Homeschool: Week 6 Review

This past week was quite busy, which is a good thing!  Tuesday, we went to a huge YMCA book sale.  I got so many great deals, that it will have to be a separate post! 

Wednesday, Abby and I took my younger sister, Holly out running errands for the day.  We then met up with Dave at my sister-in-law's for dinner.  Dave's parents were in town from Florida and we both share anniversaries on August 25th.  

Thursday was gymnastics as usual for Abby and Friday was a homeschool bowling event at a local bowling alley.  We got free bowling, 2 pieces of pizza and a soda!  It was Abby's first time bowling and she enjoyed it, but she was bummed we didn't meet other homeschoolers.  Most people came in groups that they already knew, so it was just me and Abby on a lane by ourselves.  

Horizons Math

Abby did lessons 26-30 this week.  These covered:  pennies, place value, months, dimes, 1/2 hour, addition, equal or not equal to, time and calendars.  This week was also a test week.  These are every 2 weeks.  

I'm so happy to report that Abby actually did this test independently.  I guess she had no trouble reading the instructions, because she only missed 3 out of 40 problems!  She never complained once!  This was a major shocker :)

I took her pic with her test, because we were both so proud:

Reading
We continued with the Biscuit Phonics Readers.  We did books 7, 8 and 9.  Abby did very well with these and knew a lot of the words.  We did the usual and made a word wall of the words she didn't know right away, then read the books and reviewed them.

Heritage Studies
This is still Abby's favorite subject!  This past week, we read a poem about Christopher Columbus and how he had a plan to be a sailor when he was older.  I then wrote:  When I am a little older I plan to... and helped Abby spell the words.  She drew a picture:

Abby has said this numerous times, but her plan is to be "A princess cat trainer to a Russian Blue."  She then had me change it to "two Russian Blues".  I just love her princess tutu and the cats!

Here's a Russian Blue, if you have not seen one:

They are gorgeous and I had them on my list of cats, when we got our new ones.  However, at $800 it wasn't going to happen!  On a side note, I always LOL when I see ads on CL for Russian Blues.  None of them are ever real Russian Blues and most of them don't even look like them.  Yes, I search CL for cats!  I find it entertaining what some people call Maine Coon, Abyssinian or Russian Blue, any breed really.  What are these people thinking?

Abby also made a map of our classroom and discussed the difference between a map and a globe.

Handwriting Without Tears
You might not be able to see it in the pic above, but I don't think HWT is having a huge effect on Abby's handwriting.  Some of her letters, like N and R have been a huge improvement.  However, she still doesn't have the patience to sit and do her writing neatly.  This past week was the end of the capital letters.  She worked on S, A, I, T and J and the number 7.  I am glad we are doing HWT, because she is being exposed to the right way of making the letters and does practice when it's time.  I'm just thinking it will take time for her to want to do the letters right when she is writing on her own.  I'm sure learning the lower case will help.

Science
Nothing new to report here.  However, when I do post about the YMCA book fair you will see what my plans are!

Exercise
I'm including this to make myself accountable.  I didn't have a chance to exercise on Wednesday or Saturday.  I did do yard work twice this past week and I count that as exercise, since it makes me sweat like a pig.  I did two Leslie Sansone DVDs this past week and took a nice walk outside on Sunday.

I can't believe we have finished 6 weeks of school!  Soon, we'll have our Branson trip and that will be a much appreciated vacation!

Whatever You Need...

...CSN Stores will most likely have it!

CSN Stores is one website that includes over 200 different shopping sites.  I love to go to CSN Stores and browse their items.  They have an awesome selection of:

End Tables

like this beautiful Riverside Splash of Color Rectangular End Table.

Fitness Equipment, I so need one of these:

Weslo Cardiostride Plus Treadmill

And even Classroom Furniture:

Someday I will have a homeschool room and it will be filled with awesome storage like this Young Time Sectional Storage Cubbie.

 Now the fun part...I have picked something to review from CSN Stores that I think you will all be interesting in waiting for the review for!  It will be a few weeks, so stay tuned.

