CC Cycle 3 Latin Lapbook

I found out about this neat resource today and thought that others would enjoy it.  Latin Lapbook here.  Enjoy!

CC cycle 3 week 12

CC cycle 3 week 11

CC cycle 3 week 10

Tin Whistle Resources

Very handy not only for tutors and subs, but also for parents working on tin whistle skills at home!




This site looks helpful as well. Includes starter, intermediate, advanced, and tricky tunes, and more.

CC cycle 3 week 9

I found some videos showing the amazing architecture and art in the Hagia Sophia, since it went with one of our history cards for this week. Hard to imagine how they built such an amazing structure that has endured for so long without any large machinery, power tools, or stores to build supplies at!

More CC Cycle 3 Resources

I found out about this great blog that takes cycle 3 week by week and includes references to various Usborne books as well as Netflix instant play shows, movies, and documentaries that coordinate with what we're learning each week. So nice to have all of that put together for us!

Also, the other day I discovered an app called Stack the States. It's a really fun game for kids to learn about the states, capitals, major cities and landmarks of the states, what states border each other, and more. There is a free version and the full version is a whopping 99 cents. My kids ages 8, 10, 11, 13, and even the 15 year old have been enjoying playing it today. A portable, fun way to reinforce our study of the 50 states!

CC cycle 3 week 8

CC cycle 3 week 7

50 States and Capitals Song

This is a fun way to help remember all of the US states and capitals!


Bonus points if you sing it with the accent! ;)

CC cycle 3 week 6

I thought this was interesting for a visual understanding of the inner ear and balance, which we learned about in science this week:

CC Cycle 3 Week 5

CC cycle 3 week 4

CC cycle 3 week 1

CC cycle 3 week 2

CC cycle 3 week 3

Classical Conversations

This year we decided to join Classical Conversations and we are loving it! What a great program, and so nice for my sons to have other adults helping them to learn, friends to see each week, and the motivation to keep moving ahead. I wish we had been able to do this years ago! I plan to add helpful videos and resources I have found for the memory work and so on.

Facebook Party Free For All: Supercharged Science

If you have not yet experienced Supercharged Science with your children, boy-oh-boy are you missing out! Using this program during our 2010-11 school year was a BLAST! My husband did the projects with our four youngest boys and THEY LOVED IT!

Supercharged Science has some cool freebies that you can check out to get a feel for the program. I am including just a few of them here. You and your kids are going to love it!

400 Science Experiment Guide ($25 value)

This experiment guide includes:

• Over 30 complete experiments...
• Defy gravity as you levitate water
• Crush a soda can using a few drops of water
• Make an indoor corkscrew roller coaster
• Stick your kid inside a real bubble
• Grow crystals overnight
• Create and crack your own geodes
• Build a flying machine that shouldn't be able to fly at all
• ...and much more!

Your kids will be so jazzed about science that they'll be begging to learn more. This eBook download comes bundled with the Rocket Scientist Newsletter, which includes a weekly free science experiment in your email box. Get it here.

401 Science Activity Manual and Video Collection ($30 value)
Cool science experiments! Did you know that you can bend light to make objects disappear? Make the fourth state of matter in your microwave? Build a speaker from a plate? You can do all these activities and more in our free Science Guide!

Simply click here to download a copy of the Homeschool Science Activity Manual & Video Guide. Save it to your computer - it's in PDF format.


402 Science Activity Video Series & Guidebook ($30 value)

Five more cool science experiments! Launch a rocket onto the roof using chemistry, build a simple hovercraft from an old CD, learn how to build a compound microscope, and more.

Since the first one of these (above) was so popular, we decided to release a second! The hoovercraft project is a favorite of my boys. Easy to do and very rewarding! Click here to get it.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we have! Aurora Lipper is an excellent science teacher and this program is top-notch!

Facebook Party Giveaway: Guitar Lessons

Melody Maker's Guitar School in Lexington, KY is offering a free 30-minute guitar lesson to two lucky winners! Obviously you will need to be in the Lexington area in order to take advantage of this. :)

To enter this drawing:

1. Go Like Melody Maker's Guitar School on Facebook, then leave a comment here letting me know you did.

2. Leave another comment telling if your children play any musical instruments, what they are, or what they would like to play! PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN COMMENTING! :)

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time tonite.

