NEW BEGINNINGS

I love getting your emails and hearing about your projects whether they are learning or organizing related. And, I am never too busy in my blogging schedule to pause and share when I get one from my dynamic readers. I recently got these beautiful pictures from Chayaan's mom in (Colombo, Sri Lanka) and I just had to show you what a beautiful job Chayaan did. 

Life in the Rainforest by Chayaan Perera (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

Vrai, Chayaan's mother said:The cover images are all cut outs, and the other pictures of animals, birds, reptiles etc are also all cut outs pasted on to the backgrounds.

I love it because it shows how intricate children can be when learning comes alive or when you find the spark that ignites them.

You have to love the fact that when something interests a child, they will write. The key is to finding something that interests them.

Vrai also said: The pages of pictures on Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, People and Flowers have been done in 3D!

 Each key page has a 'Fact Box' into which he made and placed 'Flash Cards'.

I know he will not get tired of reviewing or going back over this. This is the kind of tool to use for assessment of knowledge instead of boring tests.

Vrai also told me: This was all his idea and plan and knowledge is all his own.

I also love the fact that he mixed and matched printables from our site and others to get something unique.

I love the end where he made a call to save the planet. Overall, you can tell how much time was spent on this project. I put Chayann's work as a slide presentation on our Amazon page. If you get a chance and have time, go on over  to our page and show this little guy some love by commenting in the box at the bottom of our website.

Chayaan, you did a GREAT job and hope you enjoyed the dynamic reader spotlight today. Thank you to your mom for sending in your hard work. She is doing a great job with you.  You made my day today.

I ALWAYS have time to see any of the work by your children or even your projects. Thanks for sharing!

I will be sharing the monthly diy calendars for the Home Management Binder on Monday but will be enjoying some time with family and friends this weekend.

Hugs and you know I love ya,

I just can't help myself. Spring has sprung and I am having a bad case of it. I have the next printables for the Home Management Binder almost ready and the printables and blog post for the Ancient Civilizations unit too, but I had to share this first. I made our bird journal late last year so I wanted us to get started earlier this year in spring.

Last year we started a bird journal because we had a bird presentation with our co-op group. I want to add to the journal this year and make some changes.

We will be using a notebook journal. We like the fact that we can add and take out pages. Tiny hadn't put his name on it yet because he is still deciding if he wants to add something else to the front page.

But this year I created a bunch of coloring page for me him. The kid still loves to color when he gets a wild hair and is not rushed. He has a standard of near perfection even for his coloring and I can't imagine where he came up with that idea. Poor kid. So this book is really a time saver for me because I can add coloring pages to the inside pocket and it is pick/up go. You can use this with kids of any age as long as he likes to color every now and again. Boys like coloring less than girls do, but they will participate when they are moved. Plus, this notebook gets him outside to enjoy the weather while still investigating science and nature.

We still want to attach a sketch pencil of some sort and a pen too so we have it with the notebook, but we are off to a good start. I created an easy page for a field guide to help me him identify the birds. As I find pages like this, I will save them and share with you of course so we can add them to our journal. If you have a real young child, print off the page and have him circle the birds as he finds them.

By adding page protectors to the bird  binder, Tiny can save all those feathers and other nature junkies he finds and that can't be glued in so easily. The good thing about a notebook is that you can add pockets, plain paper or anything to store your nature treasures.

One thing I did add this year as you noticed from the notebook was a color cover. Your child has a choice of cover. He can choose the color one here or the one I did previously. I will explain the one I created last year in a minute. Then there are 8 coloring pages to start off the coloring journal. At the top of each coloring page, I provided a huge space between the parenthesis for your child to write the name of the bird.

Download the 10 page journal here.

If you didn't follow me last year, you can grab the ones from last year too. This is the set that has the bird identification pages on it and the black and white journal cover page.

Download black and white journal page here if your child wants to color his own birds.

Download the Identification Key Page that is designed to be printed off many times. Print one for each bird you find. This page is designed with older kids in mind because there is writing. Your child can sketch & write about the birds he locates when bird watching or just choose ones that he likes.

