NutBugs

Blackline Maps and the 50 States

KristinN — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:57:33 +0000

I love using maps in my homeschooling. I know I am using Heart of Dakota and they pretty much have everything outlined for me in geography, but I still like to add in map skills whenever I can. I found a couple of sites that has some really great black-line maps for FREE and they Continue reading Blackline Maps and the 50 States

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 17 Update

KristinN — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:25:58 +0000

Daniel Boone! What a man! I do not think I could do half of what he did or expected his family to do! This week learning about how this Frontiers-man crossed over form Pennsylvania to North Carolina to Tennessee then on to Kentucky was amazing. We even mapped it for Geography. See the picture below!

Our

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 17 Update

Composer Study Contest

KristinN — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:27:26 +0000

You know ,Composer studies have been one of the areas I have not done well in over the last 5 years of homeschooling. So when I was directed to take a look at World's Greatest Composer Volume #1 for a well rounded composer study that includes Notebooking as well as Lapbooking, I figured I

Continue reading Composer Study Contest

Heart of Dakota: Buigger week 16

KristinN — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:35:58 +0000

Back to school this week. As you all know I had to take off last week because I did not have a voice to teach with. I still can not sing a lyc, but at least I can teach. So

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Buigger week 16

Chart Your Course To High School Success!

KristinN — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:40:05 +0000

I know some of you are much closer then I am to the Highschool years, So when I saw this eamail from The Homeschool Channel, I thought I had to post it here. If you can not make it I am sure there is a way to get a mp3 of it. Just send

Continue reading Chart Your Course To High School Success!

California History

KristinN — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:07 +0000

Fourth Grade California History Education Program Dear Irvine Park Railroad Friends,

We are now accepting reservations for Irvine Park Railroad's Fourth Grade California History

Continue reading California History

Blackline Maps for FREE

KristinN — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:37:26 +0000

I am a firm believer in using map as much as you possibly can. As a child growing up I remember that maps were only used in geography and even then it was minimal. Therefore as an adult I really had a hard time knowing where things were when people would talk about world events.

Continue reading Blackline Maps for FREE

QUIET MOM!

KristinN — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:47:08 +0000

L LLL aryngitis /ˌlærənˈdʒaɪtɪs/ [lar-uhn-jahy-tis] Inflammation of the larynx, often with accompaning sore thorat, horseness or loss of voice, and dry cough.

It is always amazing to me the grace of God. Every year, right around the begining of December or so, I have gotten laryngitis, ever since I was in Continue reading QUIET MOM!

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 15

KristinN — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:03:32 +0000

We had an exceptionally fantastic week this week. You see my daughter took a huge step in school this week. Usually she can sometimes be disruptive during the readings and when I ask her to retell, of course after I

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 15

Free Study Guide To The U.S. Constitution

KristinN — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:54:23 +0000

I saw the other day, Charles Vincent from the "Official Wire" online paper saw that The People's Guide to the US Constitution American Handbook Publishing has just released a free Educator’s, Homeschool and Self-Study guides to the United States Constitution which is available at www.constitutionguide.com. These accessory texts (you still have to buy the book) to

Continue reading Free Study Guide To The U.S. Constitution

Proud to be an American

KristinN — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:15:59 +0000

As we learn about early American history, I realize more and more how happy I am to be an American. And my children are realizing how much freedom we really do have here is the United States of America.

Continue reading Proud to be an American

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 14

KristinN — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:15:01 +0000

My poor little girl was very sick for the first three days of school this week. I have to admit, as bad as it may sound, that it was actually really nice to only Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 14

Christmas at Our Home

KristinN — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:34:27 +0000

This year I was not sure exactly how Christmas was going to turn out, but God is always good and gave us a spectacular Christmas. I was smart and did the majority of my Christmas shopping for the children months and months before Christmas! So they had a perfect Christmas. Even the adults had an

Continue reading Christmas at Our Home

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 13 update

KristinN — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:53:38 +0000

This was a lazy week for us. We did not do much of the academic things, but we kept up on our history, science, Bible study and math.

