Aug
31

September 2011 Monthly Meal Plan

By | Mom Stuff, Recipes

25 Comments

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Hi everyone! I love fall! With it comes crisp cool air, falling leaves, and warm dinners! Here’s my Monthly Meal Plan for September 2011. I made a few changes to some of the meals and snacks, hope you enjoy!     Click Below to Download: September 2011 Meal Plan: PDF September 2011 Meal Plan: Editable Word Doc Tip: If the documents won’t open in your browser, just RIGHT click on the download link you want and select “SAVE LINK AS”, you will be prompted to save the file to your computer. Hope you have a wonderful September, and meal planning is off your “to-do” list! … [Read more...]

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Aug
30

Road Trip USA: Animals of the United States!

By | Curriculum, Geography, Mom Stuff

31 Comments

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Hi everyone! I am excited to share a fun addition to my Road Trip USA United States Geography curriculum called Animals of the United States! Best part is that it’s FREE! YAY! As many of you know, we did a HUGE animal wall last year with our Expedition Earth World Geography curriculum, and this year as soon as we started going through our Road Trip USA curriculum, my kids were asking for animal cards! I thought it would be a fun addition since we had such a great time learning all of our world animals last year, so I put one together. As you go through each state, you’ll discuss the state animal symbols, classify them based on their species then add them to your animal wall. We set up our wall the same as last year basically. (See below)   The animal cards are colorful 3”x3” cards that have the name of each animal on the front. Since many states claim the same animals as their symbols, I grouped them by region. The animals are listed in alphabetical order in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Curriculum, Geography, Mom Stuff Tagged With: ,
Aug
29

Puppy Preschool Theme Free Printables!

By | Alphabet, Homeschool, Printables

19 Comments

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Since my Teeny Tot loves Puppies, we went with that for our Pet theme this month. She is currently 2.5 years old, so we’re keeping it light. She is excited about school this year, and is eager to have her own work to do! I want to point out that I do most of this because she has older siblings. If your toddler is your oldest, don’t feel pressure to do tons of activities with them! Let them lead you, if you sense they are frustrated, take a break for the day or move on to something else. At this age, just keep it fun and light! Click here to download the Preschool Puppy Pack! Bible Verse: “And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” Genesis 1:24 Prewriting Skills: It’s always good to practice basic handwriting skills just to get your fine-motor skills tuned. It takes time to be able to trace lines and so have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alphabet, Homeschool, Printables Tagged With: ,
Aug
28

All About Spelling Giveaway!

By | Give Aways, Homeschool

1,934 Comments

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Oh my goodness! If you haven’t tried All About Spelling yet you are soooo missing out! We started using this product last year and absolutely love love love it! I personally think they should have named it All About Phonics because it really is a phonics, spelling and reading program in my opinion. I wrote a review of it awhile back you can read my All About Spelling Review here. I was previously using a different spelling program and my daughter was getting 100% on all her tests. I thought she was doing great until I realized that she was actually just memorizing her list for the week, but then later when asked to recall a word she should have learned it was long gone. With All About Spelling, kids learn why words are spelled as they are. They drill the phonics rules until they are mastered and that is what has made the difference for us. I noticed a marked improvement in both the reading and writing skills of my children after starting this program. Now when they go to … [Read more...]

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Aug
27

Alphabet Alley Bible Train Winner

By | Give Aways

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Thank you to everyone who entered to win the Alphabet Alley Bible Train Adventure Set!   A big congratulations to Mattie, comment #229! I hope you have a great time with your new Alphabet Alley set!   If you didn’t win, don’t fear, I have another great giveaway coming Monday morning you WON’T WANT TO MISS!! And you’re more than welcome to drop by Alphabet Alley and say hello to Melissa!  If you stop by for a visit, make sure that you let her know Erica @ Confessions sent you over! Visit the Alphabet Alley Website Follow Alphabet Alley on Facebook Follow Alphabet Alley on Twitter … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Give Aways
Aug
25

End of Summer Bash!