Download the Horned Owl Identification Page here. Because we studied about this bird during our bird presentation last year, I created it for Tiny. Maybe you can use it too.

Download the Peregrine Falcon Page here. We studied about this bird too during our bird presentation.

Mix and match the pages from both downloads for a bird notebook for each child.

I hope this gets your children outside some unless you are part of the population that still has a frozen tundra. Spring is coming, I promise, and you will be ready.

Still lounging in beautiful words that we have been enjoying through our poetry study, I had to share more of the poem that I shared with you before.

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.

~Emily Dickinson~

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul.

And sings the tune

Without the words,

and never stops at all.

So dramatic sounding............

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Moving on along through our series: Look Alive:Winter #Homeschooling Ideas & Downloads, Day 3 is Look to Pokemon.

I agree with this next resource which says that kids know more about pokemon creatures than they do about real animals. Take a lesson from what most kids like to do which is play cards and use it for real life learning. Phylo the Trading Card Game  did just that. It has been a real treasure trove for my boys this year to say the least and it's FREE.

Phylo is a website that has free printable trading cards. Here is what it says from the site: an online initiative aimed at creating a Pokemon card type resource but with real creatures on display in full “artistic” wonder. It is a card game that makes use of the wonderful, complex and inspiring things that inform the notion of biodiversity.

 Studying and learning science this way is a real keeper. The artwork is so beautiful and the cards are just plain fun.

The idea is to print off all you want to and then play a pokemon-like game. Even if you don't want to print the rules and find out how they assign the game cards a point value, etc., you can still play a real simple matching game.

The cards make EXCELLENT additions to your lapbook, unit studies or notebooking pages. There are several decks to choose from or like I mentioned you can print off exactly what you want. Click here to see the choices of the decks that you can download and be sure to grab them ALL!

One of our favorite decks has the cards above in it from the Natural History Museum in London. One of the games suggested to play is about the ecosystem. Look on the card for the common name, Latin name, food chain, diet and climate and then learn the facts. Heads up too because you will want to pay attention if any of them teach evolution as there are many cards to go through. Most of them I appreciate because they give a simple fact along with a point value assigned if you want to let your kids play together. They also give credit to the artist of the picture. We have just enjoyed printing them off and learning about them.

Hands down this site has been our favorite so far if we had to choose one. Here are some quick links for you in one place.

Home Page

Decks found on this page.

115 pages so far of DIY cards that you select and print found here.

Take a clue from Pokemon and let the cards do the teaching during winter homeschooling blues.

Hugs and love ya,

If you missed the first two days in this series. Click below.

Click here to read Look to the Sea: Day 1.

Click here to read Look to the Sky: Day 2.

#homeschool #free #printables #winterhomeschooling

I thought we were going to skate passed the icky sick season this year because we were doing so good, but it seems like we got a touch of it. Not anything though near like my poor mom. She ended up in the hospital and so as life happens, that threw off our scheduling. But I happily make my chicken pot pies anytime my mom requests them if it makes her feel better. Since she is still pretty sick and I am driving back/forth out of town helping my dad to take care of her, I had to shorten this unit study a tad bit.  I wanted to share a few more hands-on ideas that I had kept and saved because we can always come back to this unit. Too, if you are still moving ahead with it, hopefully these ideas can help you.

Me? I am getting spring fever. I have been itching to get my hands on my Home Management Binder as it needs some spring updating and the kids are excited about starting on our ancient civilization unit for this next month.

Let me share these hands-on ideas I have though for this unit in case you can use them.

Look at these beautiful, simple, fun and free {did you get all of that} crafts from LearnCreateLove.

(Pic Att. LearnCreateLove)

Click here for Printable Albatross from LearnCreateLove

(Pic Att. LearnCreateLove)

Click here for Printable Polar Bear Craft from LearnCreateLove.Click on the Winter Crafts for some more easy ideas and printables.

Also, check out this next site called Polar Husky that has free movies, pictures and sound clips of the Arctic. It looks like some of the movies they took down, but there is still so much on the site. To hear the voices of the Inuit and look at their natural surroundings makes you feel like you are there.

