however their mother isn't going up there to check.

Science Last Week

We learned about a third attribute of matter, particles! Part two of our discussion will discuss how liquid, gas and solid particles have different strengths of attraction between the molecules.

The kids loved part one of the lesson.
Blowing air into soapy water. Think of it air packages of air particles.
Going outside and gathering dirt and how small particles of dirt are even smaller (if we had a microscope we could go deeper).
Filing a rock to show sand particles.
Adding dirt to water to see the particles in the water and also smearing the dirt on a white piece of paper to see the particles.

They had a lot of fun getting wet, blowing bubbles and digging in the dirt.

God my kids have it good:) Amen we get to do stuff like this.

This month has been hard for me, so we are going a bit slower, just keeping up with Math and also reading more books when I have time. The kids really do love it. I can't recommend enough how important it is to read to your children.

Peace

Wilson Pickett

My kids love Wilson PIckett. Isn't that great?

Mommy were you born in BC?

I laugh....
DS#2 responds with "I was born in ABC".

Ancient Egypt...But the execution of mummifying a chicken is quite different.

Oh my goodness, it seemed like such a cool idea reading about on the internet. But the execution of mummifying a chicken is quite different.

Day 6? Here it is... Its quite gross. Thank goodness it doesn't smell to much because we added cinnamon to the baking soda, baking powder and salt combination.

This week as part of our Ancient Egypt studies, DS#1 created a LEGO pyramid. That went well. You start off with 5 rows of 5. And then 4 rows of 4....

And finally as part of Saxon Math 1, DS#1 had to create a pattern (he pronounces it "patterin") with the math manipulatives (pattern blocks). He said "look mommy its a cross with Jesus on it". Awwww....

2 Things That Warmed My Heart

1)DS#2 Wednesday night church teacher telling me that he is great in class and really knows his scriptures.

2)DS#1 at baseball today, after the game when the coach had his after game spiritual talk with the kids, he asked who should you obey? My husband yelled out "your parents". And then the coach said "who else" and my son said "God".

Hey its the little things.....

You need to be more careful with your work and not doodle.

I am not going to get a job when I grow up. I don't need a car, I'll ride a bike.

Free Curriculum Link-Unit Studies-Lapbooks-Five In A Row

There is a great place to find unit studies and lapbooks all organized by Five in A Row and other free curriculums.
Check it out here.

A search on unit studies and then the book "Poky Little Puppy" yielded these results.

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding-Lesson A-3 Air is a Substance

We are using a new science curriculum this year, Building Foundation of Scientific Understanding by Bernard Nobel.
There is a warning on the first page, "Do not treat this volume as a smorgasbord of random selections. As in math, lessons are arranged and designed to impart knowledge, understanding and skills in a logical, systemic order."

I like systemic order in lessons. Which is why I appreciate Saxon Math and Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

So far we have learned about organization and categories. How is a grocery store organized, your pantry, etc.
Then we learned the three states of matter: gas, liquid and solid. And also identifying the differences between them and how they may change from one to another.

And today we are learning about air as a substance. We had an introductory discussion the other day about how air takes up space and has weight (mass is reserved for discussion in future discussions after understanding has increased).

This morning we did 3 experiments.

1)Blowing up a balloon, air pushes out the sides of a balloon. Balloons are probably my children's most favorite toys after sticks and scooters.

2)Then we blew bubbles into a glass. Air(gas) pushes the water out of the way. Messy but again, right up their alley.

3)Take a clear plastic water bottle upside down and put it into a tray or flat bottomed bowl. I added food coloring to water so we could see more distinctly that when you put a bottle straight into the bowl (not tipped sideways) the water does not go into the bottle. The air in the bottle takes up space and pushes the water out of the way. After everyone recognizes this, then you can prick the bottle with a pin, it allows the air to escape the top (or rather the bottom since its upside down). The gas can escape and the water enter the bottom.

Why Do Dogs Have 4 Legs?

my response, "Because if they had 3 they would go a lot slower".

My Thoughts Flit, So Why Shouldn't My Children's.

Charlotte recognized that fact: "Here is the secret of the weariness of the home schoolroom—the children are thinking all the time about something else than their lessons; or rather, they are at the mercy of the thousand fancies that flit through their brains, each in the train of the last" (Vol. 1, p. 139).