By | Family

13 Comments

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Well, the time has come for summer to end and school to start! Actually these pics are a little late in coming, we started school back up on August 15th, but I still wanted to share. You know…since I went to the trouble to put together this cute little platter of goodies and all. And since once I brought it out it was immediately demolished.   But wasn’t it cute to start out with? We celebrated the end of summer with smores and neighbors. It was a nice night and I think a great way to end our summer fun!   And since these happy faces ensued, I guess it was all worth it! Not to mention Mama got to sit back and relax while Daddy roasted her the P E R F E C T marshmallow! All toasty and golden….yummmm!   So, farewell  ye summer…and hello fall! School is ON! How did you all celebrate the close of summer in your neck of the woods? I’d love to hear if anyone has end of summer or beginning of school traditions! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family
Aug
24

Guidecraft Review: Feel & Find 3D

By | Give Aways

21 Comments

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Hi! Can anyone guess what today is? You got it, it’s Guidecraft review and giveaway day, yipee! We have had so much fun playing with the 3-D Feel & Find World Icon game! This game is a perfect addition to your sensory toys! The rules of the game are simple. Select a wooden disk, then without looking feel in the bag to see if you can find the piece that matches it. Its harder then it sounds, and the kids had a great time, although I’m certain some peeked! The Teeny Tot was just blatantly cheating. These are so great to help build sensory awareness! And for the younger kids like the Teeny Tot, they’re a great matching game as well.  I really like that the cards are indented where the shape goes. I’ve seen some with just a black silhouette on them and having the indent makes it much nicer for Young Kids. She was fairly patient, pulling out one piece at a time. Eventually she gave up and dumped all the pieces out where she could see them. Then we sat and … [Read more...]

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Aug
23

Standardized Testing your Homeschooler

By | Homeschool

19 Comments

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Homeschool Standardized Testing….to test or not to test? That is the question at hand today!   This year I took the plunge and decided to test my kids.  I wanted to do it as a trial year before we actually had to submit our results. I  also thought it would be good practice for the kids to do a "standardized” test as well as for me to gauge how we were doing. In our state testing is required for odd years only starting at grade 3 so we will be officially needing to test at the end of this 2011-2012 school year. Homeschool testing requirements vary by state, so you’ll want to check recent laws by state, you can find information at the HSLDA Website. PLEASE NOTE: I do not live in IOWA, the Iowa Standardized tests are available no matter where you live, you can administer any test you like as long as it is acceptable through your state requirements. I was previously nervous about the whole “testing” topic and had kind of avoided it, but really it was very … [Read more...]

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Aug
21

Alphabet Alley Review & Giveaway

By | Give Aways, Homeschool

448 Comments

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I’m really excited about today’s giveaway! My awesome friend Melissa Cameron Flemming from Alphabet Alley sent me some great educational games for the Teeny Tot and Tinker Bell to test out. These games were an immediate hit with the kids and with me! I love the great quality and sturdiness of the products, and my kids loved how colorful and fun the games were! One of our favorite games is the Child is Born Magnetic Playset! This is so cute, it comes with a folding magnetic scenery board and 17 colorful magnetic play pieces. Tinker Bell and Teeny Tot had a great time re-creating the nativity scene over and over. The kids also love the Go Fish Games. I liked the size and sturdiness of these cards. The pictures were great, and very easy for younger players to use.   We also received A Two by Two Memory Matching game which was super cute.  Again, nice thick cards that should last for a long time!   Another one of my favorites were the Jigsaw … [Read more...]

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Aug
21

Pocketful of Posies Winner

By | Give Aways

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  I’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who helped support Ami at Pocketful of Rosies this week!   As promised, I have a winner! Congratulations to Sarah, comment #36!   If you didn’t win, but would still like to support this wonderful cause, you can shop through August 31, 2011, after that the store will not be available! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Give Aways