Thrifty Finds.....

Join Rhoda at Southern Hospitality and see all the goodies everyone found!

We went to both Goodwill stores here in town, Stepping Stones (a Christian ministry thrift shop) and Vietnam Veterans.

I found two books for homeschool that I need for this coming year-$3 total at GW.

Brittany found two pairs of shoes (tennis shoes are Nike, the others are Justice) for $6 total.

Brittany also bought Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" for Bethany and a "Groovy Girls" mermaid for Brooke- $2 for the movie and $1 for the doll.

I have really enjoyed looking at all the other blogs and seeing what everyone's found and the neat revamping they've done to the finds. I've gleaned some really good ideas and once my husband actually gets reemployed, then maybe I can justify putting a few of those ideas into action! :)

I had meant to post earlier in the week, but now suddenly it's Saturday and I'm only just getting to it.

This has been a full week. Well, really my weeks are normally full, but this was extra stuff other than the typical laundry, cooking, cleaning, nursing, diaper changing, dish washing, juice pouring, book reading, problem solving, refereeing and boo boo kissing.

In addition to all that wonderful stuff, it was also my birthday, David took me out to lunch,I had a terrible cold, I sat on and broke my glasses, went to a free family movie, created a ministry blog, bought groceries, went to bible study, went to small group, filled up the kiddie pool three times, helped my husband prepare for two interviews, went to four thrift stores, got Brittany's biology lessons planned and made beans and sausage to take to a cookout for friends who have been out of the country for three years.

I did get my glasses fixed, I am feeling better, Kitt Kittridge-American Girl was a cute movie, David's two job interviews were for insurance sales 100% commission :(, we did find some thrifty stuff that I will show you in my next post, and someone gave me a microscope for Brittany. Yah!

And....on my birthday I woke up to chocolate strawberries for breakfast from Tyler, Brittany had made me these cute bracelets and earrings, and my friend Denise gave me this cute red necklace.

Hopefully next week will be more calm, except for the normal stuff like, you know, Thomas burning holes in the carpet or something like that.

More Notebook ideas

Here is a fantastic site with great printables and ideas for making a "Fifty States" notebook.


Here are some coloring pages geared toward boys that would be great for notebooks or even lapbooks.



Liam's pictures from old books would be a great accompanyment to a notebook.



Here is a site with timelines for just about anything.

Monday Musings

I was going to make some rice krispy treats for the kids, so I told Thomas to go and tell Brittany to get out the supplies.


Thomas goes to Brittany and says, "Brittany! Mom said get the rice bees out of the trees!

A few more science resources

Check out the Mount St. Helen's cam



Learning Page has some neat things to print out.





Chem4Kids has some good chemistry information.





These are some funny science songs.



Some things about earthquakes and other teacher resources at USGS.

Miss Prissy

I had been meaning to post this picture of Bailey with her cute pink hat. She looks just like Prissy from "Gone With the Wind"....




"I don't know nuthin' bout birthin' no babies!"

Oh George Foreman grill, How do I love thee--Let me count the ways.....

I just discovered you when our oven heating element went out a few weeks ago. Someone had given you to me as a hand me down about two or three years ago. I had used you to toast a sandwich or two, but that was about it.

Boy, was I missing out.

You will cook almost any kind of meat. (Everything I have tried so far.) It is so tender and juicy and you fake everyone out with those grill marks so that we think we're getting something fresh off the real grill. It doesn't have that authentic smokey flavor, but it still tastes good.

And you are quick. I do have to do two batches for us, but it's still faster than cooking something in the oven, or on the stove, or on the regular grill, for that matter.

You will even cook frozen chicken tenders. Oh, you multi-faceted little dear.

Cleaning you up is a breeze. Just whip out some paper towels and we're good to go.

My little grill, you aren't even a real "George Foreman", but an imitation knock off. That's okay. Beauty is only skin deep. It's what's on the inside that counts.

Never leave me little grill.

Thrifty Finds

All of you decorating gals will have to bear with me this week. No cute little trinkets or interesting pieces, (with five of the 8 kids all aged seven and under it would just get BROKEN anyway!) but I had great success at the used homeschool curriculum sale on Saturday-still in the realm of thrifty. Go and visit Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality and find out what everyone else found this weekend.

Four teacher's editions at $2 apiece. (Regular price is $12-13 each) I need one more teacher edition and the student workbooks for next year.

This is a $20 book. I didn't even think I'd find one, but I did-and only paid $4!