Links I Like: 19th Edition

This week I have found some great homeschooling resources.

The Science Mommy was a fun find!  She shares neat science experiments, ideas and resources.  I like how she has categories for both little scientists and big scientists.  Abby would love to make these Baking Soda Rockets.  In fact, I think my husband will like that experiment just as much!  LOL!

Free Homeschool Printables is a blog filled with awesome FREE printables gathered from other blogs.  Also check out her homeschool blog:

She has made several of her own printables as well!  My favorite is the Addition Number Facts Copywork Pages.

And speaking of printables, I've been looking for the right planner for keeping track of our homeschool stuff.  I have one I made, but am finding I don't have enough room to write what we did in each lesson.  I haven't had a chance to check out all of these yet, but Busy Teacher's Cafe has lots of Management Forms, including everything from lesson planning to monthly calendars.  I downloaded the September calendar and love how you can type in what you need and then easily print it!

I was very pleased to see that Handwriting Without Tears has a Worksheet Maker. 

My favorite find of the week was from:

Her post about a Neat Google Reader Trick was so awesome!  You'll have to go check it out.  I've been using it all week and it has saved so much time.

If you've found some cool links, leave them in the comments! 

Fall Inspiration

Thrifty Decor Chick is having a Fall Inspirations link up party.  I just love this idea, since Fall is my favorite season.  There are so many fun activities!

Here's what I had out last year from after Halloween to Thanksgiving:

I have some ideas on how I want to decorate my Mantle for BEFORE Halloween, but I just haven't gotten around to it.  I'm thinking I should get started so we can enjoy it for a month before it's time to decorate for Halloween.

I also made these pumpkins last year for our table:

You can see the tutorial for those here.

Head to Thrifty Decor Chick for more Fall Inspirations!

9 Years!

Today is Dave and my 9 year Anniversary!


Pic of a pic
I can't believe how fast time goes by.  It feels like just yesterday that I wrote our 8 Year Anniversary post.  You can check it out, if you like long stories and pics :)

 Dave and I are so excited to be debt free and I have already started planning for us to go to Hawaii for our 10 year Anniversary (with cash)!  We went there on our honeymoon and loved it, of course!  Dave's favorite is the Big Island, especially Kona and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  My favorite is Kauai.  I just loved the Sheraton Kauai and remember wanting to live there, LOL!  However, I've been checking out hotel reviews and I may not feel that way anymore.

This past weekend, my Mom was supposed to watch Abby on Friday and Saturday night.  Friday night, Dave and I went out to dinner and came home to watch Date Night.  That's a great movie, that we both loved!  During the movie a thunderstorm started and right after, the tornado sirens went off.  That's normal here, because they set them off even if there's no tornado in sight.  It's kind of annoying, but they warn you if there's a tornado in a neighboring county.

Anyway, as soon as the sirens went off, my Mom was calling and I could hear Abby in the background crying.  She was freaking out to the point of gagging!  My Mom took her downstairs and she feel asleep.  Mom said she woke up a few times, but slept ok.

Saturday, she played hard all day at Grandma's!  Dave and I ran around stopping at several stores and having a late lunch.  I had an email coupon to get a $25 gift card to Target if I test drove a VW Routan, so we did.  I just wanted the gift card!  LOL!  Nice ride though, but a bit big for the 3 of us and I DO NOT want a car payment.  The people there were really nice and didn't annoy us at all.

We stopped for ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and then headed home to watch another movie.  Right before we could start it, my Mom was calling and Abby was upset again.  She missed me so bad, we had to go get her.

She was really anxious.  She's never been like this before, but I guess she liked the idea of partying at Grandma's all day, but sleeping in her own bed at night.  She's stayed at my Mom's before and she's been fine.

Honestly, I was kind of glad to hear she missed me.  Sometimes I have to wonder.  LOL!  So we didn't watch our movie and it took until 10:30 p.m. for Abby to go to sleep.  Did I mention I had to sit by her in her bed the whole time too?  Great date night, huh?