Facebook Party giveaway: Artistic Nature Unit Studies

LightHome publishes Artistic Nature magazine, and they are going to give away 12 different editions of it tonite! (Yes, there will be 12 winners!)

The magazine themes that will be given away are:
Gardening
Nesting Birds
America the Beautiful
Sea Mammals
American Deserts
Animal Homes
Australian Animals
Ocean Fish
Insect Life Cycles
Antarctic Wildlife
Life in the Arctic Circle
African Safari

To enter this prize drawing with multiple chances:

1. Like LightHome Publications on Facebook, then leave a comment here letting me know you did.

2. Leave a comment telling me what theme you would pick if you are the winner!

DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN EVERY COMMENT! :)

LightHome has some additional special offers for you to take note of. Here is a word from the owner:

We also want to offer your FB followers an additional deal: If by midnight Friday night (7/8) they like us on FB and buy 3 of our

products on CurrClick.com, we will give them a 4th product free. They must

a. Like our FB page

b. Buy the 3 products (send them to www.lighthome.net, which goes to our CurrClick publisher page), and

c. Send us an e-mail (lighthomepublications@gmail.com) with their CurrClick order number(s) and/or customer number, their name, and the name of the product they would like to receive free.

We will, in return, send them a coupon for that free product.

PHOTO CONTEST

We are having a PHOTO CONTEST, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes of free subscriptions to Artistic Nature Magazine and free e-

books, along with up to 100 runner-up prizes of a free e-book of their choice. For details, click here.(Deadline is August 1.)

Facebook Party Free For All: Hands of a Child

Hands of a Child has kindly offered a freebie for all of you. It is a 73-page literature study guide based on the book The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader! It includes a ton of great items for a complete unit study and lap book. You can get this great freebie by clicking here.

Hands of a Child is also offering all of you a great 35% discount on any purchase. Just use the code SavyShopper!

If you're interested in keeping up with this business, you can subscribe to their newsletter, or Like them on Facebook!

Facebook Party Giveaway: Teach With Games

Teach with Games is offering prizes to three lucky winners! Each winner will receive a free game set that includes 12-15 educational printable games!

To get multiple chances to win:

1. Like the Teach with Games Facebook page, then leave a comment letting me know you did.

2. Register yourself on the Teach with Games website. You'll receive 5 FREE games just for doing that! Leave a comment here telling me that you registered at TeachWithGames.com.

There are many free samples on their site, so be sure to check it out!

DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON EACH COMMENT!

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time.

Facebook Party Giveaway: Organized Ramblings

Are you a new homeschooler looking for answers to questions?

Are you an experienced homeschooler in danger of burning out?

Cathy Jaime, Mom of 12, has words of encouragement for each of you. With almost 30 years of homeschooling experience, she has seen much, cried much, and lived to share her experiences with you.

She doesn't have all the answers -- but she is happy to share her experiences with you -- from unit studies to teaching teens to traveling with children!

Catherine has kindly offered to give away 3 copies of this ebook tonite!

In order to get multiple entries to win:

1. Leave a comment telling one of your greatest challenges as a homeschool mom.

2. Sign up for the newsletter at Catherine's site, then come back here and leave a comment tell me you did that.

3. Like Creative Learning Connection on Facebook, then leave a comment telling me you did.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT! :)

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time.

Facebook Party Giveaway: Math Facts Fun Deluxe

Math must be practiced to be remembered. Practice takes time, and patience, and can wear on both the teachers and the students! But games take practice to another dimension. This game is designed to help with practice at all levels of math ability -- but in a fun, bingo-type setting.

Catherine Jaime has kindly offered to give away 3 copies of her Math Facts Fun Deluxe Game tonite!

To get multiple entries for this drawing:

1. Leave a comment telling one of the challenges you face in teaching math to your children.

2. Join the newsletter at Catherine's website, then leave a comment here telling me you did.

3. Like Creative Learning Connection on Facebook, then leave a comment here telling me you did.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT! :)

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time tonite!

