A workshop with Julie from Leelou Blogs. And a GIVEAWAY!!!

A while ago I went to a really cool workshop.  It was put on by My Memories. (see discount code in sidebar) It consisted of 3 classes. 


The first class was a photography class taught by Scott Jarvie of Jarvie Digital.  It was seriously amazing and I feel I learned so much from him.
He said the biggest thing you can do to become a better photographer is to really get to know the camera you already own.  Read the manual.  That made me feel really great because as much as I really want a great Nikon or whatever, I just haven’t been able to justify the purchase just yet.
 

The next class we took was on the My Memories software itself and all the neat things you can do with it.  It truly is such an amazing and versatile software.  You don’t need a class to be able to use this software it truly is so user friendly. This class showed some shortcuts and was great to meet other digi-scrappers and some of the designers.

The last class of the day was a blog design class.  How to design a blog using My Memories Software. It was taught by Julie of Leelou Blogs. 
She offers amazing free blog templates and designs.  I haven’t really had a lot of time to spend fixing up my blog with the information I learned. However the blog header and button I have now were created using My Memories before this class.  My Facebook timeline cover was created after the class. 

Julie is so cute and fun.

My Memories offers many tips and tricks on their blog and in their newsletters.  Along with discount codes.  Right now they are offering a free photo book.   Plus today is National Scrapbooking Day and they are having tons of sales this weekend. 
Check out My Memories on Facebook!

Would you like to win a copy of My Memories Software? 
Check out the Rafflecopter for how to win.

*Stanley Steemer* 2 -$100 gift certificate giveaways

Spring Cleaning is in the air.  My house just doesn’t feel “spring cleaned” until my carpets, tile and air ducts are clean. 
If you haven’t ever had your air ducts cleaned, you will notice a HUGE difference in your home, you will also have to dust less.

Stanley Steemer offers so much.

• Carpet Cleaning
• Grout and Tile Cleaning
• Air Duct Cleaning
• Furniture Cleaning
• Leather Cleaning
• Area Rugs
• Autos, Boats, and RVs
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You can expect the best from Stanley Steemer—outstanding people, superior equipment, and exceptional services we’re proud to stand behind 100%.

Keep up with Stanley Steemer on Facebook as well as Twitter.

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Would you like to win your very own gift certificate for $100 to Stanley Steemer?   Check out the Rafflecopter for how to win!

We’ve got the Fever!!!

 

We have definitely had a fever going on around here.  Spring Fever that is!

A recent campfire dinner we had with some friends.

 

We are wrapping up the rest of our schooling for this year. We are on track to be done with our current curriculum (K12) by the end of May.  We are going to take a few weeks off from actual curriculum.  Of course we will still be reading and math each day. 

Math

Most of our math will be games and Life of Fred, other than review items of course. 

Reading

Reading will be kids choice.  With some added in notebooking about what they read.  We have recently started notebooking and sharing our pages with each other.  It is a really neat way to see what each child took away from the book/lesson.  Check out Tristan’s posts, it’s a 3 part series to see why I decided to give notebooking a try.

Other

We will also do Science and Art once a week.  We are going to finish out Christian Kids Explore Physics. Over the summer this will be the perfect fit, it is gentle enough, yet still fun! 

I don’t exactly have art planned out yet. I am still deciding.  I think we may focus more on art forms than actual artists.  Next school year, I do have plans for us to focus one week on a composer and then one week on an artist.

We plan on doing lots of camping, hiking, boating and more.  Plus right now we are in the middle of softball season and both my girls play softball. Emily will also be attending a 4H overnight camp as well as some sewing day camps.  Tommy has lots of fun Summer plans too.  He is going on Trek, some scout campouts and is going to be working hard at his MMA so he is ready to compete in NAGA.  Katey and Tyler are pretty much going to have a care free Summer.  We will attend some community events geared toward children as well as swimming, lemonade stands and lazy days.

We will start back up full day schooling around August.  Stay with us for Summer fun times.

Do you have anything fun planned for Summer?

 

God Helps Me Bible. Bible Stories for Children.

 

 

The Author Juliet David has written many children’s stories and Bible activity books. Her other interests include painting, music, and travel to Israel and other Bible lands. This experienced author lives in London with her family.

The Illustrator is Clare Caddy

The Bible is an amazing account of our history.  We want our children to know how important it is from such a young age.  The Bible can be long and overwhelming for a child.  Sometimes they just need to hear Bible stories.  Colorful Pictures and short sentences keep your child’s attention while you are reading it to them.  This book goes over many of the ways God and Jesus have helped people throughout history.  My 2 year old son loves to be read this book.  It is simple enough that my 7 year old can read it to him or to herself. 

This book is spiral bound so it can lay flat which makes it extra easy for children to hold and read.  Each page is also made out of sturdy laminated paper which makes this book and each page easy to wipe clean.  I have found this book to be very durable and stand up to my 2 year old.  The art work is just right for children.  The colors and details are not overwhelming.

We have really enjoyed this book and I know we will continue to enjoy it for years to come.  It is a great quiet book to look at while at church also.