We enjoyed the Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 13 update

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 12

KristinN — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:50:37 +0000

This is a hard time of year for me to stay focused on school. With all the performances either that I am in or I am directing and parties and shopping and cleaning and preparing. Uugghh, it can over-take my mind

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 12

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 11 update

KristinN — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:16:04 +0000

It was interesting on Day one of Unit 11 how it talked about finding out where we came from. My son went right to the map and touch Poland, Austria, Czech and Germany. We really did not get a chance to call anyone, but we talked to Grandma for a few minutes about her parents

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 11 update

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 10 update

KristinN — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:50:56 +0000

What a great week. Well, I have to be honest, it was HARD at first. You see we had two weeks of vacation. One week away from home and then a week at home. So Monday was not easy to get back into the swing of things, but once we got the week going, by

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 10 update

Let’s Play

KristinN — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:58:46 +0000

I am sure that most of my readers read the article put out by CurrClick about Play. I thought it was such a great article, that I wanted to re-post it for those who may

Continue reading Let’s Play

Darn, Vacation is Over!

KristinN — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:21:31 +0000

Well, we are back from vacation and we had such a great time. We went to Lego Land. I think this was my children's favorite place of all. I think this was my favorite too. We saved about $175.00 on entrance fees. For all of you who may want to go but can not afford

Continue reading Darn, Vacation is Over!

Does Nagging Work?

KristinN — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:22:46 +0000

I was many years into parenting before I realized that the most powerful tool in my toolbox, masterful nagging, did not work.

I would remind, leave notes, cajole, tease, nag and harangue. Guess what? It didn't matter a bit.

In fact, they acquired an uncanny ability to tune me out. The more animated I got, the more

Continue reading Does Nagging Work?

Happy Thanksgiving

KristinN — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:53:28 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wanted to take a very quick moment before we leave to visit with family and wish all my readers, family and friends a FULLfilling day today!

With that said I have two holiday videos to share with you today. The first one is of my friend singing the Fat Turkey song and

Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving

Teaching Writing in a Text-Message World

KristinN — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 15:17:39 +0000

Writing is not going away.

In fact, writing is on the uptick!

A case can be made that writing is becoming our culture's dominant form of communication. Email, text messages, tweets, and blog entries are all done in writing. Even on our electronic phones we do more texting than talking.

It's as though the old practice of

Continue reading Teaching Writing in a Text-Message World

Eisenhower Park

KristinN — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:21:49 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is to go on hikes, have the kids wade in streams and look for all sorts of different type of animals, draw in their nature journal and just have some good old fashion fun without all the play equipment. However, here in Orange County, California, most of the

Continue reading Eisenhower Park

Encouraging Kids Along the Path to Learning

KristinN — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:11:57 +0000

The words path to learning offer us a great word picture. Word pictures (metaphors) can help us visualize and grab hold of a big concept and a deep meaning.

The word "education" is not a word picture. While the word "education" has plenty of meaning, it's hard to picture. And the word itself may not offer

Continue reading Encouraging Kids Along the Path to Learning

Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 9 Update

KristinN — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:24:44 +0000

So I know most of you who may have gotten this post a few days ago are saying where is the actual blog post? Well, I am on vacation and so far until this very moment I have not had a chance to sit down and write. So I thought I will just post the

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 9 Update

Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 8 Update

KristinN — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:01:59 +0000

So am I a bad Mom? This week was just off. Every night starting Sunday night we went to bed no earlier then 10:30pm. Ok, now my kids go to be by 8:30 maybe 9:00 if I Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 8 Update

Cookbook and Christmas Cards!

KristinN — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:06:57 +0000

I am a huge advocate for HSLDA, in case you all have not figured that out by now. So because of that I try to support them in other ways when I can. Sometimes they sell things that either make great gifts or things I really would like to have. And the few extra dollars

Continue reading Cookbook and Christmas Cards!

Lighthouse Publications Giveaway and Sweepstakes

KristinN — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:19:59 +0000

Hey, I just received an email form Lighthouse Publications because I have purchased things from them in the past. Anyway, they are doing a big sale and a givaway and I thought I would let everyone know about it. They have some great readers, Lighthouse Publications Giveaway and Sweepstakes

Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 7 Update

KristinN — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:59:21 +0000

OMGosh, we forgot to play Jeopardy this week. Our week started out pretty slow. This week with HOD I felt was a little slower and not quite as much to do as normal, but let me make darn sure you realize that this is NOT a complaint. It was actually nice, since towards the end

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 7 Update

Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 6 Update

KristinN — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:43:23 +0000

We have a very unusual schedule. We typically do school for 5 weeks and then take a week off of course during the holiday season it gets a bit tricky. Well, for those of you who follow my blog closely,

Continue reading Heart of Dakota: Bigger, Week 6 Update

HSLDA sponsoring One Nation Under God event

KristinN — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:51:22 +0000

Our nation was founded on Biblical principles, but we have lost sight of this in today�s culture. That is why we are calling all Christians to join together on November 12, 2011 to host the One Nation Under God Event in homes and churches across America.