Facebook Party Giveaway: Ultimate Homeschool Expo

Win a FREE ticket to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo! This event has just passed, but the ticket will still give you access to over 100 sessions and lots of freebies!

You can get two entries into this drawing:

1. Leave a comment, including your email address.

2. Like the Ultimate Homeschool Expo FB page, then come back here and leave a comment letting me know that you did.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT!

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time.

Facebook Party Giveaway: A Journey Through Learning Lapbook

A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks has generously offered to give away one instant download lapbook of the winner's choice!

You should check out their site--they have a lot to choose from, not only of lapbooks, but also copywork, notebooking pages, unit studies, and more!

PLUS, when you sign up for their newsletter you will get a FREE Overview of the 17th Century lapbook!

To enter this giveaway and get multiple chances to win:

1. Leave a comment telling me if you have ever used lapbooks in your homeschool and how you liked it.

2. Visit A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks. Then leave a comment telling me which lapbook you think you would pick if you were the winner.

3. Go Like a Journey Through Learning on their Facebook page, then leave a comment here letting me know you have done so.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT! :)

This drawing closes at 9pm. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!

Facebook Party Giveaway: Reach for the Stars

Media Angels, Inc. is offering a wonderful 144-page e-book workbook for budding young authors. It includes sections on creating characters, how to "show-don't tell" their feelings, beginnings that "hook" the reader, creating scenes, plotting stories and much more! Students can work at their own pace and on their own. Reach for the Stars also works great in home school co-ops and in classrooms. Includes a parent/teacher guide with hints for expanding the lessons if desired. Grades 3-8. Reach for the Stars! An $18.95 value!

To get multiple chances to win this book:

1. Leave a comment telling about the biggest challenge or joy you experience in teaching writing with your children.

2. Like the Media Angels page on Facebook, then leave a comment telling me you have done so.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT!

Also, check out the freebies page at Media Angels. There is a lot of great stuff there that you can use!

This giveaway ends at 9pm Eastern time.

Facebook Party Giveaway: TruthQuest History Gift Certificate

TruthQuest History has generously donated a $20 gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of any TruthQuest History guide.

You can get multiple chances to win this prize!

1. Leave a comment here telling us what history guide you think you would pick if you win. (You can see them here)

2. Like the TruthQuest History page on facebook!

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT!

Contest ends at 9pm Eastern time. :)

Facebook Party Giveaway: Land of Enchantment print

Jill Evely is also sponsoring this wonderful giveaway. It is a print of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post work, Land of Enchantment. It features many classic storybook characters in the background, and two boys reading in the front. Full-color 12.75" x 23" print on heavy art stock. Custom-printed with an extra-wide border. Perfect for the mat and frame of your choice!

Jill will send one of these to a lucky winner.

To enter this drawing:

1. Like Jill's Sonlight Consultant page on Facebook and then leave a comment letting me know you did.

2. Leave a comment telling about one of your favorite childhood (or current!) storybook characters.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EVERY COMMENT!

Drawing ends at 9pm Eastern time tonite.

Facebook Party Giveaway: Sonlight Readers!

It is no secret that Sonlight is a hugely popular curriculum choice. Why? Many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is THE BOOKS!

The books included in Sonlight are so enriching and wonderful, your whole family will enjoy them.

Sonlight consultant Jill Evely is a personal friend of mine and is a wealth of information and encouragement for homeschoolers! Jill is the mother of 5 grown children and has 17 years of homeschooling experience. Jill has been representing Sonlight at State Homeschool Conventions and locally for 13 years. She loves to help people figure out a custom plan for their family that meets their needs and their budget. She is the perfect person to talk to if you do not know what core to use, or how to use Sonlight with your multiple children or while taking into account your family's specific needs. All of this is a FREE service for you! Jill doesn't take orders, so there is no pressure on you to buy anything. Just good, solid guidance, and you can place your order with Sonlight when you are ready.

Jill says, "It is my joy and pleasure to encourage homeschool parents and I would love to help you. "

Jill has generously offered to send a nice selection of Sonlight books to one lucky winner! These are perfect for reading aloud to children in 2nd grade through middle school and higher:
Shades of Gray--an award winning, thought-provoking book about a boy who was orphaned by the Civil War;
The School Story--A 12 year old girl writes a book and then tries to get it published. It is a fascinating glimpse into the world of book publishing;
Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman--Fascinating biography of the black woman who risked her life helping other slaves reach freedom.