Some goodies for our 1800's American History studies for next year. All totaled maybe $15.

I've been eyeing these Lynne Cheney books for over a year now at Books a Million. I found them for $5 each. (Well, actually she wanted $8 for one, but I talked her into $5.) They are regular $17. They were in brand new condition.

Some Brian Jacques for Tyler's collection. Total $3

Some Royal Diaries for Brittany's collection. She's very interested in historical royal families and Queen Elizabeth 1 is her absolute favorite. She didn't have that one, and I told her I'd look, but didn't really think I'd find it. But, again, I did! And, for $2 each!

Some American Girl Felicity for Bethany and Brooke's colonial studies we were doing this year.
$2 for all three books.

Some extra little odds and ends books for next year- maybe totaled $3.

I wasn't planning on using this next year, but I'd had my eye on this Beautiful Feet study on the Holling C. Holling books for a few years. I had to go ahead and get it for $2.



And, one of my best scores was all FIVE book/DVD sets of MathUSee plus two sets of starter blocks and one completer set for what it would have cost me for just two of the sets at cost! I'll only have to buy one $25 student workbook and the fraction overlays. Whooohooo!

I had also found a $15 Abeka biology for Brittany and then a lady had bits and pieces of hers (the exact same biology) and she gave me hers for free.

So....I'm almost all set for next year. I just need a microscope, One Year Adventure Novel, those few student workbooks for math and spelling and that's almost it!

Learning Science, One Topic at a Time

One thing that has worked really well for us is to study one or two topics in science per year. For instance, instead of learning a little about habitats one year, and a little more the next, and a little more the next, we just delve right in and learn all about habitats one year and then move on to something totally different the next year.



For instance, this school year we covered habitats for the first half of the year and the human body the second half. We made notebooks for each and included booklets, maps, diagrams, charts, pop-ups, reports, etc. I know these will be brought back out and looked at time and time again.



Studying science this way allows for more time to really expand on a topic and go much more in depth than covering many topics each year. Just skimming the surface of many topics per year may never give the child a real understanding or appreciation for stuying science.



You have the freedom to choose what you'd like to cover and when, especially if your state's homeschooling laws do not require you to test.



These are the topics I have chosen to break our studies into-keep in mind that your topics can and will be different. I've chosen to cover about two per year in order to fit all the topics I want to cover into my "5 year plan".



Habitats and Human Body

Five Kingdoms (This takes all year because I cover insects, plants, etc.)

Astronomy and Geology/Chemistry (I used to just call these two "Earth Science".)

Weather and Recycling/Earth Stewardship

Physics (We do a lot of experiments with this one, so only one topic this year.)

Now, I use a lot of stuff I get from the interenet and a lot of real, living books. Yes, there are actual books to study science beside textbooks! I'm not sure I actually knew that when I was in school! And, it's easier for us to study science twice a week for two hours each, than to try to just do a small amount a day. A smaller amount of time may work for some, but even my younger kids stay interested for at least the first hour to hour and a half. BUT, you can choose what works best for you in that arena, also. That's what makes homeschooing so awesome!

Homeschooling resources....

I love, love this Guest Hollow site! (Thank you Kristi for sending this link to me!!) There is so much on this site from free curriculum that they have put together themselves, to awesome reviews and MANY links to sites that have awesome things as well. If you find my homeschool links helpful, then you MUST check out Guest Hollow.



Oklahoma Homeschool has some good general homeschool information, forms, and some unit studies to check out.


Education World has some lessons and resources.



Here are some really good ideas for educational games that you can make.



Here are some generic games boards to print and make your own games.

Thrifty Finds!

I love, love, love yard sales and thrift stores and have for many years now, so when I saw this blog carnival on Rhoda's blog, I thought I would pee my pants casually put up a link to her post about what we've found.

We haven't been able to get out to the yard sales, but we went to GW (that's Goodwill for those in the know) and even though it's gotten a bit pricey (maybe the recession has hit them, too?) we were still able to find some deals. (I have found that the best time to go is on Monday after everyone has hauled all there stuff from cleaning out over the weekend-lol!) And, when I say "we", I mean my 13 year and me. She is a thrifty gal like her mama. I'm very proud.

Dinner trays for $2.50 with the $14.99 Linens N Things stickers right on them. I love these beachy colors.

An unopened mega pack of Huggies diapers for Bailey for $6!