HSLDA sponsoring One Nation Under God event

How to Keep a Strong Voice for Homeschooling in Sacramento

KristinN — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:41:11 +0000

Most of you are probably saying where is NutBugs Heart of Dakota Weekly Update this week. Well, Our schedule is that we school for 5 weeks on and then we take a week off. This allows us MANY breaks through

Continue reading How to Keep a Strong Voice for Homeschooling in Sacramento

FREE Curriculm and FREE Resources

KristinN — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:35:34 +0000

I want to make very sure that it is well known that not all of these sites I have posted are Christian, so please visit them first to make sure you approve of them before you send your children there. I have not seen anything myself that was completely wrong or offensive or even if

Continue reading FREE Curriculm and FREE Resources

Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 5 update

KristinN — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:37:26 +0000

Ok, I realized I need to purchase a thesaurus for the phrase" We had a great week" I keep saying that each week and I am sure my readers are getting tired of that same line. Anyway, I have realized that the Early American Heart of Dakota: Bigger Week 5 update

California Homeschoolers

KristinN — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:30:35 +0000

I am not sure if all of you have seen this from HSLDA or not, so I thought I would re-post it here. This is from the President HSLDA, Michael Smith.

____________________________

Great News In California!

AB 717 is a huge step toward restoring constitutional principles.

From: Family Protection Ministries and HSLDA

Bill AB 717: Child Abuse

Continue reading California Homeschoolers

Affidavit Time

KristinN — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:58:54 +0000

It's time once again to file the Private School Affidavit (PSA) online between October 1-15 for us California Homeschoolers. The private school affidavit is now

Continue reading Affidavit Time

Multiple Streams of Homeschooling Income

KristinN — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:05:33 +0000

Most of you who know me personally know that my husband has been in the real estate industry for over 20 years and has been our sole source of income. However, as we all know the real estate market busted a few years back

Continue reading Multiple Streams of Homeschooling Income

Cheap Theater Tickets

KristinN — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:23:44 +0000

Ok, so how many of you like to go see a musical or a play or some sort of concert, raise your hand. Yea, me too. But how many of you do not go at all or as often as you like because of the price? My hand is up too!

I was told about this

Continue reading Cheap Theater Tickets

Educating Children with Dyslexia

KristinN — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:30:33 +0000

I know a lot of my readers have struggling children with Dyslexia. I have a friend who just found out why she has been struggling with her child in homeschooling him. She is currently struggling in this area too with her son. As most of you know I am fond of most of Rod

Continue reading Educating Children with Dyslexia

Heart of Dakota Week 4 update

KristinN — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:24:06 +0000

Ok, so this week was not as exciting and good as last week, BUT, it had nothing to do with our curriculum. We were just having an off week. Everyday seemed to start later then we wanted. I was having

Continue reading Heart of Dakota Week 4 update

Tanaka Farms has Free Petting Zoo!

KristinN — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:30:10 +0000

Hey all you Southern California residents, Fall is here and the pumpkins are flourishing at Tanaka Farms! Opening weekend is here for the Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch. Yes, that is this weekend Oct 1 and 2nd. For their opening weekend they are giving us a treat. FREE Petting Zoo with a purchase of a wagon ride

Continue reading Tanaka Farms has Free Petting Zoo!

50 Years for Tustin Tillers Days

KristinN — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:30:40 +0000

Rustin in Tustin is a great blog for all the happenings here in the Tustin, California area as well as just outside of Tustin. I go to them alot for things to do here in my home town. Plus they have some great things you can buy that have TUSTIN on it. As

Continue reading 50 Years for Tustin Tillers Days

Seashore Videos For Bigger Hearts

KristinN — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:23:58 +0000

I had several people write to me saying they live in an area where they are not even close to a beach and they are also are using the Heart of Dakota Bigger Hearts. So I had put some great links to some videos in one of the comments section, but I figured there were

Continue reading Seashore Videos For Bigger Hearts

Heart of Dakota Week 3 Update

KristinN — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:59:06 +0000

Well, this week was pretty good. Our hick up was Math for my son. You see my son hates math. Probably somehow my fault in the earlier years, but none the less, he hates it and therefore is about 6 months behind his "grade" or "age".

(Just FYI, I figured out how to do a gallery

Continue reading Heart of Dakota Week 3 Update

Homeschool Toolbar

KristinN — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:56:42 +0000

Have some of you ever wondered what other homeschool blogs are out there that are about homeschooling? Have you done a search on Google or whatever other search engine you use and have come up with blogs that are just not what you are looking for? I found a great add on for your internet bar.

