Sanity Beach

2010-03-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Thursdays for some reason always seem to be the longest day for me. What about you? What day seems to take the most effort to get through? What do you do to brighten the day or make things run smoother in your home? One thing I have done is purchase a new program to help me with my menu planning and grocery shopping. No more scraps of paper with lists. No more hunting for the recipe for the kids favorite Mac & Cheese. Shoppers-Friend is great and I have only had it for a day! It is beta testing right now so the first 100 lucky moms can get in on this but once it is fully released you have to try it out. You won't regret it.
We are down to only 4 sick ones in our home so maybe I can get in some yard time. My veggie garden laid fallow last year to rest (played nurse all summer to an injured family member) so it needs a little TLC. Better Homes & Gardens has a great site with tons of information on vegetable gardens. The kiddies are probably going to work on some of the videos we have from Izzit. You can either receive one free video /year or purchase them. They also have free daily current events lessons that you can use. Today's topic is "A Simple Health Care Fix Fizzles Out". They also may work on their workbooks that I printed free on 1800-teacher.com I found English, Math and Science work from Preschool through 10th Grade. They also have quite a few e-books to download also. This is a Singapore education site so the English is proper English but I would rather my children speak like that anyway. Much better than the hillbilly ghetto that is common around here.
I'm off to conquer the day. Pets are up and clamoring to be fed so that means the kiddies are next :).

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Are you wearing green? If not, beware of small fingers. A tradition with kids especially is to pinch those who aren't wearing green. Beyond that, here are a few things to help you with the kiddies today.
About.com has a list of links that include the history of the holiday, a quiz, fun facts, worksheets, crafts and coloring pages.
Currclick.com has a study about St. Patrick from Living Books Curriculum as a free download.
Kaboose.com and FamilyFun.com have a whole list of coloring pages, puzzles, coloring pages, crafts and recipes.
DLTK really has too many different printables to list! Talk about a variety.
ABCteach.com has enough resources to do a mini unit all in one place.
AtoZteacherstuff.com has an extensive list of lesson plans to learn about St. Patrick's Day.
Coloring.ws, ColoringBookFun.com, apples4theteacher.com
and mes-english.com have coloring pages to print for the kiddies.
Makingfriends.com has crafts to make and share.
Theteachersguide.com, Printactivities.com and Lee Hansen all have plenty of fun things to learn and do.
Thetoymaker.com has printable paper crafts that are absolutely beautiful.
Hopefully this is enough to keep the kiddies busy for the day.
I know I will be bookmarking some of this to use for next year. There always seems to be too much to do and not enough time. Well, to me that is. To the kiddies, all they see is the sun shining outside. Maybe we will have to take a walk outside to collect green things from nature first.

Finishing up...

2010-03-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

The kiddies are just finishing up their lapbook/notebook study on the 2010 Winter Olympics. They seemed to drag a little at the end so I think with the next study we do, I will start some of the research for them. At least find the information and have it organized for them. I am trying to decide what to study next. Any ideas? I also am in the process of putting together a project pac for Roller Skating. Where is the best place to start selling? Decisions, decisions...

Long time gone

2010-03-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Talk about craziness...but I'm back. On with the show.

Christmas Symbols

2009-12-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

Apples 4 the Teacher has a long list of Christmas symbols and their meanings. HappyHomeschool has a printable unit study on Christmas symbols. At Home School has an extensive unit study about Christmas symbols. Here you will find the Symbols of Christmas poem. Saskschool is another good reference for symbol explanations. Kaboose has a Symbols of Christmas bell craft for the kiddies. About.com has Christmas Symbol printables. Homeschool Helper has a Christmas Symbol lapbook. 1+1+1=1 has some lapbook templates for Christmas Symbols.

12 Days of Christmas

2009-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

DLTK has a great set of coloring pages to go along with this subject. Here you will find the lyrics to the song and the meanings behind it. Here is another explanation of the meanings behind this song but it is more in depth with scripture notations. Homeschool Share has a free lapbook about the 12 Days of Christmas. About.com has some worksheets to print out for the kiddies to complete. First-School has some printables for the Pre-K/K set. About.com also has a 12 Days gag gift idea. Love to Know has a list of sites to find graphics that you may need in your study. The Leadership Program has a 12 Days math lesson that involves Pascal's Triangle. E-Printable Calenders has a randomly generated 12 days word search that can be printed out. The 12 Days Christmas Village has coloring pages, crafts, games, and the kiddies can e-mail Santa.

Free to help

2009-11-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

I thought it might be a good idea to remind everyone that there are sites out there where we can help others by only giving up a few moments out of the day.
Click to Give
Free Rice
Free Kibble
Free Kibble Kat

Couponing

2009-11-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Is anyone out there interested in saving money on their groceries? I usually save around 35-50 dollars just in coupons a week. Don't get me wrong though, I rarely buy ready-made food items. I just am slowly turning this thing into an art! If you guys want, I can start posting where I find the best coupons. Let me know what you think. I did say in the beginning that this would be a source for whatever may be needed to save your sanity for the day. That said, if you have any requests let me know and I can look for and post those too.

