Nov
30

School Days Memory Keeping

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Ever wonder how you’re going to manage all the precious school papers your kids bring home, or in our case all the stuff they create in your home? I get a lot of questions on how we store all of our homeschool papers and records. I even wrote a post on Storage and Record Keeping. But what about the special things you want to keep permanently? And how about those pictures that you take each year to show how your kids have grown? Enter the "My School Memories" kit!     Awhile back, like before I had 4 kids and started homeschooling,  I had intentions of scrapbooking a page or more for each of my children to help show their progress from one year to the next. Sadly I’ve been so busy preparing lesson plans and taking care of our house that I haven’t exactly had time to follow through on my plans. So in response to that, I created some super easy and cute school memory pages to help make it easier for me to remember these years! AND… in the spirit of … [Read more...]

Nov
29

Christmas Preschool Printables

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    Looking for some fun Preschool Christmas Activities? I shared these fun Christmas printables last year, but thought I’d bring them back out for all of my new readers!   Click here to download the entire Christmas Preschool Activity Pack   What’s Included in the Download? Large Floor Numbers Coloring Pages Lacing Card Do-A-Dot Marker Pages Pre-Writing Activities Pattern Activity Roll-A-Tree Game Color Matching Puzzles Candy Cane Counting Size Sorting Christmas Puzzle Scavenger Hunt Letter C Magnet Page Star Counting and More!   And I’m sure you’ve all seen my Jesus Printables, they are great Christmas time activities too!   I hope you enjoy these fun Preschool Christmas Activities! Click here for directions on how to use all these fun games! … [Read more...]

Nov
28

Homemade Advent Candles

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Hi everyone! I absolutely LOVE Christmas time and I thought it would be fun to do a “12 Days of Christmas” blog series! So over the next 12 days I’ll be sharing some of our favorite Christmas traditions, crafts, printables and more! I hope you enjoy the season!   Christmas Traditions: I’m always so excited to create wonderful traditions for our children. These are the types of things they will remember when they’re older, and even pass down to their own families. Since Christmas is my favorite holiday, each year we do something fun for the Advent season. This year I ordered some Make your own Advent Candles and Bartholomew’s Passage for our Advent reading.   The candle kit comes with  5 Purple sheets, 2 Pink, 2 Ivory, and the wicks. They have updated the kit since I ordered, so now they come with instructions, but if you get your sheets from somewhere else I’ll show you how we did it. Supplies: Blow dryer beeswax honeycomb … [Read more...]

Nov
28

RooMag.com Launch

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I’m sooooo excited today! Candace Cameron Bure is launching a brand new online magazine called RooMag.com! The official launch is today, and it’s going to be a wonderful place to get tips on parenting, home, life, travel, heart matters, encouragement, and more! They’ve also asked me to be a contributor on the site which is a huge honor, I absolutely LOVE Candace! I really can’t even tell you how giddy I am to be part of something that I know will be so amazing! Please make sure to stop by today and share your support with Candace as well as the list of amazing contributors for this site!   Candace’s “desire is to minister to the hearts of women so they might pursue wholesome values that nurture and reinforce the family unit; that modern women would be bold enough to stand against the negative message our culture tends to reflect, and embrace the women we were created to be.” As a side note, Candace will also be staring in a TV movie on Sunday, December … [Read more...]

Nov
27

Grapevine Bible Study Giveaway!

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I’m so excited for the giveaway today and it’s just in time for Christmas! We’ve just started the multi-level Birth of Jesus study. It’s been so awesome to go through this as we approach the holidays that I wanted to share it all with you too! We started with Grapevine Studies this year, and after 4 months of using the curriculum, we still LOVE it! it’s easy, and my children have fun drawing the little stick figures for everything. What I love most is that even my kindergartner can look back at her drawings and recall what was going on in that section. I also really like the maps they include. It’s so cool to show my children where things took place, and how far people traveled as we go through the study. Bible has quickly become one of our favorite parts of the day! You can read my review of Grapevine Studies here. Would you like to see a sample so you can see for yourself? Click on the link below: Birth of Jesus Beginner (Ages 5-7) Birth of Jesus … [Read more...]

