Thrifty Thursday

Here is a great way to start the new year! Make a purchase at Chick fil a today and receive a coupon for a free chicken biscuit on your next visit.

http://www.chick-fil-a.com/breakfast/

Website Wednesday

Here is a great website that offers a FREE typing/keyboarding class online. It's fun too. My son did this a couple years ago and it really helped him learn to type. It is a beginning program that is great for young kids. It has 12 stages and 4 levels. You don't have to sign up or register or anything. You just go to the link and you can start learning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Teaching Tuesday

Here is a link to our local paper. They have pictures of artwork that was done by area schools. Each piece represents one of the days of the "Twelve days of Christmas" They were very creative. I got lots of good art ideas from them.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/photos/gallery/1111118.html

Take a minute Monday

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant. --Epictetus

Fun Friday

Texas Snowflakes

Here's directions for a yummy dessert that I made for my family Christmas night. I call them Texas snowflakes.



You will need:

clean scissors

flour tortillas ( The uncooked kind are the best. I have found these at Costco and Walmart.)

Oil for frying

Cinnamon & sugar mixture

powdered sugar

ice cream (optional)


Fold the tortilla into fourths. This works best if they are room temp. Then let the kids cut out triangles around the edge like they would for a paper snowflake. Unfold the tortilla and fry it in a frying pan with about an inch of hot cooking oil. *only the adults should do this part. the oil is very hot. Turn the tortilla once while frying. It will fry very quickly.


Remove the tortilla and place it on paper towels. Sprinkle it with cinnamon & sugar mixture and powdered sugar. We placed a dip of vanilla ice cream on ours. My daughter called it the snowball.

Website Wednesday

Being Christmas Eve this is the only website you need!

Track Santa at NORAD

http://www.noradsanta.org

Teaching Tuesday

Most homeschoolers I know are not doing school this week, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t teach! This is a great time to learn about St. Nicholas.
The following is a brief summary of St. Nicholas’ life from americancatholic.org.
St. Nicholas
(d. 350?)

The absence of the “hard facts” of history is not necessarily an obstacle to the popularity of saints, as the devotion to St. Nicholas shows. Both the Eastern and Western Churches honor him, and it is claimed that, after the Blessed Virgin, he is the saint most pictured by Christian artists. And yet, historically, we can pinpoint only the fact that Nicholas was the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor.
As with many of the saints, however, we are able to capture the relationship which Nicholas had with God through the admiration which Christians have had for him—an admiration expressed in the colorful stories which have been told and retold through the centuries.
Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast. In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop.

Check out http://www.stnicholascenter.org for more info.

Take a minute Monday

Take a minute this monday to think about Christmas. (As if you could think about anything else right now!)

Merry Christmas to everyone on the Bloggyland North Pole Tour. Here are some Christmas quotations from quotegarden.com to get you in the spirit.









Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.

~Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas















Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money. ~Author Unknown

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’
~Dave Barry, “Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide”

And my favorite.....




And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little
bit more.
~Dr. Seuss

Fun Friday

12 Days of Christmas Game

For our homeschool christmas party I made a 12 days of Christmas game. It was pretty easy to do.

I printed out the numbers 1-12 and then each of the things in the song, calling birds, drummers drumming, etc. You'll need 2 copies of each of those. Then I cut out the printed words and glued them to index cards that I cut in half. You can just write them on the index cards if you want.

I wanted to be able to use the game again so I laminated everything and put velcro on each of the posters and slips with the things printed on them. You could just use tape. I cut a poster board in half so I'd have 2. I glued the numbers to one side of each of the poster boards. Then I laminated it. Then I put one half of a velcro circle on the poster board and the other half on one of the slips of index card.

We had 2 teams of kids racing to see who could get the items in the song in the correct order the fastest. I had 2 posters so I put a picture of a snowman above one and a picture of a reindeer above the other so their teams were the "snowmen" vs. the "reindeer". I had 2 people standing at the posters with the correct answers so they could tell the kids if they were correct or not. If not, they had to keep moving the card around until they got it right. They had lots of fun!