I'm thinking she'll like going to Hawaii next year with us ;)

We don't have anything exciting happening for our anniversary today.  Dave has to work and Abby and I will do our usual school work and run errands.  Dave's parents are in town though and they also share our anniversary.  I believe this is their 49th anniversary!  We'll see them tonight at my sister-in-law's for dinner.

Dave, if you are reading:

Homeschool: Week 5 Review

You may remember from last week's review, that Abby had blood work done to check to see if she was still allergic to tree nuts.  The doctor called me the other day to say she is still allergic to cashews and pistachios, but not the others.  The levels for them are lower, but it would be safe to keep avoiding them. 
However, I am relieved to know she's not allergic to almond, pecan and walnuts anymore.  This will be especially helpful when say someone makes cake balls with walnuts in them and forgets to tell you until your daughter takes a bite.  Now we can feel a little more relaxed about it, since cashews and pistachios are much easier to avoid.  As those of you that have kids with allergies, there is always that label "may contain tree nuts" or "was processed in a facility that contains tree nuts".  We will still avoid those foods, because we don't really know what tree nuts these would be.

 Oh how I love cashews though, sigh.

Onto homeschooling:  This past week I had a lot of difficulty getting Abby to do her work.  Mainly, math was our problem.  I'm not sure how to fix this situation.  I realize Horizons is more advanced, so maybe that is the problem.  Or maybe we need to try another math curriculum?  It about kills her to sit still to do one worksheet!  

However, besides on Friday, we did get the worksheets done.  She worked on counting by 5's, >/<, addition problems, reviewed tally marks, place value and telling time by the hour.  She also did a calendar activity.

She used a calendar to fill in this calendar.  She circled the current day and then she decided to put a red heart on Friday, because that is when she was going to my parent's house for 2 sleepovers.

And the reason we didn't do math on Friday?  I tried, I really did.  However Abby was just a mess!  She was too excited about going to Grandma's that she couldn't do it.  She kept getting so frustrated with everything.

Abby did enjoy reading all week.  We worked again with the Biscuit Phonics Set, this week doing books 4, 5 and 6.  I did the same as last week, putting the new words on the chalkboard, having her read them and then making flash cards for our word wall of the ones she didn't know.  I even thought of a fun game at dinner!  I wanted Abby to practice her words a bit more, but of course she didn't want to read them.  She had stickers out and wanted to put them on Dave, but I said she could put one on his head every time she read a word correctly.  She LOVED this.  She was concentrating very hard to get them right and only missed a few.  I should have gotten a picture of Dave's head.  It was hilarious!

I bought Sight Words Bingo, Level 2 this past week.  Abby and Dave have played once and she knows some of the words!

We started a new chapter book series this week as well.  


Well, actually I read the whole book in 40 minutes on Friday.  However, Abby loved it and we have started reading the next book in the series too, The Littles Take a Trip
 The Littles were one of my favorites!

Abby worked on C, O, Q, G in Handwriting Without Tears.  I also had her do a review of the previous letters and numbers 1-6.  Again, she had trouble sitting still and concentrating on writing neatly.  Sometimes she does very well, others her handwriting is super sloppy.

With Heritage Studies Abby enjoyed doing a supplemental lesson on Aztec Indians, learning about perspective and making maps and also making a map/globe mobile.

I still haven't made up my mind about science, so we didn't do anything in that subject this past week.  We did add a few arts/crafts into the week.  Abby used paint dotters on Monday and on Friday, we both made thumbprint art using a book I found at the library:

Abby and I both had a great time with this book.  I found a washable stamp pad at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon, making it less than $3.  There were 6 colors on the round pad.  Here's what Abby made:

 

There's a few cats, some pumpkins, a caterpillar, a snowman, a tree and more.

I found this to be a very relaxing activity:

 Abby and her cousin Matthew also started Little Gym this week.  They both loved it.  However, the class is super full, 14 kids.  Last year they had about 6 kids in each semester.  There is a Friday time slot open and we hope some of those kids move to that one.  ;)

As far as my exercising goes, I forgot to give an update on week 4.  I only worked out twice that week.  Well this past week, I am happy to say I exercised everyday from Sunday to Saturday!  I did yard work one night and used some DVDs the remaining nights. If you are interested, these are the ones I used:

 I hope to keep exercising every day this week as well!