Some homeschool books..... $5 (GW just raised their book prices)

Brittany got these cute little tea candle holders for 50 cents each. (She is into collecting things for her future home.)

An Old Navy totebag for $2.

Her splurge was this Italian blown glass for $5 each.

I found this adorable crib bedding set (well, actually Brittany found it) back in March at Tot Trade, the seasonal kid's consignment event here in town. I went on the 60% off day and it was only $16! It came with the quilt, bumper, skirt, and 3 sheets.

It has my favorite color (purple) and green gingham with purple and pink flowers, and it was in practically new condition.

Although, it wasn't quite as good as the deal I got at the Toys R Us going-out-of business sale when I got Thomas's bedding set for $10 two years ago! It was a John Lennon set-new- with this adorable pattern. It came with the bumper, skirt, quilt and sheet.

The crib is a story, too. I decided when I was pregnant with number 7 that I finally wanted a pretty crib. We'd had 2 hand me downs (white metal) and this time I just wanted a pretty one. I saw this one at a consignment for $75, which was a little more than I wanted to spend. But, my wonderful husband said, "If you really want it, just get it." So, the guy said to come back in about an hour and he'd take it apart and load it up for me. When I came back he said he'd noticed one of the wheels on the pull out drawer (it has a pull out drawer underneath, but I don't have it under there in these pics) was cracked and he'd either give me a refund or take $25 off the price. I told him I definately wanted it- so my whole pretty crib plus the cute bedding set for Thomas was only $60!

And that same month I found this lights and sounds at a yard sale and the lady just gave it to me for free. I tried to pay her, but they were loading up to take the leftovers to GW and said she'd rather it just go to someone that she knew really wanted it!

It's so much fun to find those good deals!

Science Links

Does anyone remember Slim Goodbody?


How about a study of cotton?


Or a study of peanuts?



Here are printable periodic tables in words or pictures. Very cool.


Some good information on container gardening.....



Some flight activities from the Federal Aviation Administration



The Mineral Information Institute has some great resources.

We went out to get some more yard work done this morning. It was really great weather-overcast and not too hot. I had basically already finished the front yard on Monday, we just had the back yard to do.





I was clearing out the logs from the trees that David and his brother had cut down in the backyard from a few years ago. We had been saving it for firewood, but since we have never actually built a fire, I decided I'd take them to the curb.





So, I was throwing the logs into the wheelbarrow (that by the way has a flat tire and do you know how hard it is to push a wheelbarrow full of logs up a driveway with a flat tire?) and what do I see, but....




Great day in the morning! It was the hugest black widow spider I have ever seen in my life. People, this picture does not do it any justice. This thing was huge! It totally CU-REEEEPED me out! I don't think there is anyone who dislikes spiders as much as I do. I don't mind snakes. Rodents? No big deal. But spiders? EEEEWWWW!!!

I could barely bring myself to blog about it because I didn't want to see the picture!

I was just reading a homeschool magazine article last night about this mom who came across a black widow and put it in a jar for a science lesson. They kept it in the kitchen. And it had babies!

I have seriously never been that desparate for a science lesson.

What's that you say? Spiders are good? They eat mosquitoes? Go ahead you little eight legged critters, but just stay out of my sight. I don't want to know nuthin' about it.

More lapbook info

Here is an idea for an alternative to using regular file folders for your lapbooks.



Here are some lapbooks that a family made. I especially like their "winter vacation lapbook". This would be a great idea for a summer vacation, too. She doesn't give any links for printables, but definately has some good examples.


Jimmie has some great examples of lapbooks, also.



Another site with some great ideas and links to printables.



This is an adorable "ladybug" lapbook with a how-to on Youtube. Make sure to scroll down and check out the other ones also.



Here are some links on how to make those little lapbook mini booklets and a LOT of other links to lapbook related things.



LapbookLessons is a must!




Homeschool Launch has a mixture of everything, not just for lapbooks. This is a site to network and share your resources.

The school year has ended!

For us, the school year has ended. I am a September to end of May kind of mom. I like to take the summer to plan for the next year, which is actually my favorite part, so I've already started a little, hence the posts about web sites that are already starting. :)

I've got some fun ideas about next year.


I say that every year.


I feel very good about what we accomplished this year. We did take a lot of time off for various reasons, but we still got everything (well almost everything) done. We actually have a lot to show for it. I'm really pleased.

Today, we're going to get a little yard work done. Our yard looks like the jungle habitat that we studied about this year, so time to whip out the hedge trimmers. And the lawn mower.