Here is a great post about how children's minds wander. I can tell you I laughed out loud at the play by play of this mom reading a story to her children.

Here is how reading a story in my house goes.

"I am sitting there."
"No I am sitting there."
"Mommy her legs are in my way."
"I can't see."
"Now I can't see the pictures."
"Mommy he is in my spot."
(I finally start to read)
"I can't see the picture."
"Ouch, he stepped on my hand."
(Vroom, vroom, one child has walked over to the toys)
"That's my car stop playing with it"
Me "Do you want me to READ THIS STORY OR NOT?"

F is Frog

F is for Frog.

What We Have Been Studying

Here is a brief synopsis.

We started 1st Grade this April.
This year we are basically following the Well Trained Mind Curriculum.

My 6 year old is......
Saxon Math 1
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding
Story of The World-Ancient History
Song School Latin
Abeka Readers
A Reason For Handwriting 1 (seriously considering)
Handwriting Without Tears K (still continuing)

My 4 year old is.......
Saxon Math K
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
and following older brother in History and Science when possible.

And my Dennis the Menace in a dress who knows only two volumes, loud and louder, is continuing with My Father's World.

I haven't bought a timeline yet for my basement walls, I hope to find it at one of the curriculum sales this summer.

Homeschool TV?

Yes it is called the Homeschool Channel. I am not sure if its on any cable or satellite packages at this time, but they do live stream. They have some interesting shows about history, biology and more.

How to Build a Catapult: Fun Science Experiments | eHow.com

We had built a Castle last week out of the empty oven box. A coat of white paint (far messier to clean up when you let a 5, 4 and 2 year old apply it) and some flags made out of wooden barbeque skewers. The boys made England flags in honor of Daddy and I drew a "Don't Tread On Me" Naval flag because my oldest son thought it was cool but too difficult to attempt himself.

How to Build a Catapult: Fun Science Experiments | eHow.com Then we built a catapult today. We didn't have any wood, so I grabbed an heavy duty frozen chicken box. It was empty, so I needed some weight so that it wouldn't flip over when the energy was released. Three full bottles of useless vitamins, bought with a coupon of course.

We also didn't have any push pins, but I did find some medium screws. So I screwed them into the box. It is hard to see in the video, but you should screw the pins or screws closer to the corners and not the dead center of the sides.

And my final tip is to twist the rubber band many times to get it to grasp the spoon well.

The inspiration for the catapult was from the DK Eyewitness Castle book I grabbed from the library yesterday.

Preserving Butterflies......

So I saved the butterflies bodies and their cocoons. Every time I washed the dishes I could see these deteriorating insect corpses in a little glass bowl at eye level. An antennae hung over the lip of the bowl along with a pair of yellow plastic bug tweezers.
I would look at them and think, if Jesus came back, I wonder if the antennae would start moving on their own..
Like zombie butterflies.

Anyways, I decided recently in one of my 3 am staring at walls in the dark with my eyes closed sessions (instigated by being awakened to nurse in the other room for the second time in one night because I wasn't protecting the nap...argh....)

That I should... Declutter.

Tonight I read this. http://www.ehow.com/how_5392804_preserve-butterfly-wings.html

Um no. I can't stick a needle through a butterfly. I can stick a knife in a snake and skin him but not a butterfly.
I was at the homeschool group last week and the lady asked how the butterflies did (she was the one who had lent me the butterfly net, the REAL butterfly net).
I told her they did okay, they final guy only died a couple of weeks ago.
Why didn't you release them?
I told her they came from New York across state lines and had this paperwork that said I couldn't release them so I had to watch them die, all of them.
Did they do a death move she asked?
Yes they did, they did a death dance near the end and would flap their wings real fast. And then I would try and nurse them back to health with some honey water. Sometimes it would give them a few more days... It was kinda sad.
I think I was more attached to them because I saw them being born and there was blood (meconium, actually, see previous posts).

But honestly people, you don't understand the joys of motherhood until you are in it. And then its like your radar goes on.
From then on, you are sensitive and you finally understand why in the 80's your mom cried at the Southern Bell commercials.