Reading aloud strengthens families, increases listening skills, develops higher vocabulary and is just good clean fun.

To get multiple chances to win in this drawing:

1. Get one chance in the drawing by Liking Jill's Sonlight Consultant Page on FB. Leave a comment here letting me know you've done that.

2. Get another chance in the drawing by leaving a comment telling the title of one of your favorite books to read to your children!

Don't forget to leave your email address with your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner!

You can enter this giveaway until 9pm Eastern time tonite.

Facebook Party Free For All: Supermom's Simple Guide to Healthier Eating

Since Supermom's Homeschool isn't a business, I don't have any direct items to promote tonite. However, I didn't want the night to pass by without giving each and every one of you something free! So I wanted to mention that you can get a FREE copy of my ebook Supermom's Simple Guide to Healthier Eating for Beginners and Beyond here. I hope it is helpful to you!

Also, whether you are already familiar with my health and wellness business or not, I wanted to offer a special discount for my party friends. From now through tomorrow (so you have time to browse) you can get 15% off your entire order at my store, Supermom's Health and Wellness. The products most loved by my fellow homeschool moms includes SuperMom and SuperDad vitamins, and Bee Strong and Berry Well, which give a great energy boost that we all tend to need! Just click through this link to automatically get the price reduction. (psst...the discount will even be taken on items that are currently on sale!)

Facebook Party Giveaway: Picture and Writing, Older Ages

This is a great ebook for older children in grades 5-8, offering them art and writing prompts to get their creativity flowing! Diane Hurst from Gentle Shepherd has generously offered to give away 5 copies of this ebook tonite!

Gentle Shepherd is a homeschool curriculum business, offering unique and creative learning materials for a variety of age groups—from preschool to middle school. Their website is: www.gentleshepherd.biz, and their Facebook page is facebook.com/GentleShep.



To get multiple chances in this drawing:

1. Go Like Gentle Shepherd on Facebook and then leave a comment here letting us know that you did so.

2. Check out the Art section of the Gentle Shepherd website, then leave a comment here telling about something you liked or found interesting there.

3. Post on Facebook, telling your friends about this giveaway, then leave a comment here letting us know you did.

BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH COMMENT! :)

Entries for this drawing end at 9pm Eastern time tonite.

**Gentle Shepherd has also generously offered a coupon for 30% off any Gentle Shepherd order, good until July 10. The coupon code for this discount is: PICTUREWRITING

Facebook Party Free For All: Classical Composers Monthly

I have always enjoyed classical music and wanted to share it with my children, but with the busy pace of life and the limits to the homeschooling budget, I never got around to any sort of organized way to do it. Inevitably, the various CDs I had on hand were forgotten and unused.

My oldest son Micah and I decided to create a simple way for families just like ours to learn about and appreciate the work of classical music composers without a big expense and with little-to-no prep time for the mom. The result is Classical Composers Monthly!

Micah and I have scoured the internet for the very best resources we could find, and have packaged them up in a simple, accessible way that doesn't require any special technical knowledge. It saves busy homeschools moms a ton of time and frustration, and gets the kids engaged quickly and easily.

You are all welcome to check out our collection about George Frideric Handel for FREE! There are a bunch of videos, audios, ebooks, and more to help you and your children get to know him and his work!

Facebook Party Free For All: Creatively Simple Soft Serve Desserts

Penny Raine has so kindly offered a FREE GIFT for everybody here at the party! It is her ebook Creatively Simple: How to Make Homemade Healthy Soft Serve Dessert!

You can get this sweet goodie here. Be sure to notice that underneath the download, there is an opportunity to sign up for Penny's newsletter. You will get another freebie right away, PLUS she gives away a freebie every week! She is a wealth of information, and a super sweet person. I know you will be glad you got to know her.

It's Time to Party!

Welcome to the Supermom's Homeschool Facebook Party and Curriculum Swap!

I am so glad you decided to join us tonite.