Nov
27

What’s in the Bible? DVD Winner!

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Thanks to everyone who entered to win the What’s in the Bible? DVD’s! As promised, I have a winner!   Congratulations to commenter #529, Jodi! I’ve sent you an email to you, please replay asap so we can get your DVD set shipped!     Thanks so much, and don’t forget to enter to win a FREE copy of Pick and Draw this week, and I have another giveaway just in time for Christmas coming tomorrow! (Psst…Don’t tell anyone, but it’s 3 free copies of the Birth of Jesus Grapevine Bible study, a wonderful study for the month of December!) … [Read more...]

Nov
24

Pick and Draw Giveaway!

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In honor of Black Friday, I thought I'd put up a special little surprise for you all today! I have a great stocking stuffer giveaway Pick and Draw! It continues to be a favorite in our home. If you haven’t heard about this yet, keep reading, I’m sure you’re kids will love it too!     About the Game Pick and Draw is a fun, one-of-a-kind drawing game that teaches you how to make very creative cartoon faces. It can be played by one or more people, and is an excellent way to encourage creative thinking skills. This game is so much fun and encouraging for everyone, even my children who seem reluctant to try drawing. As you can see the cards are easy, fun shapes: The game: A good quality deck of cards with a sturdy plastic carrying case 60,000 different drawing possibilities in the deck The cards use basic shapes that anyone can draw Can be one player or multiple It is easy to play: just pick a card from each pile and draw it! All you … [Read more...]

Nov
23

Homeschool Giveaways Black Friday!

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  Before I head out to enjoy the weekend with my family, I wanted to let you know about a HUGE Homeschoolers Black Friday Giveaway Blast!   Carrie from Homeschool Giveaways is hosting a HUGE giveaway event just for homeschoolers on Black Friday! (November 25, 2011) She has tons of great giveaways to offer! And it’s no ordinary giveaway. Everyone get’s to enter to win their favorite product, but Carrie is also picking a grand prize winner who will receive 1 of EVERYTHING! WhooHoo!   I’ll be sponsoring 2 giveaways for the event: Package 1: My Letter of the Week and K4 Curriculum Combo Pack Package 2: Expedition Earth and Road Trip USA Combo Pack So make sure to stop by Homeschool Giveaways and enter to win! Happy Thanksgiving, and good luck! … [Read more...]

Nov
23

2011 Christmas Gift List

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I hope you are preparing for a lovely Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends, and gearing up for all those crazy Black Friday sales!  Here are some of our top picks for 2011 to help you out! And just to make it a little better, these have all been approved by Teeny Tot, Tinkerbell, Turbo and Strawberry shortcake themselves! (Although I did have to remind them that I run an educational blog a few times! LOL!)   Stocking Stuffers:   Pick and Draw Why Do They Call it Christmas? DVD Smencils The Night Before Christmas Recordable Book (My parents did this for our children, and they LOVE it! It will be a wonderful keepsake for years to come.) Kids Gifts: Stack & Match Magnet Rings Magnetic Mosaic Design Board Alligator Uppercase Puzzle Bead Sequencing Kit Wedgits Zoob Building Set       Dino Digs (Seriously a huge hit in our house! PlayFoam KaBam Kanoodle GeoSafari® Talking Electron … [Read more...]

Nov
22

Thankful Turkey Kids Craft

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  Looking for a fun Thanksgiving craft you can do with your kiddos? Look no further, this is a simple fun craft you can do and the great part is you probably already have most of the supplies close at hand!   Supplies: Brown, orange, and red for turkey body Various colors of construction paper for feathers Markers Anything else you’d like to add for decoration   Directions: First we read The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh. It’s a wonderful story about one family’s  first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony. The family starts as they are aboard the Mayflower, goes through their journey to a new land, and then ends with the great feast with the Indian chief Massasoit, Squanto and their people.   Making your turkey: Step 1: We used my felt turkey template to trace out our pieces on to colorful construction paper. (Use brown for the body, orange for the beak and claws, and red for the beard.)   Step 2: Glue the … [Read more...]