Here is the finished product of the snowman team:

This is a close up of one of the posters so you can see how I did it.

Bloggyland Tour of the North Pole

If you'd like to take a bloggyland tour of the North Pole click on the link below. Thanks, Linda for hosting this!

http://lifesacallingwhoisthis.blogspot.com/2008/12/your-invited.html

Gingerbread house

Here is the gingerbread house that went along with the Hansel & Gretel unit.

(see Teaching Tuesday post below)

My son decorated the back

and my daughter decorated the front.

They both decorated the little people.

Thrifty Thursday

Check out the first annual free shipping day...this site has tons of free shipping offers and codes for lots of stores.

http://www.freeshipping.org/?

And if you are needing a rental car...
Now through March 31, 2009, you can enjoy one free weekend day, whenPC#127595 is included in your reservation of Economy through Full-sizeclass cars. Only one redemption per month is permitted.http://tinyurl.com/6rt7ax

Website Wednesday

Today's website is the website for Mountain City Elem. School in Tennessee. They have a great section of teacher resources, especially literature units. We have used a lot of these. Thanks Mountain City Elementary!

This is the home page. Look in the bottom left hand corner for the Teacher Resources:

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/

This will take you straight to the literature resource page:

http://www.mce.k12tn.net/links/literaturewebsites.htm

Teaching Tuesday

This week my daughter (kindergarten) is doing a unit on Hansel and Gretel. Each day we are reading a different version of the book and doing a fun activity. Yesterday we made peppermint bark and dipped pretzels. Yum!

She loved breaking the peppermint bark into pieces!

Today she will be doing a little math and making a graph. I made a simple chart in Word and bought a box of skittles. She is going to count how many of each color there is and graph it. (I counted them first so I made sure to have enough room on the graph.)

Tomorrow we will finish with the Witch's version of the story and the activity will be making a gingerbread house! (I cheated and bought a kit for that)

I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

Here are the books we are using. I got them all at our local library. There are lots of versions out there.

Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm Brothers

We Both Read Hansel & Gretel: Adapted by Sindy McKay

there is a parent page and then a simple child's page so the child can read

every other page.

The Witch's Story by Sheila Black: Tell's the witch's version of the story. It's cute and makes the witch a little less scary.

If you turn this book upside down and over there is the tale of Hansel and

Gretel as told by Sheila Black. So this is neat...two books in one.

Take a minute Monday

This is one of my favorite poems....

The Reading Mother

I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings-
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be-
I had a Mother who read to me.

by Strickland Gillilan

Stay Tuned for tomorrow's post for Teaching Tuesday: Our unit on Hansel & Gretel.

Fun Friday

Here is a recipe for play dough. There is no cooking involved. Very easy & lots of fun! Remember to supervise children with the hot water and let it set for a few minutes to cool before playing with it.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar

1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of boiling water
food coloring

Add oil and food coloring to water prior to mixing. Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix vigourously with the hot water.

Note: the oil is yellow so if you add blue food coloring the dough will be a greenish-blue.

You can store this in an airtight container or zipper bag. One recipe makes enough for 2-3 kids.

The picture is some we made. The specs in it are from my daughter mixing it with our regular play doh!

Thrifty Thursday

Check out the online store at www.the-book-cover.com

They have new and used homeschool books and you can even search their used inventory online. Here is a coupon code for $5 off a $20 purchase: TBC5
It expires Dec. 23rd.

Also, here is a coupon code to get .99 shipping from Oriental trading. No minimum purchase! WC97558 It expires Dec 15th. Website is www.oriental.com.

Website Wednesday

This is my first day posting on this blog. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment.

Refer to the margin to see what I will be posting on each day. Wednesdays are website Wednesdays. I'll post websites that have been helpful with my homeschooling as well as any creative ones I use.

Today's sites all have to do with US Geography.

This one is a fun game that lets you actually put the state where it goes on a blank map. Great for geography skills!
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html

This one we have used a lot! Lots of information on each of the states.
http://www.classbrain.com/artstate/publish/

This one has social studies and American History lesson plans and ideas:
http://www.instructorweb.com/socialstudies.asp