This next site, the Donna Ward site has information on it about how to build a game played by the children of the Inuit called Iyaga. The site says: A hollow piece of bone is attached to another thin bone by a sinew cord. The thin bone is held in the hand and the hollow bone is tossed in the air. The player must catch the hollow bone on the thin bone. Click here to go there and make this game.

This next site, Beyond Penguins is so comprehensive it is hard to mention all that is on it.

But here is a snippet above so you can see you will be kept happily clicking away on resources for any topic you want to delve into deeper. Click here to go there and be sure you have lots of time when you visit.

This next free download is a fine arts lesson on how to draw a reindeer and how to show the sky in your drawing depict the aurora shift. Click here to download.

This next site on Sea World has the fun zone. It has games, mazes and puzzles. A really helpful site. Click here to go there.

This printable makes a great minibook for your lapbook or notebooking page.  Click here to download this free Animals of the Arctic Tundra wheel.

{Pic attribution: Royal Baloo}

And because we need to cover all ages when studying this unit, grab this free sweet collection from Royal Baloo for the little folks. Click here to go there and download Arctic Animals for Toddler, PreK and Kindergarten.

Also coming next is my free Inuit and Arctic lapbook.

Hugs and love ya,

I was trying to put off this unit study on the Arctic Circle and the Inuit until we at least got our annual 2 days of winter here in Texas. We wanted to get in a winter sort of mood but like I mentioned last week it has been so spring like here, it has been hard to do that. But anyway, we are going forward because we are really excited about starting this unit study. Well at least Tiny and I are but not so sure about my older boys though. They are killing me I am telling you by staying on their topic of choice, the FBI.

When I start a unit study, I like to start off listing or picturing a lot of my resources. That way if you decide to trail along you can. Here are some of the books and magazines I have in my home library that I will be using. Some I have had for a while, others I collected prior to starting because I had an idea of what we wanted to study for this year.  Recently, I added in the collection of Julie of the Wolves. I didn't have the collection but Kelley mentioned it and I bought it because unlike my older two boys Tiny has an interest in reading it. One book that is pictured above and is a keepsake is The Book of Indians by Holling C. Holling written in the 1930's.  Beautifully written with rich language as is the style of all of his books, this book explains the different types of Native Americans: northeast woods, plains, desert and northwest coastal. Though he still uses the word Indian instead of Native American, the stories and sketches are still just worth poring over. So without even hitting the library which I don't like to have to do all the time, I have enough resources in my home to start this unit.

Am I the only that doesn't like having to go the library every time? True, it may get expensive but I look at my reference books like my curricula instead of always choosing laid out curricula.

Then the next step in starting my unit is to locate resources that are not just free but that are some better choices. This unit is rich with geography and animal and plant life. But there are other topics too that can be included for the older kids.

Like this lesson plan above that is for grades 5-8. It has a template for snow goggles and talks about limiting sunlight.

Click here to download the free 29 page guide.

This next download which includes the two pictures above gives the background of the Arctic region along with case studies on the caribou and the Arctic Tern.

Click here to download the 15 pdf.

This next guide or I should say guides talk about the Arctic animals listed above. There are two guides or grade levels on this teacher's guide from Seaworld. These guides are real informative along with having picture cards of the various animals to cut out. Having these guides makes learning this unit easy because a lot of the work is already done.

Click here to download Arctic Animals 4th-8th and here to download Arctic Animals K - 3.

I also see some vocabulary words emerging here. Look at both of these teacher's guides on the Arctic Animals because they include vocabulary for each level. Each person's list will look different depending on what you think your children need to focus on. Here are some of mine I am brainstorming for my youngest.

Arctic Region. (You know a lot of kids, mine too when they were young and we were going over continents, got this mixed up thinking it was a continent instead of a region encompassing several countries). Also, we will focus on: tundra, Inuit, kayak, permafrost, lichen, diapause, scrimshaw and blubber.

I think too this unit just screams a lapbook, don't you think? Yep, lapbook coming this month too on this newest unit. I have lots more links and hands-on ideas to share with you as we plod along on this unit.

Next post, I will share our first hands-on project for this new unit.

I love this winter quote today:

"I like these cold, gray winter days.  Days like these let you savor a bad mood."