$12.99 Hardcover

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

That Works For Me. ~~ GIVEAWAY!!!

Have you ever heard of the That Works For Me meme? 
It is a link up over at We Are That Family where literally hundreds of blogs each week share their tried and true tips.  I have linked up quite a few of my personal tips.  Can you imagine going through all those tips to find the best ones. 
The ladies over at We Are That Family have created a very user friendly e-book full of 800 of the best of the best tips submitted.  Each tip is categorized and even cross categorized if applicable.  So easy to navigate. 

There are so many categories, such as household, beauty, kids, blogs, and so much more.  I have 2 tips in the book. 

The book sales for $8 which equals out to 1 cent for each tip.  AMAZING!

I am able to give my readers a discount code to save $1.  Use code SAVE1
Go Here to buy the book!
They even have a very well organized Pinterest Board.

Would you like to win your own copy?
Check out the Rafflecopter for how to win.

Homeschool Mothers Journal

In my life this week… Well, Softball season has started and I have two girls in softball, so we have two practices a week and two games each week on top of my son’s karate twice a week.  We feel like we are really getting into the swing of Spring.  I was able to go to a workshop taught by Liz, The Food Nanny!  It was great and amazing, check out her website for free menu planning and lots of great ideas.

In our homeschool this week…  I am a little ashamed to admit we are counting down the days until we are taking a break, a real break, at home, not on vacation.  We are looking at a MAJOR revamp of our schooling beginning the middle of June we are going to school 1/2 days in the mornings and be done by 11am, that is our goal anyways.  We are all very excited to leave behind K12 and get back into schooling the way we used to, as a family!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…  Some days kids will drag their feet and you will not get an entire days worth of work done.  Some days kids will surprise and amaze you and get a few days worth of work done in just a few hours. 

Whenever I can sense that my children are not in a settle down and get it done kind of mood, I pull them all over to the table and we work on a quick science experiment or art project/lesson or a worksheet type activity, (color by number, etc).  Once we have been at the table for 15 minutes they are settled down enough and are in a learning mindset.

I am inspired by… My 7 year old, she is a struggling reader, she can read, she is still just figuring out fluency and she tries hard every day during our read aloud time.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… I went and met Liz, The Food Nanny.  That was just so neat.  We are also gearing up for a vacation coming soon. 

My favorite thing this week was…  I had a orthodontist appointment for two of my children this week and while I was gone, Emily got 2 days worth of schoolwork done!!  It was AMAZING.  She did a great job on all of it too.

What’s working/not working for us… K12 is not working for us, but it is too.  What I mean by that is that we are done using K12 curriculum.  However I am glad to have it all planned out for me for the rest of the year while I spend my time planning what is next. 

Questions/thoughts I have… What does YOUR recipe file look like? 

Things I’m working on… I would like to make a jewelry holder. I have quite a bit of costume jewelry and would like to display/store it on a wall in my bathroom.  I am have been scouring the internet for some ideas, and think I am finally settled on one.

I’m reading… I just finished reading The Five Love Languages for Kids (I am also giving away a copy)  I just started reading Praying With the Grain.

I’m cooking… I am actually canning apples this week and over the weekend I plan on making some strawberry jam and canning it. 

I’m grateful for… My family.  I love the way they make me laugh and make me cry and everything in between.

I’m praying for… Every prayer request I see.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

We recently had new family pictures taken and this in one of my favorites!

Math and Science–DVD review

 

 

Science and Math.com has some neat products I have reviewed a math product for them previously and this time I was lucky enough to get to review one of their science videos. 

Amazing Science Volume 1 comes with 2 DVD’s featuring 23 experiments. Each experiment uses easy to find items.  Check out Walking by the Way for a printable supply list!  Also as the instructor in the video, Jason has advanced degrees in Engineering and Physics, and he worked as a rocket scientist for NASA.  He has a passion for teaching science and math.  He explains the why behind each amazing experiment in easy to understand turns.  Each of the experiments on the video had our mouths dropping in amazement.  And when we went to try our experiments on our own, they all worked.  We did have a little trouble with the egg in the bottle one, but we were using too small of a bottle and that was easily fixed with a bigger bottle and then it worked.

The very first experiment we tried was about surface tension and it amazed us!

We all sat down at the table with our plates.

We dipped our first Q-tip.

Then it got really fun!

 

  It worked, it really worked, and we knew why.

We love quick fun experiments like this, and knowing the why behind them is great. 

One way I have began to use this now is that when my children are feeling unmotivated to get going on our day, I pop in this DVD and set it on an experiment that I have all the supplies for and we watch the quick (5-15 min.) segment and then go conduct the experiment ourselves.  Each time when we have gotten done with the experiment their brains are awake and ready to face the day.  It has been a great for us.

Check out these sample videos of the experiments for free!

You can have all this too for $19.95 you will get the complete volume 1. 

 

To see what others though of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.

Disclosure: As a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew I review products like this, which I receive for free in order to be able to share my honest opinion.