Do you have any favorite exercise DVDs or routines? 

Disclaimer:  I used Amazon affiliate links to show you some products, but don't forget to check  your library first :)

Reminders

The Curriculum Clean-Out has started at Homeschool Creations.  I went through my stuff and found nothing worth giving away.  There were workbooks, but they were either missing too many pages or had too much writing in them.  And as much as I can't stand our Science, I'm not ready to get rid of it yet.

However, there are some great giveaways linked up, so head to Homeschool Creations to check them out.

Another reminder is to head to Heart of the Matter to participate in the Not Back to School Blog Hop.  This is the final week and the theme is Day-in-the-Life week.  I am not linking up, because no two days are ever alike for me and I wouldn't know where to start to make that kind of post.  LOL!  I'm looking forward to reading how other homeschoolers spend their day though! 

Links I Like: 18th Edition

As of Monday, we are now debt free!  I wanted to share some resources that helped us get there.  First, I'll share a bit of our story. 

Our finances were doing good until Dave was laid off at his job of over 17 years.  Luckily, he was able to find a job within the 8 weeks we had of compensation.  However, the new job was for a lot less pay.  I'll be honest, I didn't know much about money.  Yeah, I took accounting in high school and I was really good at it, but they were just numbers.  I knew how to balance a checkbook, but had no idea how to budget.

So, here we were with less money and I didn't really get it.  Dave did all of the bills and I spent the money.  I don't remember what got me interested in it all, but in June of 2007 I started reading a few books.  These were at my library:

I gathered all of our bills and started working on a plan to pay off the debt.  I found a few online tools that helped me do some calculations:

Snowball Calculator at What's The Cost?

When Will You Be Debt Free from CNN Money

The Motley Fool has several calculators

My favorite, an excel spreadsheet called Mr. Peanut's Snowball Calculator, is no longer available.  Or at least I am unable to find a working link.

I used these tools to see how long it would take to pay off our debt, by adding more money.  We started off slowing, only adding a few hundred here and there.  I finally started working on a budget to have some idea of what was coming in and what was going out.  I looked into and tried mint.com, Pear Budget, Yodlee and even Quicken, but I didn't care for how they were set up.  I made my own excel spreadsheet.  It was simple, but I understood it!

At the same time, I started clipping coupons and stockpiling.  This could be a whole post in itself, but my favorite places for coupon and savings deals are:

My Grocery Deals

A Full Cup

Hot Coupon World

By purchasing items that are on sale and you have a coupon for, you can stock up at a very low price or sometimes even free!  This helps you to not run out of things and have to head to the store and buy things for full price.  Some months, I saved us hundreds of dollars buying only things we would use anyway.  Remember, that you could easily start buying things you don't need, because they are a good deal.  Just stick to the items  your family uses!

I also created a coupon binder to keep my receipts, coupons and ads in.

Basically I just learned how to manage, save and budget our money.  The budget was always being revised, because expenses kept coming up:  new AC/Furnace, vet bills, (2) $1,000 deductibles, etc., etc.  You know how it is!  We used 0% transfer deals to move the debt to help us keep away from interest as best as possible. 

Now I will admit, my husband was not that excited about this.  I mean he wanted to be debt free, but he hated us having to track almost every penny we spent.  I did feel bad for him, because he was the one working and should be able to spend his money any way he wanted.  However, I knew that once we got past the debt, he would be so relieved as worrying about money used to keep him up at night.

While I was working on our plan to pay off the debt, our church hosted a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class.

I am so happy we were able to take this class together.  I highly recommend it.  While I did try the envelope system, I failed miserably.  I am not used to having cash, we use our debit card for all purchases.  I could not keep the money straightened out.

