I would like to thank the academy.....

I won.


I won!



I WON!


Isn't it fun to win?


I entered a contest over at Saving the Family Money. This is a neat blog- I mean who doesn't like saving the family money? And, I won this really fun Applebee's prize pack. It's the very first thing I have won from a blog contest. A very momentous occasion.

It arrived in the mail today all wrapped up in a bow.

A calculator was also part of the prize, but I didn't realize I neglected to put it on the desk til after I'd taken the pictures and downloaded them.

I would like to thank the academy and especially all of the little people for making this possible.

Monday Musings

I forgot to mention on my last musings post that our fun fireworks enjoyment ended abruptly with Tristan slipping on the stairs, banging his nose and bleeding all over the carpet. There is an alarming amount of blood in the nose.

This weekend the kids were all playing hide and seek and Tristan decided to hide in the downstairs closet. After about 7 or 8 minutes had gone by and no one had found him, he yelled out, "Do you "forgive up"?

Thomas likes going to the gym with our friends and playing with the balls and "frisserbees".

We were trying to decide on a family movie to watch last night and Brooke piped up, 'How about "Anne of Green Maples"?' (You know, the one where Anne starts her own syrup making business.)

Math Resources......

Math is not my best subject. I don't hate math, but I guess I don't love it either. Math and I have a nuetral relationship.



We have done Saxon math in the past. It is a teacher led program until 4th grade when it becomes a student led program. It is fairly dry, the student reads the lesson and then does the lesson. My oldest doesn't like this. She "never" understands the lesson and I always end up reading and explaining the whole thing to her. She has basically shut down on Saxon. So, this year we are going to switch to Math U See. I have seen the videos and I think they will work well for us.



There are lots of good resources to teach finances at Money Instructor.



Living Math! is a great site with alternatives to teaching "textbook" math. There are learning games, lesson ideas and even book lists of math "living" books.




Mathwire has some neat probability games that use dice and other small easy to find items.



Little Brick Schoolhouse has some great Lego information and ideas on how to make Lego play educational.

Art and Music Resources

These are few because I am not an artsy/music person.

Classics for Kids is a great site for classical music.



Check out Incredible Art Lessons.

Wordless Wednesday-only with a few words.

Bailey turned four months old on Monday!

Wait a minute. How'd this one get in there?

Monday Musings, Fireworks Edition

We were sooooo disappointed that the Village didn't do fireworks this year. We went to them last year-their first (and apparently last) annual fireworks display. It was the best we had ever seen. I'm not sure why they cancelled it, but our little hearts were broken.

We planned on grilling out that day, also, but David woke up not feeling well so we decided to postpone the grilling until Sunday.

We thought we'd go on outside at dusk and see if any neighbors were doing any fireworks. The neighbors behind us usually do a few. It turned out to be incredibly pleasant outside and, for the first 4th in I don't know how long, it didn't rain. And well, everybody must have been in a patriotic mood this year because we had fireworks on all sides! There was so much smoke and noise in the neighborhood you would have thought we were right out there at the actual Battle of Lexington. It was awesome! The day was saved! Hooray for America!

History Links

BBC has an online game for World War 1


Here is some good information on the Oregon Trail.


My Wild Frontier is an online pioneer game.


Learn about Cher Ami, a carrier pigeon from World War One. Check out the rest of the site for great information and booklets, including one on the Medal of Honor, and Inaugural Addresses of all the Presidents.


Leslie, The Contemplator, has some very good selections of time period music for your history studies.


Music from the Civil War era.


Here is a neat Civil War soldier supply activity.


National Geographic has a nice site about the Underground Railroad.



This Monticello site has some neat things for Thomas Jefferson, and an online tour. Also, it has lots of stuff about the Lewis and Clark expedition.



These are some cute historical paper dolls.


This is interesting-a collection of presidential recipes.


Plimoth Plantation has a neat kids page for learning about the Pilgrims and Wampanoag.


I love this Kids and History site. Take a tour through Paul Revere's virtual museum or through 1607 Jamestown. (And great activities for both!)



Early British Kingdoms has tons of information on what else? Early British Kingdoms!