Awesome Worksheet Printable Site!

Just in time for summer!

http://www.tlsbooks.com/

See, I am one of those mean moms that makes my kids EARN electronics over the summer. No zoning in front of a screen all day around here.

The 13 yr old will still homeschool and do his daily basics and the almost 8 year old has to do 7 worksheet pages a day (from various sources) but in another month he will have to do 8 (our rule is you do the same number of how old you are) and he has to do 1 small paragraph of copy work. I like to have him use an animal or nature book – like DK or something with little blurbs about animals.

Check out that site – loads of printables in all subjects and ages/grades!

I *heart* Pintrest!

Sooooo . . . Have ya heard of Pinterest?

This is mine. Yes – it is like a snapshot of me! Of things I like or want to try etc.

It adds a button to your computer and whenever you see something you want to remember, you “pin” it to one of your “boards”. This is nice because I cannot tell you how much time I spend trolling through my countless bookmarks looking for one particular thing.

This lets you see at a glance photos and you can more easily find what you are looking for.

You can also follow people or certain boards – like facebook or twitter kinda. The search function is a nice way to pass some time – search for a subject – like naan – and you will come up with loads of pins other people have saved for it.

Caterpillar Project – homeschooling Hijacking a classroom assignment

The 2nd grader has to make a model of a caterpillar so of course I morphed his assignment into a homeschool project, too.

I went a-googling and found some pictures for him. I like the real caterpillar with the labeled parts and the diagram and photo of the prolegs and true legs. The gross looking caterpillar is camouflaged to look like bird droppings – of course that went over great with the 2nd grader!

We are working on the model but I trimmed some cardboard and he is making a booklet to go with the model.

Awesome Party decoration!

My mother in law’s big birthday bash.

I am huge into photos, scrapbooking, preserving the past etc.

So, how did I contribute to the decorating?

I printed a ton of photos and taped them to a wall. Printed on my home printer on photo paper in various sizes, I tried to pick photos of her through the years with people I knew would be there (or who had passed on- like her mother- which made her tear up). I tried to keep it sorta like a timeline and just used folded over scotch tape. I tried to keep the tape off the walls because I didn’t wanna mess up the awesome paint finish at my in brother & sister in law’s place. And I passed the pictures along to whomever wanted them at the end of the evening.

It was a huge hit! (*whisper* and super easy!)

Toilet paper Roll = pencil holder

Cannot recall where I first saw it but we have been making these things for years now. Toilet paper tube + 2-3 binder clips (depending on size of clips). Clip one med or lrg or 2 small at one end of the tube to hold it shut. Clip another on one side and fold one silver arm up to create the hanger. Fits easily over a push pin. We have these on each corkboard and several by the kids’ desk. Yes, you can write on the tube to jazz it up. We also sometime staple the end shut and just use the binder clip for hanging.

Sign Language

This sign cracks me up every time I see it.

My pal Mari is a genius!!

I have a cricut – but it gets very little use. I did get SCAL (Mr Wonderful got it for me as a holiday gift!) and sold off almost all my cartridges. I have a friend named Mari and she is a scrapper extraordinaire! And she has a scraproom and a big cricut.

She’s the one without the hat.

Our pages are at the opposite ends of the spectrum- hers are gorgeous and lavish and she will do 2 at a 12 hr crop. Me- I pound out about 40 and they are simple.

Well, she saw this cool project to make a carrying case for your cartridges. And she made it! Here are her photos. It is so cool! It uses snap on containers and plastic canvas. She got the totes at Joann’s using a coupon – how thrifty! – and it was a cinch to make. And it is expandable. She wrote on each cartridge to be even more efficient.

how cool!

Arctic–semi homeschool project

The 2nd grader had to make a diorama about the Arctic. hmm ok. But the homeschooler teacher in me is a little . . well, let’s just say I was googling a lot and he is wayyy less artisticly patient than the 6th grader so there might have been some teeth grinding and eye clenching and I might have had to have my wonderful hubby help him finish it or I would have gone absolutely crazy with frustration.

Here are some of the things I found for him to use:

I found a box and a piece of cardboard to wedge in it. The diorama was about the arctic habitat and I wanted him to understand both the land and sea habitats.

I had him go digging through the gift wrapping supplies and find white or silver tissue paper and he glued it to the box and cardboard wedge but you could read through it so we also glued tinfoil on it, too.

I printed the pictures out and had him cut them out – leaving space around the and enough of an edge that they can be staggered for perspective. Hard for him to do with his dysgraphia but was good practice for him.

I showed him how to glue the fishing line on with a scrap paper glued over it on the backside. And he had a ball with those!

I was trying to teach him perspective and might have gotten a wee irritated when the husband just let him glue the photos on any old way wherever. (time for me to breathe and let go of my perfectionism and control and understand now was not the time to try to teach perspective, now was the time to Get ‘Er Done).

I had wanted him to glue cotton balls or sytofoam peanuts as snow or icebergs but that did not happen. Knowing he had to explain his model, I printed the same photos much smaller and he trimmed and glued them to a piece of paper and then wrote the name of each animal (so he did not have to remember it). Then we glued these to each side of the diorama. I just loved the big polar bear infographic and had to use it somewhere so he just glued it to the backside.

I think it came out nice. I was happy that he had done all the work with minimal help from us (well, I did most of the prep work but he did almost all the hands on work). And he got an A! He was the only one to do the arctic! I guess the ocean habitat is way more fun for most folks. But I was glad he got to learn some new facts and was interested in it.

Portrait of a Cat

3yrold held the cat in a headlock while 7yrold drew the portrait.

He nailed the facial expression!