Free Apps for Beginning Readers

Have a new reader? Check out these free apps from Lakeshore Learning. You can download Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe, Letter of the Day and Beginning Sounds interactive games for free through December. Enjoy!

October 15, 2011 | Filed Under Homeschooling | Leave a Comment

Entrepreneur in Training!

Do you have budding entrepreneurs in your family? We sure do. In fact, Daylen found himself in the local paper last week. What do your kids do to earn money? Do you involve yourself to make it more of an educational experience, or let them learn through experience, on their own?

daylen

October 9, 2011 | Filed Under Home Business, Homemaking, Homeschooling | Leave a Comment

Free In the Hands of a Child Lapbook Kit

In the Hands of a Child is currently offering their Island of the Blue Dolphin lapbook kit for free. This literary study is ideal for grades 4-8. What a deal! I’ve downloaded mine. We really enjoy these studies. If you haven’t tried lapbooking before, this is your chance to give it a try. To get your copy, click the “Freebie” tab at the top of the website.

From the website:

Teachers and Homeschool parents love our high-interest, hands-on curriculum including Lapbook Project Packs, Notebooking Packs and Thematic Unit Study Packs. With this unit study you will be able to teach your 4th-8th grade classroom about the story, “Island of the Blue Dolphins” by Scott O’Dell. Make your lesson planning easy with the 93-page Island of the Blue Dolphins: A Literature Study Based on the Book by Scott O’Dell Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. This pack includes a 10-day Planning Guide, Related Reading and Bibliography, 28 hands-on activities PLUS 4 Fun Extension Activities, a 21-page Research Guide complete with chapter summaries, discussion questions, and brief introductions to dolphins, the Lost Woman of San Nicolas, and survival skills; and an Answer Key.

October 6, 2011 | Filed Under Homeschooling | Leave a Comment

My File Crate System

I think I shared in my Clipboard Post and my School/Chore/Activity Organizer post that I would be sharing the rest of my system, shortly. Unfortunately, it’s still a bit of a work-in-process, but I thought I’d better share now rather than wait until it’s “finished” (which may never be the case).

My system is based on one by Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight. She shares very detailed instructions for setting up and using her system, so do hop over and read if this looks like something that might work for you.

organize1picnik

Problem: Since I work from home and we school in the living room, my desk in the office is never used. I end up working on the sofa where I can offer help as needed, when I’m not actively schooling the kids. Thus, the end of the coffee table in front of “my spot” generally looks like the above.

While the problem hasn’t been totally eradicated, the pile now consists only of unread magazines and a couple of school books and knitting books I’m currently perusing. A great improvement. The rest, I’ve managed to contain in the below file crate, which sits to the right of the sofa.

system1b

system1

The most used part of the system is my calendar. It looks a bit sparse here, but will get filled up shortly. I like to have a calendar large enough to write notes in. That way, if I forget the groomer’s number I can just flip back to the last time I called. I love having the info available to refer back to. I use the left side of each date to record appointments and the right side for “to-do’s” or relevant info. (The “stickers” are just blocking phone numbers.) This calendar follows me around the house and seldom actually gets replaced in the crate, but that’s its official “home”.

system3

Next are the actual files. I have one for each month, one for each child, and files for mail, bills and blog. I’ll likely add more over time. I’ll put info relevant to each child in their own folder. This is usually school related, though not always. You can see that I have a bit of a magazine addiction. As I read articles that are potentially relevant, I’ll pull them out and place in the blog file. I also need to start a recipes file, now that I think about it! Mail is for general mail that needs a response, or to be filed in the office. Bills are self-explanatory.

system2

Below is an example of what is in my Sept. file. I have our charter school schedule, a volleyball schedule, a soccer schedule, a coupon flyer and info for re-ordering contacts. I already have the dates of the ballgames recorded on my main calendar, but have found it best to keep the originals to double-check against. Those will move to the Oct. folder. The contacts have been re-ordered, so I’ll probably throw the form away. If I was going to need to re-order in a few months, I’d place the form a few months back so it was waiting for me. I’ll move the coupons to Oct. as well.

system4

Lastly, is my home binder and lists notebook. I use the notebook for any kind of lists. That could be house projects, grocery lists, gift lists, errands,etc. It’s a size that is easy to pack to the store and, again, I like being able to look back at past lists to prepare for the future.

system5

The home binder is a total work in process. The cover page and several of the internal pages were downloaded from Amy Bayliss. If you subscribe to her feed, you will be able to access them from the bottom of your first feed email.

I’m not a real “binder girl”, though I may be someday. I do, however, see the value of having financial and management information available for my husband and kids should something happen to me. Therefore, I’m working on getting this all gathered up and in one place. So far, my binder consists of an Emergency Contact Page, a set of monthly calendars with extended family birthdays and anniversaries entered in (just plop cards for upcoming events right in the appropriate monthly file!), and a prayer journal. Like I said, I’m working on it!

I hope this has been helpful and I’d love to see your organization systems!

My file crate system works for me. To see more Works for Me Wednesday tips visit We Are That Family.

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