Come Check Out Some Books with Me

Come check out all of these great books on SALE!! Score some for just $5.  We have activity books, survival guides for teens, potty training books, and MORE!!!!

Human Body Preschool Activity Book

Social Skills Workbook for Teens

Anger Management Workbook for Kids

Social Survival Guide for Teens

Anxiety Workbook for Kids

ABC Bug Book for Kids

All About Rocks and Minerals for Kids

Exploring Nature Activity Book

Rocks and Minerals Field Guide

Field Guide All About Bugs

Fascinating Facts About Bugs

Herb and Plant Encyclopedia- disclaimer it's titled "The Green Witch's Herb and Plant Encyclopedia"

Basketball Biographies for Kids

The Story of Taylor Swift

Kindergarten Reading Notebook

Complete Book of Football Trivia

Potty Training in 3 Days

Let's Go to the Potty

My First Book of Baby Signs

My First Book of Emotions for Toddlers

Still Surviving School..But We Are BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

Monday we start Day 22 of school.  I am already ready for Christmas break;-)  We have successfully survived two weeks at co-op and starting back piano lessons. 

This year has been crazy busy, I keep hoping it calms down soon but I don't see it happening.  I won't lie with the boys moving up a grade level getting all their work done is proving to be just as challenging to me as it is them.  They are hanging in there (so am I) but they have no problem letting me know this year is HARD!! We have done some fun things so far like; going inside Norris Dam for a tour, gardening downtown with friends, etc.

We don't usually do school on Friday but they have so far played a super cute math game called math marks the spot and they have begged to do reading eggs and math seeds since they woke up so I finally caved. 

We are also attending a fun field trip later this afternoon:-)  Can't wait to visit the muse for the planetarium show called "Knoxville Skies". 

I hope everyone else is hanging in there and enjoying their year so far!!! I will do better about blogging...maybe...I have my hands full right now lol.

Shark Week 2016!!!

I can't believe we are this far into shark week and my crew has done nothing!! We LOVE shark week!!  I decided this morning I needed to get a game plan so I thought I would share that game plan with you;-)

I am going to start by sharing some activities we have done in the past!!

Shark Finger Painting Project!!

Chalk/Oil Pastel Shark Art Project

How to Draw and Paint a Shark...

Shark Diorama

And last but not least Shark JAWS!!!

My kids still remember and love all of the activities I listed above:-)  Next I am going to share some super neat ideas I found on Pinterest that I am going to attempt with my crew over the next few days!!  Lego Sharks, I mean my kids love Legos everyday so why not let them enjoy them during shark week?  These FREE printable shark facts  are great for older kids and I know my boys will be fascinated!!  This next craft is super cute and affordable plus I think even the littles will have fun with it Newspaper Shark Craft!!  The last thing I found is probably the one we are going to do first it looks like so much fun and turns out beautiful...Coffee filter shark suncatchers!!
 
Okay and then shark week won't be complete without some books, right???  My kids have so many shark books.  Here are some of our favorites!!

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I hope you have fun exploring the World of sharks this week!!!

Slightly Unusual Summer Boredom Blasters...Activity 11 Perler Beads

Do you remember those super cool beads that you could make designs out of and then iron together?  I thought they were the coolest things ever and now so do my kids.  They have spent hours over the past few days making cool little bead animals.  I picked up the bucket of beads and animal patterns at Walmart for around $10 last year on a whim.  But you can also visit the Perler Bead Website for a full list for their products and ideas.  They have some really cute things...they have advanced greatly since the 80's!!  I also found several websites that have FREE printable patterns for the kids to use!! This is a cheap and fun way to blast away that summer boredom!!!

Amazing has a great deal on several of Perler Bead products and if you are an online shopper like me then this is the perfect route for you!!






 *Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links

Slightly Unusual Summer Boredom Blasters...Activity 10 Walking Water

It is the 1st day of Summer!!! My kids are so excited and we are starting back up our slightly unusual summer boredom blasters!!  This activity is called Walking Water.  The kids were fascinated by it and it can be done free or cheap depending on what supplies you have around your house.

Materials Needed-

Clear cups, glasses, etc.  3 per person
Paper towels
Food coloring
Water

You are going to line the cups up and fill the two on the outside half way full of water.  Then add your food coloring.  Next take a half of a paper towel and fold it loosely like a fan. Put one end of the paper towel in one cup with the water and the other end in the middle empty cup.  Repeat with another paper towel in the other cup with water.  Last, you wait and watch.  The water will start walking and soon fill up the middle cup!! If you want to use two colors of water then when they meet in the middle they will make a new color!! My kids watched this process for two days!!  It is so fun:-)

Science Class with Nana...

Earlier this week my kids spent their Science class gardening with their Nana. Nana and Baw-Baw are my grandparents and their great grandparents. While we were up there it struck just how lucky my kids are and I don't even think they realize. There are so many kids in this World that never get a chance to know their grandparents and mine not only know theirs but are blessed to have daily contact with both their grandparents and the their great grandparents. My Dad and paternal grandmother have both passed away but the kids had a chance to love them before that happened also, well except for Axton.

As we sat around the table and she instructed them on planting seeds, etc I just kept falling back on how lucky we/they are!!! It was a beautiful day and a beautiful moment. I love coming from such a close knit family!!!:-) 

 

How Do You Find the Time to Homeschool? Start Early and Wing It!!!