How to party, Facebook style:

1. Watch the Supermom's Homeschool wall as much as you can throughout the party. You may want to open secondary windows in order to get involved with the prize drawings and other fun activities that we will have happening.

You'll want to *refresh* your page frequently, because new posts will be coming up all the time.

Introduce yourself in your own post on the wall!

Say hello to others.

We will have some special guests from various homeschool-related businesses with us, and you will be able to ask them questions about what their business has to offer, or about their area of expertise! So once you see them introduce themselves, just jump in and start talking!

2. In order to participate in the curriculum swap, you need to have an item that you want to give to someone else for FREE. (if you need the person receiving the item to pay for shipping, that's ok) Please read the details on how to participate in the swap HERE and go ahead and get started on it!

Please do not post items that you have for sale. We are going to have enough going on at the group wall without adding that level of chaos. :)

3. Prize giveaways and special offers will be announced throughout the party. We have so many that they will be rolling out pretty fast. There will be a fresh FB post for the group when each one starts, so follow the clickety-click link to read the fine print and try to win yourself some fun stuff! Be sure to include your email address in every entry so we can reach you!

4. Tell your friends! Go post on your own facebook status to let others know about what we've got going on. The more, the merrier!

5. The party will end at 9pm Eastern time. If you win a prize, you will be notified by email, assuming that you left an email with your entry. (Don't forget!)

6. If you have any questions, post it on the group wall and I will do my best to answer promptly!

**If something crazy happens, like my internet service goes kaput or a meteor drops on my house, here's what I want you to do: Just keep going. Refresh this here blog page. Each and every giveaway is scheduled to show up here every 5 minutes from 7:05 to 8:30pm. Just have fun with it, talk to each other, ask questions of our business representatives, tell about your own homeschooling life, swap your stuff! I know it won't be the same without my cheerful chatter, but I'm sure you can all get along with out me. You know. If you *had* to. ;)

Here's How to Participate in the Curriculum Swap

My idea for the curriculum swap is this:

It is fun to give things away!

It is fun to receive things!

Some people have things to give away.

Some people need things or would enjoy receiving something.

This is not going to be a swap as far as you-give-something, you-get-something.

This is going to be a give-if-you-want-to, request-if-you-want-to event.

I don't have the time or desire to micromanage this, so here's what I'm thinking so we can all play nice:

On July 7, 2011, from 7-9pm Eastern time ONLY, please post on the Supermom's Homeschool wall if you have something homeschool-related that you'd like to give away. Let people know all pertinent info on the item, and if you want some money for shipping, and how much that amount is. Is it just for US residents? Can Canadians or others participate?

To keep it simple, just have those that want to be considered for your giveaway comment under your wall post during the party.

You pick somebody to give your item to, and work out the details between the two of you through private message. Givers, please follow through on sending, and receivers, please follow through on the shipping cost, if that was part of the deal.

You can pick who to give your item to based on your own criteria, whether it be random pick, first-come-first-served, or whatever you come up with. Maybe you want people to tell you why they need it. I don't know, but that's for you to decide, and as long as it all stays family-friendly, anything goes.

To keep it all simple, givers please choose who you are giving to by the end of the evening, if you can.

Obviously, I cannot take responsibility for the success or lack thereof of the swaps you arrange. Swap at your own risk. :)

I hope you all have fun with this! Help spread the word. The more, the merrier! Don't you agree?

July 7: Facebook Party and Curriculum Swap!

We are going to try something new and fun on July 7! We'll be having a Facebook party and a curriculum swap from 7-9pm Eastern time.

What's that? Well, I'll tell you.

At 7pm you'll want to join us on the Supermom's Homeschool wall on Facebook. If you haven't "liked" us yet, do it today so you'll be reminded as we get closer to our big event!

The party portion of the event will include:

-door prizes
-drawings, discounts, etc. from various homeschool-related businesses
-and hopefully we will have some experts from some of your favorite curriculum providers on hand to answer your questions!
-hopefully lots of party participants that want to get to know each other and tell about their own favorite blogs, resources, share support and encouragement...whatever!
-and hopefully more stuff that we will figure out between now and then

The curriculum swap is going to work like this:

-If you've got some curriculum item in good condition that you'd like to give away, you can do so.
-If you've got some curriculum needs and see something being offered that you'd like to have, you can ask the giver for it.