Thanksgiving cooking

2009-11-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

If your kiddies are like mine, they love to be in the kitchen helping. Here is a list of sites with Thanksgiving recipes to get your meal planning started.
Homeschooled Kids
MyRecipes
Better Homes & Gardens
cdkitchen
Disney Family Food
Mahalo
Taste of Home

E-mints

2009-11-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

College of Education provides us with e-mints. E-mints is a collection of learning themes, resources, tools, and webquests collected by the University of Missouri for teachers. The Mayflower Voyage page has information about the Mayflower Compact, a passenger list, a diagram of the ship, information about the 11 girls on the voyage, activities and much more. Yesterday, we read the story about the 2 dogs that were on the Mayflower voyage.

Pilgrims & the Plymoth Colony

2009-11-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Duane A. Cline at rootsweb.com has provided us with a wonderful studyguide to use in our studies. There are nearly 100 links to outside sources and 90 art works included in this study. This site is definitely worth your time to check out.

Pilgrim WebQuest

2009-11-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

A Pilgrim's Journey is a webquest about a pilgrim child's adventure in life. When you have finished your quest, you will have finished an adventure journal.

History.com Thanksgiving

2009-11-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, I love History.com. There is always plenty to explore, learn, and interact with on their site. There is no shortage of information pertaining to Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims. Don't miss the Turderken video. I actually ate this years ago but thought it was a joke meal!

Be a Historian

2009-11-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

Did you ever want to explore what it was like at the first Thanksgiving? Have you ever wanted to be a historian? Here is a link to Plimoth.org's interactive "You are the Historian" First Thanksgiving investigation. The kiddies and I explored this last year but it is on our list again as an activity for this year's learning.

Who were the pilgrims?

2009-11-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

Plimoth Plantation website is a great visual resource for kids. Not only is there plenty to read but there are also pictures to reinforce what is being discussed.

List of Thanksgiving links

2009-11-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

You never really know what you will discover when you do a Google search. I found an old blog entry that is a treasury of Thanksgiving links. Homeschooling 4 Free gives a very comprehensive collection of activities and study items for the kiddies to learn about our history and the first thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims

2009-11-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

Joyful Heart Ministries has a wonderful Thanksgiving and Pilgrims page that has links to stories, plays and art to use in your study. I'm thinking I may use some of the information here for artist study notebooking pages for the kiddies.

It's turkey time!

2009-11-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, squidoo is such a great resource. Jimmie has collected for us the resources to make a Thanksgiving lapbook. The kiddies and I are starting our Thanksgiving studies on Monday so keep checking back as I will post my finds here.

Free resource

2009-11-02T20:42:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was one of those. Kiddies were upset because barely anyone was home in our neighborhood for Trick or Treating, the weather wasn't the greatest, and the silly time change. Oh, and how about this, the clock my son bought for me so I wouldn't be late anymore changed time a day early! I almost didn't wake up for work Saturday since the clock had turned itself back an hour ahead of schedule. Since today was Monday and the weekend was icky, we took a free day. Legos, Disney movies and lots of giggling went on here for most of the day. Tomorrow we will be back to our learning activities (who says play isn't learning?) but for tonight, I leave you with this site to wander through at your leisure. Homeschool Launch is a wonderful collection of mini blog type pages with free file downloads by learning parents/homeschoolers. Every time I stop by this site, I find new materials to use with my kiddies.

Trick or Treat

2009-10-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ok ladies, do you live in my area? If you do, check your Trick or Treat times here. WSBT has all the local times in one place for us to look at.

Ben & Jerry's Halloween

2009-10-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

OOOOOOOOOh, spoooooky! Ben & Jerry's has a Halloween page with scary sounds and an interactive entrance page. Click around to see what you can find. My first click, I found Dracula. There are games, recipes, printables, safety tips, and more for you to explore.

St. Aiden's Homeschool

2009-10-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

St. Aiden's is a homeschool based in South Africa. The resources and printables that are shared with all of us are absolutely amazing. Many times I have scoured the site for little "extras" to do with the kiddies on whatever our current study is. As always, this time I was searching for Halloween activities and sure enough, I found some. St. Aiden's Halloween printables page has plenty to educate and to entertain.

Lapbook/Notebook Halloween

2009-10-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

As a reminder, don't forget to check Homeschool Helper for their free Halloween notebooking pages and a free Halloween lapbook. Homeschool Share has a lapbook for the book The Pumpkin Runner and a unit study for the book Pumpkin Jack. I also found a free Halloween lapbook on MediaFire to download.

Squigley's

2009-10-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here's another site that has lots of things for the kiddies to do. There are plenty of games, puzzles, and activities to keep them busy for quite a while.

Funschool Halloween

2009-10-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Funschool has an entire page of games, learning fun, and activities collected in one place for you and your kids to enjoy.