What works for me is to stick to my excel spreadsheet.  I have an account set up for just quarterly and yearly bills, like life insurance or subdivision dues.  I calculate them out to what they'd be if we were paying them monthly, and then I put that amount in the account on payday.  This way, when the bill comes, the money is already there.  I think this has been the BIGGEST help for us. 

After all of the bills are deducted,  I put money into savings and then into my debit account and Dave's debit account.  I have a budget for many categories from household items, cat stuff, groceries, dining out, gas, etc.  I give some to Dave, since he only buys gas mostly and sometimes groceries and the rest goes into my account.  That is what we use everyday.  When it's gone, it's gone.  That's my envelope system :) 

Ok, sorry for the long post.  I know it seems like a mumble jumble of stuff, but I just didn't know what order to put this into! I hope that some of the links will be helpful to you and if you are not debt free that you can be soon!!

Now, we just need to work on padding the savings and eventually paying off the house!

Coming Soon: Disney On Ice Princess Classics

Abby is going to be so excited.  Check this out:

 Seven timeless fairy tales await you when Disney On Ice presents Princess Classics arrives at the Chaifetz Arena.

Thursday, September 16-  7 p.m.

Friday, September 17-  7 p.m.

Saturday, September 18-  11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m.

Sunday, September 19-  1 p.m.

Thanks to Feld Entertainment, use the coupon code MOM in the promotional code box on metrotix.com, to save $4 on the Friday- Sunday shows or access $10 Opening Night tickets for the Thursday, September 16th show at 7 p.m.

Ever since Abby had to miss the last Disney On Ice performance, she has been asking me about when it will be back.  I haven't told her yet, but the awesome people at Feld Entertainment have given us the opportunity to see the opening night show! 

Wordful Wednesday x 2

My original post is below, but I had to share this first:



It took 3 years, but we did it!  I'll do a post soon and share what we did and some online tools that helped.  Ok, now onto the original post:

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Wordful Wednesday post from a few weeks ago.  It is so great to know that I'm not alone when it comes to finding appropriate attire for my daughter. 

I thought you all would be interested in seeing the shoes I ended up getting for Abby:

 They are from Zappos.  The little pink flowers at the toe of the shoes light up!  Abby loves them and has said nothing about the other shoes she NEEDED the other day.  LOL!

Just a note:  the lights are activated when pressure hits the heel.  It is kind of strange. Most of the light up shoes I have seen have the sensors in a less common area.  I imagine the lights will not last very long.  However, they are so cute and will look great even if they don't light up!

I also wanted to share a store that has clothing I love for Abby!

Naartjie Kids

Their clothing is from newborn to size 10.  I love how you can mix and match and I also like how the colors aren't crazy and bright.  Now, I will say that their prices can be steep.  However, they have nice sales!  Get on their email list for private sales too.

Here's one of their new Fall outfits I like:

mixed print trimmed assymetrical long sleeve tunic 

mixed print frill trimmed pants

I think it's so cute!  Watch out though, some of their clothes have peace signs and skulls too ;)

Zappos and Naartjie did NOT seek me out for advertising.  I just wanted to share these, since I like them.  However, if you are Zappos or Naartjie, feel free to contact me :)

For more Wordful Wednesday posts, head to:

Homeschool: Week 4 Review

Thursday was Abby's yearly allergist appointment.  When she was 3, we found out she was allergic to tree nuts, so we go every year to review.

Abby was adamant about not wanting blood work done that day, but I thought it was best to just get it over with.  We went to the Quest place to do it and we sat there for over 15 minutes and were the only ones there.  The lady was so slow and never helped us.  Finally, after sitting that long with a whining/crying child, I decided to just leave.  I was so annoyed.  We met my sister and her boys at the mall for lunch and then Abby decided she could do her blood work after that.  She still ended up crying, which is ok, but she did very well.  We should get the results soon.  Apparently last year's levels were kind of low, so she could be in the clear as far as tree nuts go!  That would be so cool!  

As far as homeschooling goes, we did things a bit different this week.

