A Great Read

While I have only homeschooled my children for one year, I love finding blog posts that I can refer to later to help get over slumps and bumps along the way!  Here is a great blog post that Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers posted.

What do you do to get through those patches?

Moving Forward

We are still moving forward with the re-organization, re-decorating, re-modeling of the classroom/office.  This past weekend we made HUGE headway!!  We turned a hall into a mini library and moved the kids desks around.  We also found a new-to-me desk that was supposed to be delivered yesterday but the rain delayed us.  Tonight, I am sitting at the desk, using my computer, in the middle of a MESS!!!  This room is a disaster, but one that I am excited to tackle.  I am not sure what I will end up keeping and what I will end up tossing.  I have some books that I want to sell and some that I am going to set back for N when he gets ready for them.  I have also decided on a quote that I want to have put on the wall.

The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go. - Dr. Seuss

I hope that it will encourage the children to read more, learn more, and push forward with all of their dreams.  What are you doing to prepare for the next school year?

Printouts, Worksheets, and More On the Way

I am working to get the printouts, worksheets and other goodies that I am creating posted on my website.  Here is a link to the page where you can find them once it is done.  

TATORBUG CREATIONS

I look forward to getting some feedback!!

Fun and New!

I am working on creating some fun and new things on my business page for homeschoolers!  As of right now I have created a chore chart and 2 different book logs.  I am working on getting them put up right now.  Here are some previews...
Links will be posted as soon as they are up.

Workbox Planner

I have searched high.  I have searched low.  I have googled.  I have stalked.  I have even looked in office supply stores and NO one has what I am looking for.  I wanted to have a planner that I could use to get our workboxes organized and ready.  I found several online that I liked but they weren't editable and lacked a lot of what I was looking for.  So, I had to go back in time a few years and dust off my excel expertise and came up with 2 designs for our workbox planner that I love!

 The first one has enough room in the workbox area to allow for details on the lesson.

While the second one has enough room for me to fill out for both kids.  I just don't have the detail section. 

I haven't decided on which one I want to go with for the upcoming school year.  I have printed a version of each out so I can look at them side by side and decide which will better suit my needs.  I hope to get a couple of other pages ready to go and then have the local office supply store print and bind them for me!  That way I won't have to go to all the trouble of that.  I have plenty of time to decide.   My deadline is mid July to allow me a month of planning before we start back to school. 

If either of these looks like something you could use please let me know.  I am happy to upload them to the documents and share them if you want!

Moms Tool Belt (Planner)

I cannot say enough about this planner! I just purchased it and cannot wait to get started using it. Debra guides you through how to set up your planner in her easy to follow blog posts. All you need is a printer, paper, and a large binder. This planner is not just for homeschooling. I am seeing great potential for it with my business and my household. The best part is, it's a GREAT deal! Click the image below to get purchase your own planner and get started making it yours!

Pattern Blocks

Oh how I wish we have had these all along.  We received them with our Saxon Math Manipulative kit a few weeks ago and they have been played with non stop since.  My kids love the patterns.  I searched a bit and found that a couple of my favorite sites offer some pattern block mats for free.  I printed them out and laminated some and the others I printed back and front and slipped in page protectors to put into a binder.  I hope that these prove to be lots more fun for my kiddos!

Here are some Pattern Strips from Confessions of a Homeschooler

These are great full page mats from PreKinders

Do your children enjoy learning with the pattern blocks?

Dreams Do Come True

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to travel to a friends house for the day.  I was excited because I don't get to see said friend near enough.  They live over an hour away.  The kids were excited because they got to see their friends and play but also because they got to ride a horse!  You see, my kids are slightly obsessed with horses.  Ok, obsessed may be an understatement!  My dear, sweet friend led us all to the barn and patiently led each of the 5 kids around the pen on the beautiful pony named Bullet.  My kids have not stopped talking about it or drawing pics of Bullet.  Neither of them had been even close enough to pet a horse, let alone ride one.  S kept talking about how her dreams had come true!  Melts my heart!  Here are some shots from that day!

I WON!!!

A couple of weeks ago I entered to win the Raising Rockstars Bundle (from 1+1+1=1) on the Homeschool Creations Blog.  It couldn't have come at a better time.  I am currently organizing our curriculum choices for next year (read about it here) and was struggling with what to get little man.  This looks like it will be the perfect add on to our Letter of the Week program from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I will still get a few odds and ends for him to use along the way but I think this will make up the core of his learning next year.  I look forward to it!


               

Fun New Apps

I do not buy a lot of paid for apps for my kids to use for several reasons.

1. I don't like to spend money on things that I am not sure will be used.
2. I am cheap frugal.
3. I don't like them using my iPad and iPhone for play time.

With all that being said, I read the reviews on THIS and was very impressed.  I looked into it a bit and thought it may just be the right thing for the kids to use when using my electronic devises.  Sure enough!  It is worth each and every 99 pennies they charge you.  The kids played at this for over 30 mins non stop and begged to continue.  YAY!  So, what is this great app that made me loosen the purse strings, you ask.  Well it is "Teach Me First Grade" and "Teach Me Toddler".  They have it all the way through second grade and are looking to expand.  You children will work on mastering each set of skills.  You get to track up to 4 children's progress per app.  You can even adjust the settings so that your child has to answer (x) amount of questions before being rewarded and you choose the reward.  The only thing I do not like about this app so far is that it doesn't sync with each device.  So if one child is on the iPad and swaps to the iPhone they lose were they were.  Not really a big deal but something to take into consideration if you have a little one who is not big on change or losing their place.