  ~Bill Watterson~

Hugs and love ya,

First, I want to send out my love and prayers to you if you are on the eastern U.S. seaboard with Super Storm Sandy and are affected by this massive storm. Living on the Texas Gulf Coast, I can sympathize with power outages and home damage. Words can't even begin to describe events like that when it happens to you but nothing is more important than coming safely alive out of a storm like that with all your loved ones. I hope you are taking care of yourself if you were in the path of this massive rain and snow.

Winter is around the corner and I like to be prepared. I wanted to share some winter love with you so that you can try to avoid the winter blahs. Fall and winter have to be my two favorite seasons. I especially like it when I don't have to turn on the air conditioner in my house to enjoy the fireplace. It's the little things that give me the extra shove I need when the days are shorter and the sleeping weather is calling.

I always say don't fight it. Take it a little slower during winter. It is a natural process for the earth to rejuvenate itself, why shouldn't we? Winter also seems the time we like to do more science in my home. Science is a got-to-feel-right-and-have-the-right-weather subject for us.

Between the weather and now this super storm that hit, my kids have been pondering the damage to sea life and birds too. So I wanted to share 5 freebies or printables that help you keep schooling alive during the winter. A few focus on some of those areas hits by the storm too. These are some freebies I like to use for easy science.

Alaskabird.Org has quite a few nice freebies on the page to download but I like the free Creamer’s Field Student Activity Book about birds. Be sure to grab them all.

The pages even have a number code so your child knows what color to color the birds. Just print off the guide, do with your children and enjoy.

This next free 23 page download is intended to be used in a nature reserve but it has so many excellent pages. From habitats, to bird beak matching to dormouse and bird identification sheets. It is really just a nice download with so much to enjoy.  Print off and do together or hand it to your child if they are working more independently. Here are a few of the pages. Click here to download.

Another favorite of mine is the New England Aquarium site. Winter would not be complete without talking about penguins. I have used the Penguin Teacher Guide and love it. Why create any extra printables when they are all there for free AND nice? It includes information on the various penguin species, penguin anatomy, behavior, habitats and conservation.Click here to go the site and look for the download Penguin Teacher Guide.

The next free thing comes from that same site. Such a great site especially for those two gems. I think it is especially timely because understanding about the New England Sea Coast helps my kids to ponder about the sea life that has been affected by Super Storm Sandy. It has information about the rocky and sandy shores, tidal mudflats, salt marshes — and the creatures such as harbor porpoises and seals, fish and waterfowl, mussels and kelp that inhabit them — that are accessible from Boston Harbor, or any New England coastal area. Click here to go the site and look for Boston Harbor Seaside Educator's Guide.

Also Super Storm Sandy first hit Florida so I wanted to share this site about the sea life and plants in Florida. Click here to go the site for the Florida Sea Grant program. I really like the food web cards and the download about plant life.

We haven't done the edible estuary that is for grades K to Gray..{love} but that is one we are eyeballing when we have to stay indoors.

6, 7, 8,...okay, okay..So maybe just another one or two to keep it alive in winter. I want to be sure you don't get any winter blahs.Here is my free winter lapbook if you haven't done it yet.

Then here is a sweet printable for the younger kids too in case they want to get a little crafty. The template for a weather station is in color and it is a free download.

source

Click here to go to Mr. Printables to download the freebies and make your own weather station.

I know the coldest winter months are still ahead for a lot of places, but it is about being prepared with some activities to do to have a switch in your day and keep it alive. 

Also, I have been doing some organizing *in the background* and here and there. I have been reorganizing our Pinterest Page. No, you don't have to have a facebook account to have a Pinterest account. You can register using an email account. I really like the ability to organize and categorize everything as I go along. I made a new picture to be sure you are following all because I do constantly refine our boards.

Like you, I have also been watching all the coverage about the storm but hope that you did not have anybody affected by it. My sister works insurance claims and has left again to help those in need. Though I am glad she has a job, I always shiver to think she has to stay away long because it means more damage to everybody.