Whether or not the giver or receiver will pay shipping, comment on your blog, "like" you on facebook, or whatever else, remains to be seen. I'll be working out the kinks (hopefully) as our party night draws closer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm organizing this facebook party in order to do something fun, increase the amount of fellow homeschoolers in our group, and because I think most of us gals like a swap meet--especially when it comes to clearing our shelves or getting good deals and freebies!

Tell your friends about our facebook page, because that's going to be the "hub" of the party action. Some aspects of the party will be posted about here on the blog as well, so anybody philosophically opposed to facebook can still get in on at least some of the fun. :)

Poker Chips in our Homeschool

Like most children, mine enjoy rewards. Like most moms, I find that incentives are a great tool for encouraging, rewarding, and teaching. Poker chips have been an easy and fun way for us to do all of those things.

I purchased a set of poker chips at Walmart for maybe $10. Since we use a color-coding system at our house, this was perfect. Red, blue, and green were represented in the chips. We use black as an alternate color for our child who normally uses yellow, since sometimes yellow is hard to find. And when my daughter was using pink, we would use white chips for her. The colors of the chips is important to us because it eliminates any confusion about whose chips these are. If we find a red chip on the floor, we know immediately who it belongs to. No squabbles, and no temptation to pocket it. :)

My children earn chips for various aspects of their school work and chores. Additionally, I often have 1 extra habit I am trying to encourage that I will use chips for. For instance, although my boys have been unloading the dishwasher when asked, they would avoid ever unloading unless asked, even if they could see that it needed to be done. Also, when I started them out on the unloading I only asked them to unload 30 items each, which turned into them often acting like it would kill them to do an extra item or two, or everybody leaving the last 7 items because "I already did my 30!!" Yeah. Well, what needs to happen now that they all know how to unload the dishwasher, is the next step of seeing a need and taking care of it, and completing a job cheerfully. So I recently put a new chip incentive into place: If you see that the dishwasher needs to be unloaded and you just go ahead and do it, you'll get 1 chip per 30 items, or 3 chips to complete the whole thing. Now I have kids eager to know when the dishes are done, and they are now completing the job themselves. Easy for me, and fun for them. After about a month of this I will phase out the chips and they will be doing the job hassle-free, for the most part.

I have used incentives like this for better behavior at bed time, quicker getting out of bed in the morning, and other things like that. I try to just have one extra thing like that going on at a time, just because it's simpler, and I think it's more effective to establish one habit strongly at a time.

We have a treasure box (a really cool one that we found at Hobby Lobby, but you can use a shoebox or any kind of box) that contains goodies that the kids can purchase with their chips. You can put whatever items in it that your children would like and that you approve of. Little toys from the dollar store or Oriental Trading Post, cute school supplies, art supplies, candy, food treats that they enjoy, whatever works for you. I tend to equate each chip with about a 25 cent value (or less) of what I pay for the goodies. You may choose to do differently according to your budget and what your kids have to do to earn the chips. Sometimes I get really good bargains on items with a sale and coupons, but even if I get them at a cheaper price, if the kids are used to that item being 2 chips to buy, I just leave it at that. Simple rules the day!

We generally have the treasure box open once a week (Saturday morning) so the kids can buy their rewards. For younger kids that may be too long to wait, so maybe at the end of each school day will work better for you.

I do offer a cash buy-out option as well, so if my kids are in need of money, I will buy their chips back from them for 25 cents a piece. They only take advantage of that rarely, but they like that when they are needing money for something.

My boys are now 8-12 and they still look forward to buying items from the treasure box. We have been doing this for probably 3 years now and it still works great. Keep it simple for best success!

Color-Coding our Homeschool

One thing that has been an enduring help to my family in our homeschooling is color-coding. For the 5 children that needed colors, I picked colors that would be reasonably easy to find items in those colors. So, we have red, blue, green, yellow/black, and pink/purple. Several years ago I got everybody set up with:

1. a file folder box with a handle to make it easy to carry. I tried to get them in colors when possible. For the kids that I could not find their color, I got black boxes and then used colored electrical tape to label the front and side of their box. (purchased at walmart near duct tape, etc.)

