Tell me a story.

Homeschooling can get expensive. We go through so many teaching resources that I am always looking for ways to make my own. Some great ways to explore narration include homemade sock puppets, finger puppets, hexaflexagons, and Rory's Story Cubes! Here are two more story prompt ideas that are great for the classroom or homeschoolers:

Simple. Effective. Not that pretty, but perfect for our use.

This set obviously took longer to make, but still a minor time investment.

Many homeschoolers we know will sit for hours with Story Cubes. I think I may make a custom set in the near future (perhaps with Pokemon, Angry Birds, or Star Wars characters)!

afternoon snack

:-)

Guess what subject we have been studying around here lately?

New Freebie: Clip Art and Page Frames!

I have a new freebie up at my TpT store! I have made some of the clip art for my own products in the past but hadn't shared it before now.  I hope some of you can use these either in products or in digital scrapbooking.

Here are a few of them in action:

Chains

Flowers

Stars

 

Thanks to Kevin and Amanda for the font in the first slide. Do you like to create digital graphics?  I have so many ideas but never enough time!

wordless wednesday: first lost tooth

I know, it's a bit of a goofy picture. F wasn't all that interested in me taking it.

Back to School Sale Coming Soon!

Are you ready for the best sale of the year? I'm adding to my wishlist right now in anticipation of the Back to School Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers! Check it out August 18-19, and use the code BTS13 for up to 28% off!

Thanks to the following for providing the design elements of my banner! If you want to promote the sale with this or one of my other banners, you can download them here.

Kylie Healey Designs
Erin Palleschi at Once Upon a Classroom
Kevin and Amanda

homeschooling update

Sometimes I totally abuse my Amazon Prime membership. Friday, I was reminded of this, when SIX boxes arrived at my doorstep. Though most were Subscribe & Save items, I was thrilled that First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, Levels 1 & 2 arrived as well! The kids were very excited to start right in with them. New books are always met with great excitement here!

I am feeling quite overwhelmed with all I have planned for the coming school year; I really need to carve out some quality time with my planner to figure out the best way to fit it all (or most) in. Now that I will officially be homeschooling both of our children, I am going to try a little more structure to our days and see how well it resonates. I generally like to go with their flow, since they are generally self-directed, but I know there are at least a few things I want to make sure we cover! One of the BEST things about homeschooling is the ability to follow the individual child's passions. When they are excited about something, it doesn't seem like work. In fact, my kids have never groaned about learning anything. When they are ready to learn something, it is fun for them (and me, too). It is exciting for them. It is a hold-everything-else-I-cannot-possibly-wait-a-moment-longer to learn about X. Thursday, X was a couple of chapters of my Physics book from Physics I class back in college. The first few chapters are about distance, time, size comparisons, and the MOST exciting of all: POWER PREFIXES! "Wow, mom, yocto is so small, WAY smaller than FEMTO!" Yeah. I get it, kid. You have absolutely no hope of not being a total nerd like your parents. Sorry about that.

Anyone else remember this book?

I am always in awe of fellow homeschoolers who homeschool several at a time. I'm not entirely sure how they do it (or homeschool one or two with an infant or toddler around), but having two to homeschool will be *plenty* for me! They are close enough in age that we can do science, history, geography, etc. together. Phew!

if you give a mom a cucumber

If you give a mom a cucumber (or 20), she's going to ask "Seriously, what the %@#! am I going to do with all of these cucumbers?" While I LOVE our CSA, the past few weeks have been overflowing with cucumbers! We have had cucumber salad, refrigerator pickles, sliced cucumbers, and so on. Finally I donated some to Jen's relish endeavors and used up the remainder tonight in some delicious cucumber soup, which went really well with a mojito. I am so thrilled to be caught up with the cucumbers...for now.