I have to share this quote with you. I never get tired of inspirational quotes, sayings and even poetry. But like I said before you don't want me to sing or rhyme for you..so..... For me, these sayings are like a tiny energetic pill that throws a powerful punch for me each day when I think about them. I had to share this quote with you as I get in a winter mood.

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”

  ~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass~

Hugs, you know I love ya

(pic of English sea port during Middle Ages where Columbus probably would have spent some of his childhood days watching and waiting for his moment to sail.)

Ever feel like you have been run over when you get sick? Yuk... I have been under the weather this past week so it has been one of  those weeks of laying around on the couch..(hard on a gal like me..lol.)

Gotta love homeschooling at times like that though. Anyway, I am resting and feeling better but of course missed sharing with ya'll.

Now where were we?  Did you notice the minibook above? It's another one I am sharing with you that will be on my page of Columbus and Sons by Genevive Foster.

I plan on preparing minibooks/noteobooking pages for the book and have been as we have been reading it. Again, this is another page not revealed on my site so you can download it here on my blog.

Download minibook English Sea Port During Middle Ages here.

TIME SENSITIVE FREEBIES - hurry hurry freebies

Get a FREE Subscription to The Art Street Journal – Contemporary art journal.

Click here to go there.

Anybody use an Android phone?

Amazon is offering a FREE download of the game Treasures of Montezuma 2 for Android phones. Treasures of Montezuma 2 features the relatively standard modes of Adventure, Survival, and Puzzle at its core, but the game also jams two extra styles of gameplay into the match-three gameplay to keep things fresh. This offer is available to those in the US, through 9/26/11.

Remember the price should read $0.00.

Click here to go there.

FREE BabyTalk Magazine Subscription!

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Freebie Alert - Upcoming Freebie. Mark your calendar.

Free Chicken Taco at Taco Cabana - Oct. 8.

Click here to see the details.

FREEBIES - when you get time.

Science site with great printables.

I hope ya'll know by now that I really don't like to throw a ton of sites at you at one time. You can't really organize them and have time to look over each one. This science site is another favorite. It seems it started off as research but ends up being a nice resource. Here is what is says:

"Research shows that students have difficulty achieving deep understanding of many basic science concepts"

They have some printables that are worth checking out. There are 4 topics Density, Ecosystems, Pressure, Simple Circuits and the real gems are found when you click on "RESOURCES" for each section. I just show two of the printables below.

Click here to go the site.

Book Guides by Random House

 I enjoy looking over the educator's guides by Random House as they add new ones. You can search by theme, grade and title. Too, look all the way down the page to see if some of the guides can be downloaded as a pdf. Since we will be doing the American Revolution, I had been looking at the storyteller that is set in the American Revolution. Since we have many ages and reading levels in our co-op, I am always on the lookout for books and guides.

Click here to go there to check it out.

Free Guide about Ireland

I love guides like this next one. Since we tend to "go rogue" lol and do unit studies quite often, I like guides that have printables as well. Look at some of these printables about Ireland and see if you're interested in downloading it.

Download Guide here.

I have some more information articles and free minibooks coming soon and oh yes I have not forgotten about the timeline notebook. I am making some changes to the editable grading sheet as I got set back from being sick...

...............but one more thing I wanted to share with ya'll today....this is truly well exquisite....to say the least

(The Great Isaiah Scroll, inscribed with the Book of Isaiah and dating from ca. 125 BC, is the only complete ancient copy of any biblical book in existence or today and remember)

The Dead Sea Scrolls are available online and SEARCHABLE. Here is what it says:

"The oldest known biblical manuscripts will be available online in a high-resolution format thanks to a partnership between Google and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, to be launched today, features searchable, fast-loading images of five complete Israeli scrolls of the Second Temple Period, the time of the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The pictures come with explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history."

What a great treasure to preserve and what a great source to tap into!

Check it out here.

Quote for today and remember that homeschooling is not about imitating what you have left behind. It is about charting a new course for the education you want for your family. I always think how persons who do not homeschool think we as homeschoolers have tons of patience (let me shatter that belief about myself.. so NOT my strong point) with our children. When in truth the patience we need is for OURSELF. It takes time and patience to leave behind what is not working and to avoid returning to the method we feel so comfortable with. We ALL continue to work on patience and yes it happens a little EACH day.

"Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it."

~ Eknath Easwaran~

As our love for studying geography and history grows so does our love for adding new globes. This globe isn't probably a good choice if you had to only buy "one" or for your first globe either because it doesn't really list all the states or provinces....But we have so many boring old globes for that-- we bought this for the visual appeal and facts. Too because we don't really buy that much curriculum anymore, we splurge on fun things here and there.

It has 100 pictures of landmarks, animals and people drawings on it. I bought it more for my youngest who is a visual learner and for ME...lol...oh yes, my older boys like it too..Really though it is a PERFECT choice if you have a younger household because they can learn to associate animals, etc with certain locations instead of worrying about political boundaries..We got ours on sale at a teacher supply house....It is called Globe 4 Kids .

TIME SENSITIVE FREEBIES - hurry hurry freebies

Amazon has free the summer sampler for The Wiggles. (USA customers only it looks like) Remember the price should always say $0.00 as Amazon changes prices frequently.

Click here to grab this.

FREEBIES - when you have time

Free Posters -  Science

This website has 14 BEAUTIFUL and yes let's not forget FREE...posters on their site for download in a pdf.  I just snagged two of the posters and put them above so you can see if you are interested.

This site doesn't make it particularly easy AT ALL to see all of them on one page. Every time I linked,  the link was re-directed to the home page. So, here is the home page and then in the "SEARCH" box put poster and you will get the results.

Click here to go there.

I like sending off and getting the free posters but sometimes I like more that you can download them as a letter size pdf..they are the perfect size for our school room.

Free Middle School and High School Science

This next site has some of the best freebies for science units. I think the middle school section offers some nice freebies. It is from the NIH (National Institute for Health) and I have enjoyed using them over the years. The above picture is a snippet I took for you and I highlighted in yellow where you are to click at. For example, when you click on the middle school section...

it takes you to a page that looks like this and you can even download the teacher's guide. I highlighted that in yellow above...

Great site...if you are teaching older ones....a keeper..

Click here to go there.

September 23rd Homeschool Movie Day

Do you know about this? I keep getting emails from Homeschool Movie Club and finally went to check it out.  Even though the movie is not free, there is a free download for curriculum. This site is new and actually I am kind of tickled about this site because I do love to watch movies...Here is what they say they are;

" Homeschool movie club is an online community that makes it easy for parents to find FREE curriculum, materials, movie screenings, and tools to help plan homeschooling events with your kids. Join us as find ways to highlight important lessons and teach our kids in a fun and interactive way. "

To get the free curriculum, you need to sign up - it's free and all they ask for was my email, but here is a picture of the minibook they had in the curriculum.

Click here to go there and check it out and sign up to download the free curriculum.

 This next site has 21 Free Baby Genius Songs...Now, I listened to almost all of the songs and  I beg to differ about the "definition" of genius because of the theme of some of the songs. Starting off they start singing about  "education" and "criss cross" and the underlying message is to teach our kids to be robots or to come into a classroom and sit down and be still. While I am all for sitting still and teaching our kids manners (who likes those misbehaved kids on field trips), it's not going to happen and shouldn't at this baby age. Playing and moving is learning and learning is playing and MOVING..

Ok, once you get past that...lol..the other songs are catchy and fun. Once you download the free zip file, you get the words too. Here is a snippet of some of the songs so you can see if you're interested.

Click here to go there.

 Betsy Stout over at Notebooking Nook has some new fish Notebooking Pages. Perfect timing for our Ocean Unit.  There are 5 of them in one download I just have a couple pics above.

Click here to go over there and grab them.

What's coming up?

 Well, cough, gasp and choke....the air over here is awful from all the fires and so the first cool weather we get, we are encouraged to stay inside. So I am still a little "sidetracked" as we watch the fires as helicopters go over our subdivision carrying water to the forest......but am thankful our house is fine...

 But I hope to have the Timeline Notebook updated and then after the feedback on the Grading Sheet, I am going to make the section for the grading scale "editable"  too. Also I have some informational posts coming up and more on organization....Got all of that?