Continue reading Homeschool Toolbar

Heart Of Dakota Week 2 Update

KristinN — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:02:35 +0000

As suspected, we had another wonderful week. Currently we are learning about things on the sea shores and I finally thought to myself on Monday after school. "Self,' I said, "You live in Sunny Southern California, why the heck are

Continue reading Heart Of Dakota Week 2 Update

Help Me I am Failing at Homeschooling

KristinN — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:25:14 +0000

I wanted to repost this letter here and share my answer to this common homeschooling problem with first timers as well as veteran homeschoolers. If you have ideas to share, please post your answers too.

Hi,

This is our 1st yr. home schooling after 3 years of Public Help Me I am Failing at Homeschooling

Trying a New Curriculum: Heart of Dakota Week 1

KristinN — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:39:55 +0000

This year I am trying a whole new curriculum for History, Geography, Timeline, Notebooking, Poetry, Bible and Science etc. Heart of Dakota. A

Continue reading Trying a New Curriculum: Heart of Dakota Week 1

Heartfelt Music

KristinN — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:46:01 +0000

You know a while back I use to be in a group called Heartfelt. It was originally a quartet then we made it into 5 girls then 6 and went back to 5 and finally back to 4. Anyway, we recorded a CD just for fun and to be able to give other churches a look at

Continue reading Heartfelt Music

Homeschooling Library

KristinN — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:10:00 +0000

BOOKS ARE EXPENSIVE! I'd love to add a ton of educational literature to my homeschool library, but purchasing them can be extremely expensive. Well I found a place to go to build my library without spending hundreds of dollars. Homeschool Library. Two Moms got together and decided to provide homeschoolers and non homeschoolers alike with

Continue reading Homeschooling Library

Am I Sheltering My Child Too Much?

KristinN — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:14:31 +0000

Did you all see the article by Gena Suarez that Old School House sent out a few weeks ago. I loved it and thought I would post it here for those who did not get it.

Do you "shelter" your children?

Continue reading Am I Sheltering My Child Too Much?

All About Spelling

KristinN — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:41:40 +0000

I did it! I found the best spelling program ever! The program name is All About Spelling. The program is so versatile. It can start at All About Spelling

Art Class

KristinN — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 01:11:58 +0000

From October 2010 to June 2011 We were involved in an Art class with our homeschooling group. We had so much fun with this class. How this got started was one of the ladies had purchased the Atlier Art DVD's and she figured it would be fun to have her daughter have a few friends

Continue reading Art Class

Timeline in a Box

KristinN — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:34:59 +0000

You know timelines can be a very useful thing in homeschooling, but there are some of us homeschoolers that just have no idea how to go about making one. Here is a great idea from Debra Anderson . I think I might give this one a try myself.

Timeline in a box:

When we were still fairly

Continue reading Timeline in a Box

Response to Alarming Recommendations by Miami-Dade County Grand Jury

KristinN — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:54:07 +0000

I just received an email from HSLDA in regards to this. I know that this does not affect me now, but in the future this could affect thosse of us in California too. And to my friends and readers who live in Florida, I am sure you are well aware of what is going on.

Continue reading Response to Alarming Recommendations by Miami-Dade County Grand Jury

A New School Year

KristinN — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:46:01 +0000

Well it is that time of year once more. Are you all diving into purchasing your new school year curriculum and A New School Year

Dream-Driven Kids…Why They Succeed

KristinN — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:49:20 +0000

When you were young, did you tell your parents (or anyone) your dreams?

Maybe you yearned to be the fastest runner in the world? Or write books? Be a rock star? An artist? Olympic skater? A mom?

We tend to protect our dreams, so we don't always say them out loud. We don't want our dreams trampled

Continue reading Dream-Driven Kids…Why They Succeed

The Importance of Good Pencil Posture

KristinN — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:12:10 +0000

Learning and reading involve many skills. As children move beyond the pre-school

Continue reading The Importance of Good Pencil Posture

HSLDA Members and Friends:

KristinN — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:01:56 +0000

Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:

You know that HSLDA’s free e-lert service brings the latest news to your inbox.

But when you want in-depth analysis of issues that affect your family’s freedom to homeschool, HSLDA’s bimonthly magazine, The Home School Court Report,

Continue reading HSLDA Members and Friends:

The L.A. County Fair

KristinN — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:57:48 +0000

Have you always wanted to go to the county fairs for educating your children more then the rides and food, but never do because it is so blasted busy? Well, LA County fair has been giving away free tickets to the fair for years. Oh, and it is open early in the morning to Continue reading The L.A. County Fair