I skipped doing Progressive Phonics and decided to work on the Biscuit Phonics Fun (My First I Can Read) set we have.  These books are only about 8 or 10 pages with very short sentences.  They review phonics and sight words. 

We worked on books 1-3 this week.  On the first page in each book is a list of sight words and other words that will be in the book.  I wrote those words on the chalkboard and then had Abby read them.  The ones she didn't know right away, I made flash cards of.  Then I read the book and then she would try.

Each day, I added the new book's words with the book before it.  For all 3 books, I made 10 cards:  the (she said this first), said, naps, peck, friends, this, was, lots, small and went.  We worked on these words and reading the books everyday.  I made a pocket chart that she could see as she went about the rest of the day.  At dinner time, we'd take turns writing the words on the chalkboard.  The hardest one for her to remember was WENT.  Every single time she came to it, she would say WEST.  After showing her there was not an "S" in the word, I finally told her that WEST was not one of the words we were learning!  LOL!



By the end of the week, she knew all of the words and could read the books easily.  I even wrote the sentences on the chalkboard,  out of order, to make sure she wasn't just memorizing the short stories.

I also found a few DVD's at our library that Abby loved.  I checked out

Abby LOVED these.  She begged me to watch these every day.  DVD 2 is at the library, waiting to be picked up.

I purchased another workbook this week:



Abby loves Little Critter, so I thought she'd enjoy doing some of these reading comprehension pages.  This is a great book to take out with you, it includes phonics as well as comprehension.  Abby did several pages while we waited for the doctor on Thursday.

For our Handwriting Without Tears work, Abby learned X, Y, Z, 5 and 6.  She reviewed U, V and W also.   I think I need to find some of those small pencils, because she seems to be holding the pencil lazily lately.  I see there are some available online, but why would I need 144 pencils and want to pay shipping on that?  There has to be a place locally to find these.  Or better yet, I'll just cut our normal pencils smaller!  (update:  I cut our pencils smaller!  It was easy and they work)

I also would like to find a child's desk, because I have heard it is easier for kids to concentrate and do work when their feet touch the floor. 

Abby did Chapter 4, Lessons 1 & 2 in Heritages Studies.  This past week covered cardinal directions and making maps.  This pic is one of the notebook pages for Heritage Studies:

Abby was to follow directions (N, S, E and W) and then color the appropriate buildings.  As you can see, I also enjoyed coloring in a few vehicles and outfits!  She also did a few more pages from the Maps, Charts and Graphs A book about compasses and directions.

We skipped Science this week.  I had pulled out the Earlybird Start-Up Science worksheets and they seemed like a waste of my time.  I'm seriously considering Apologia.  Does anyone know if you have to use the books in particular order?  I don't think you do, but I thought I'd better ask.  I think we'd have fun with Exploring Creation With Human Anatomy and Physiology.  A&P is one of my favorite subjects! 

In Horizons Math, Abby did telling time by the hour, word problems, days of the week, place value, counting by 3's, vertical addition problems and counting by 6's.  I didn't push the counting by 6's, because that seems a bit excessive to me.  Also this week, they took off the number line for doing addition problems.  Seriously, the teacher's book said that she should be able to do addition problems without the number line.  I don't think so!  I guess some kids can, but it's only week 4 and it's not like she's only been learning about addition.  That irked me a little.  I just made my own number line for her to use for that worksheet.  Oddly enough, the number line reappeared on the worksheets later in the week.

This week should be fun, since our Not Back To School Party is tomorrow and Abby and Matthew start gymnastics up on Thursday!  Also, Abby gets to spend 2 nights at Grandma and Papa's house this weekend for Dave and I to celebrate our 9th anniversary early.  It's really next Wednesday, the 25th. 

How are you enjoying your curriculum? 

Not Back To School Blog Hop: Student Photos

This week's link up at the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop is Student Photos!

I completely forgot to take a pic of Abby on her first day of First Grade a few weeks ago!  I know we were still in our jammies, so that must be why.

I decided to take some first grade pics this past week to share, however Abby must have thought I had a video camera.  She would not sit still.