And remember, this may not sound so eloquent, but this is from my heart....

Homeschooling is not a magic pill or cure all. Setting realistic expectations will remind you that homeschooling is not a cure all for whatever disappointments you may have had prior to homeschooling. Plenty of failures and disappointments lie ahead of you. Homeschooling is a lot of hard work mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Hugs today for your hard work.........

I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals. Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up. ~Erika Harris~

I told you that some brain cells leave me around this time of the year..here is the You Tube Video..just can't miss this one ya'll..

My apologies...hugs

(I feel like this many years at the start of my year)

Well the New Bees have officially taken over my life..Luv it! lol..

I am working on some pictures to share of our Coral Reef Class and yes I thought of another printable that I wanted to add to that unit and I worked on changing around my timeline notebook AGAIN.  I really want it to be something workable...

Ok,  truthfully don't let too much overtake you as you kick off your year..Want to see how my school things looked one year?  Look above and Guess what? I had already decluttered. Compared to what I own now, fast forward 5 years, that is a drop in a bucket...

There is hope I am telling you....keep organizing......

Let me share some freebies...there are some in the hurry hurry section but most of them I got over the last few days have been razors and pads (uhmmm I know we need them but I like freebies that we can use for school and help in running our home) 

FREEBIES - hurry hurry freebies

Anybody want a Free Gardeners Idea Book?

Go here.

Free Smucker’s Recipe Books

Receive a FREE Smucker’s Classic Cookie Recipe Collection booklet or a Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter Recipe Collection Booklet when you send in a postcard to the address below.

The J.M. Smucker Company

Attention: Peanut Butter Recipe Collection (or Smucker’s Classic Cookie Recipe Collection)

Consumer Relations Department

P.O. Box 280

Orrville, Ohio 44667

FREEBIE ALERT - Upcoming Freebie. Mark your Calendar

Free Flowers From FTD Friendship & Goodwill

FTD Good Neighbor Day The 17th Annual FTD Good Neighbor Day holiday will take place on

September 7, 2011. Hundreds of FTD florists across the U.S. are planning exciting local events, gathering sponsors, making philanthropic relationships and helping

Free flowers available while supplies last.

http://www.ftd.com/content/news_views/good_neighbor_day.epl

FREEBIES - When you have time.

I love it when freebies stay free for a long time. Did you get this?

https://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=publications.showPublications&view=all&st=Program&pub_cat_code=ESG

 look towards the middle for the download.

Science

We have started following these real catchy You Tube videos from Mr. Parr a 6th Grade Science Teacher. He has different singers but most all with catchy rhythms to learn various science topics.  Look for the rest of them.

Play this and see if the kids don't come running..

 I have a few more great sites to share with you on oceans. Here is one..

This site is hosted by a college professor and look at the bottom for this section for pdfs. The pdfs are on various topics related to the ocean and I am using it in my ocean unit we are working on now..

 I like to give ya'll a glimpse of the downloads so you can decide if you want to visit or not. I like getting a sneak peek at what they offer instead of wasting my time if it's something I am not interested in......Most of the downloads are visuals and well I LOVE visuals ..give me pictures to look at and songs to sing for school...here are a few of the visuals..so you can decide if you want to visit. You can see how many pdfs there are to download. I only grabbed two pictures.

Click here to go there and download

History

I am also using this site right now

I am totally impressed with this site. It is a site (free of course) that has primary sources for American History. Here is what it says.

"Your Window Into America's Founding Years. Here at Archiving Early America you will be rewarded with a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, magazines, maps and writings come to life just as they appeared to this country's forebears more than 250 years ago."

Love it! I can't stand boringggggg history sites so I love it when I find one that is interactive. There are some games and quizzes along with great pictures and reading online.

Click here to go there.

And remember as you kick off another year and have all those laid out plans, new smelling books and beautiful planners, that teaching does not have to be so time consuming...Short sweet lessons can pack a powerful punch...Lesson plans should require great deliberation on our part but be implemented easily. Take a look at Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburg address. Do you know how long it took him to write it and deliver it? Read about it here. Powerful Ladies, powerful!

"It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short........"

~ Ernest Hemingway ~