I had a friend ask the other day how we fit everything into our schedule. Specifically she wanted to know how we fit our official school time in. Now most of you may think that should be easy and think that because we homeschool we should have plenty of time. But anyone who homeschools knows that is not true. Between co-op classes, field trips, music lessons, and well life in general it can be a challenge to find four hours a day to sit down and do school. My answer to her consisted of mainly we get up early and I go to bed late and we wing it. Yep I don't really have a magic schedule or anything I just do not sleep a lot. When I first started homeschooling my favorite part was that we didn't have to start early. We would start our day out slow and do school around 11. Those days are long gone, we simply have too much other stuff going on. So most mornings I am up by 6 and we start school no later then 8:00. Sometimes if the kids are up at 6 we will go ahead and get started then.

Here is a general run down of our week (I am not going to write out all the basic stuff like meals, grocery shopping, household chores, etc because those just get down when they can). I also have a really fun part time job that I work at a few hours a day around 3 days a week.

Sunday- This is my planning day. I spend a couple of hours each Sunday getting all of our school stuff ready for the week. Everything gets printed, our days get sort of planned, I update their attendance and grades on the computer, all of that fun stuff!!

Monday- This is our “serious” day, if we do not get started off right on Monday then our whole week is shot. We work hard the first few days of the week because the end of the week tends to get kind of crazy lol. Yesterday I was sick (I have been sick for a few days) which means we didn't do school, I didn't even do my planning on Sunday. Combine that with the fact that the oldest is out of school for snow days and we can pretty much just go ahead and call this school week a bust. We will do school but it will not be the amount we normally do and that is okay.

Tuesday- Another serious day. We focus on school work the majority of the day.

Wednesday- Serous again lol….time to get that school work done. The boys also have church on Wednesday evenings.

Thursday- “Hell day”, Thursdays are insane, we have to start school super early to fit it in. We usually do not accomplish as much school this day as we do Monday-Wednesday. At noon Keaton has piano, at 4 the middles have guitar and at 6:30 they all have gymnastics. Thursday is usually the day I schedule the miscellaneous extra stuff also. For example last Thursday Keaton had a eye appointment and this Thursday Axton has a well check. Plus Big Bang Theory comes on at 8 and since our whole family is obsessed that has to be part of the schedule:-)

Friday- Field trip day, I try to schedule the majority of our field trips on Friday. We used to never do school on Fridays but now that I have added more stuff into our week we try to get some school in on Fridays.

Saturdays- Family day, work day and make up day:-)

Now through the month we will of course have stuff that messes with our weekly schedule. The first Monday and Thursday and the last Wednesday of each month we have our homeschool co-op. I teach afternoon art classes at my job about 3 times a week. We will have some field trips and extra events like school holiday parties that pop up on days besides Friday. How do I handle all of that?? I wing it. I am not an organized person. So I wing it a lot;-) I usually spend my early mornings catching up on my blog, field trip planning, working on a couple of at home businesses I have (Young LivingEssential Oils, Cakes by A, and Arbonne). If I don't get to all of that in the mornings then I will do it at 2 a.m., like I said just wing it. 

 

Making Fake Snow (Since December Brought Spring Temps)

If it won't snow we will just make our own!!!!  That is what I decided on one warm December day a couple of weeks ago.  The kids were going stir crazy because they were cooped up due to all the rain.  And I was completely over the insanely warm temperatures we were experiencing so we made SNOW!!!!  It was super simple, fun, and MESSY!!!  The recipe is cheap and easy; you take 2 parts corn starch to 1 part hair conditioner and mix away:-)  Enjoy!!!!!

Start off 2016 with a Financial Goal

 I do not do New Year's resolutions for a variety of reasons.  The main one being I am a slacker so I tend not to follow through with them.  But one thing my Husband and I have both agreed on this year is that we need some sort of savings system.  His new job has allowed us the chance to actually start saving and for that we are very grateful.  I needed something simple (see the above slacker comment) so I went searching on Pinterest.  I found several yearly savings plans that are broken down as simple as they can get.  As I went through them to compare I realized there is one for potentially everyone.  Some of them will not be financially possible for everyone but there is one that cost a couple of dollars a week and at the end of the year you have around $350.  That is super easy and I encourage everyone to at least try that one!!:-)  I am going to be posting the plans below.  They all come from Pinterest and the blogs/website they originate from are noted on the pictures.

I am posting them in what is my opinion of the easiest to hardest.  You may disagree but regardless they are all a great starting point.


The first savings plan I am going to share came from 4 Hats and Frugal.  This is the one that I think anyone can do.  I wish I would of found it before this year.  The $$ amounts are small and manageable and after 12 months you have saved $340.

The next one is a little more difficult but still pretty easy.  I love how it starts out slow, builds up, and then slows down again. This one came from Hello Pretty Bird.  At the end of this savings plan you will have saved $1000.

The next savings plan is the one I personally plan on utilizing and it gives you an option for weekly savings, biweekly savings, and monthly savings.  Depending on which one you chose you will save anywhere between $1350 and $1400.  This one came from Madam Money. 

We have almost covered them all.  This next one is very similar to the weekly savings plan but it goes in reverse.  In this one you start out saving a larger amount and towards then end you are saving in smaller increments.  That makes much more sense to me because I am always broke at the end of the year.  This one is also from 4 Hats and Frugal and at the end you will have saves almost $1400.

The last plan I am sharing is by far the most ambitious (at least for my household) but at the end you will have saved a whopping $3,926!!  It is a 52 week savings plan also but the weekly increments are larger then any others I found.  This plan is covered on Time For All Things.  I would love to be able to accomplish this but I don't know if we could pull it off or not.