The chalkboard says "First Grade", but she kept getting in front of it.  Oh well.

For more back to school pics, check out Heart of the Matter.

Links I Like: 17th Edition

This past week, I  have found all kinds of great educational links!  It is probably because I tried to read all 320 entries from the Heart of the Matter Not Back To School Curriculum Blog Hop.  I only made it to the 190's, but I did learn that next year I hope to remember to include Abby's grade in the title when linking up.  The people who thought to do that are awesome!

First, I found a neat workbook to help teach about the calendar:

My Calendar Book includes activities related to the calendar and weather!  How fun!

This Living Math blog is so cool.  It is filled with book titles to help teach math skills.  I really like the search categories.  I have a few of these books waiting at the library for us to pick up :)

IXL is filled with online math quizzes for kids.  The link is for grade 1, but they have quizzes available for grades Pre-K through 6th!  It seems like everything is covered: addition, subtraction, money, patterns, time, probability, reading a thermometer and more!

Abby has been working on skip counting by 3's, so I was looking for some online resources.  This Squidoo page is filled with skip counting links, songs, stories, printables and more.

I also found :
 
I remember visiting Confessions of a Homeschooler before, but it must have been awhile ago.  She has all kinds of neat stuff I haven't seen yet!  I love her ideas for Paint Chip Phonics, Word Block Phonics, and Spelling Practice.  I was so happy to see the paint chip phonics project, because I had seen them on The Snail's Trail before and then totally forgot about them.  I just finished my set up last night and I can't wait to show Abby! 

And speaking of reading, Abby really needs one of these:

A Fabric Book Sling!  Check out Silly Eagle Books for the tutorial.  Abby has a plastic tote in her bed filled with books.  She is always bringing in new books for bedtime.  This sling on the wall idea is perfect!   However, we might need to make ours 20 tiered and bolted directly into the studs for Abby,  LOL!

I also really enjoyed Amy from Raising Arrows' post on How Many Hours A Day Does It Take To homecshool? My favorite quote:  

Your children are not expected to be sitting in a seat for 6 hours a day doing workbooks.  That would force the state to hold a double standard that wouldn’t hold a candle in court.

That is so true!  Abby does between 45 and 70 minutes of actual school work each day.  It really depends on what we are doing that day.  However, these times don't include when we review things in the car, read books together, go on field trips, etc.  My favorite remark when people find out we homeschool is, "I could never get my son/daughter to sit all day and do school work!"  That one really makes me LOL every time.  Seriously, do they not remember being in school?  

Lastly, since I'm in the mood for something sweet, check out these yummy looking Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bars from Bake at 350.

 I need those right now!

Do you have any cool links to share that you've found this week?  Put them in the comments and I'll check them out!

Wordful Wednesday

This past weekend, we took Abby out shoe shopping.  Do you want to see the shoes she liked?

Um, no thanks!  In her defense, they are called Twinkle Toes and the rhinestones light up, which is pretty neat.  Annoying bright and obnoxious, but she is 6.  My problem, besides them being over the top too bold...the peace signs.

I will not buy anything with a peace sign on it.  I know Abby has no idea what a peace sign is and didn't even know it was on the shoe.  However, peace signs are offensive to me.  To me it means that you don't support the troops and you are anti-war.  While I wish there could be world peace and no war, it's just not going to happen and I fully support our troops!

I see the peace sign all over children's clothing.  Some of these could have been cute outfits:

And while I'm at it, what is up with skulls? 

I mean, I know ever since Angelina Jolie put an ugly gray skull shirt on her newborn baby girl, skull stuff is everywhere!  I went through the grunge stage back in the 90's with my plaid flannel shirts and chucks, but we didn't have skull stuff!  Why would someone think something representing a dead person would be cute on a child?  I've even seen baby skull stuff.  What is this trend about?  Did I miss the memo about death being cool?

So, what are  your thoughts?

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For the peace sign and skull lovers out there, the black and pink peace outfits and the skull shirt were found on Kohl's.com.  The other two peace outfits I found on Nordstrom.com.