-we have one like this which is nice because they can store their pens, pencils, etc. in the top area

-Each child keeps their own workbooks and notebooks in their own box, as well as basic supplies that they should always have handy like pencil, pen, crayons or markers, scissors, etc.

-I purchased a metal book end for each box, because some of the workbooks were falling over and fitting tightly into the bottom of the file box, making it difficult to get out. You can find these at library supply stores for $3-4 each. I got them in colors, which was fun.

-When it is time to do school, the child knows to just get their box and bring it to the table. They should have all of their books and supplies there, so we can smoothly work through their assignments without "Oh no! Where's my math book!?" When they are done with their seatwork they put everything back into their box and put it back on the shelf where it belongs.



2. When I purchase spiral notebooks, folders, journal notebooks, etc. I always try to get them in each child's color. it makes it easy to identify whose item it is at a glance.

3. We use the electrical tape to color code lots of things that could easily get confused: mp3 players, pens and pencils, electronic equipment, games, etc. It is easy and economical and cuts down on the whole "No that one was mine!" phenomenon.

4. We use poker chips as incentive currency at our house, and that works great with the color coding also. Each child only earns chips in their own color, so we never have a problem with not knowing which chips belong to a child. If we find a stray red chip, we know it goes to the kid who uses red. Easy! :)

Want to watch a Rocket Launch?

One of the new programs my family has been using this year is Supercharged Science. We have loved it SO much. It's an incredible program taught by a lovely gal, Aurora Lipper, who is a real Rocket Scientist, as well as a mechanical engineer, and former professor at Cal Poly University. Even better--she does a *wonderful* job of teaching and engaging homeschool students (and their parents!) through her video classes.

Tomorrow Aurora is offering a *FREE* online tele-class about Rocketry that you and your children are welcome to attend. We have participated in several of Aurora's live tele-classes and they are always awesome, so I'm sure this one will be too. Seriously--my boys ooh and aaah the whole time, and *remember* what they learned, too!

Right after the class, there is a real rocket launch of a Taurus XL rocket that will carry a satellite into orbit. She’s going to give us the live video feed for this so we can have a front row seat. My boys are going to love this!

In order to attend the class you need to register here. Just click on over and get set up!

Times Tales DVD: Another winner!

As I've been happy to tell about for several years, my boys have really benefited from the Times Tales program. It's quite like magic to them to learn the more difficult multiplication facts so easily. :)

Every so often I realize that they would benefit from a review of the Times Tales stories, but inevitably I would forget to do it. So I was really excited to see the Times Tales DVD coming out.

It arrived yesterday, so today I took advantage of lunch time to have my 4 younger boys watch the video. The two younger ones aren't doing multiplication quite yet and hadn't gone through the program before. The older two have done the program but hadn't had a review for a long time.

They really enjoyed it. My 10 year old said that the DVD was even better than the regular program. My 7 and 9 year olds caught on very quickly and were excited to know the answers to the flash cards in such a short amount of time. :) The graphics, narration, and background music are cheerful and enjoyable, but don't get the kids hyper.

To me, this program is the best both for the fun of the content, and the ease of success for the student. It's great whether you homeschool or not. For me, having one less thing in our day that has to be Mom-Powered is a help. (I know other moms can identify)

I expect that we will get this DVD out every week or two for a quick review while the boys are getting the hang of it, and then on an as-needed basis from there. Highly recommended.

You can watch the Times Tales DVD Video here.

Times Tales DVD!

It's no secret that I love Times Tales for helping kids memorize the trickier multiplication facts. So often I will be observing my kids doing their math and think that I should get out the stuff to review the Times Tales stories with them. A lot of the time I forget to do it. (sigh) Now the Times Tales DVD makes success that much better by reviewing the stories for your child, so you don't have to use any Mom Power to get the job done. Yay!

Clickety click to order your DVD now. It is scheduled to ship Jan. 15, so you get a discounted price for your pre-order. Use coupon code 5MORE! to get an additional 5% off. Sweet!