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Wyning Academy Donations
If you would like to help our homeschool with supplies, field trips and extracurricular activities please feel free to make a small donation! You can also help by utilizing my affiliate links on the right.
Several homeschool bloggers have teamed up to giveaway this amazing list of prizes to ONE lucky homeschool family. The overall prize is valued at over $125.
Giveaway starts May 1st and runs through May 10th. Please share this with your homeschool friends.
PLEASE READ:This is a Rafflecopter giveaway please give it a moment to load. All the
bloggers who are donating the items are Christian Homeschoolers. By clicking
"Enter" after each request you are saying to us that you have honestly
completed the given task. You are not required to do every task.
Actually, you have a better chance of winning if you honestly only do
two tasks then if you click enter without actually doing the task. The
reason... because you will be disqualified from winning if you click
enter without doing the task and answering the question {proving you entered}. Sorry to do this but we need
to make it fair for all who enter honestly. We hope the winner is
blessed by all these great books and the gift card. Thank you for your
honesty ahead of time.
While at the Teach Them Diligently Convention I also discovered Fun Adventure Wildlife Books written by Master Photographer Time Ostermeyer. His booth was the first one I stopped at on Thursday night because I decided to start at the back of the convention hall and work my way forward. The first thing that caught my eye with these books was the amazing photography. The books are so gorgeous (coffee table book worthy). Tim told me how all the pictures in the books were taken by him which amazing me even more. He has ventured into some of the most amazing areas of Africa, Antarctica, The Arctic, Australia, New Zealand, Southwestern United States and Asia. And has captured photos that only a handful of photographers have the opportunity of doing.
Tim gave me a copy of Snowball's Antarctic Adventure to review but I fell in love with his books so much that I just had to go back and make a purchase. Since we were going to be learning about Primates this month I purchased Snuggles Japanese Alps Adventures and that is the one I will actually be reviewing on this post. It took me about 15 minutes to decide which one I wanted to purchase.
A moms review:
All of the Fun Wildlife Adventures books contain a great story highlighting baby animals. Your kids will discover foxes, bears, penguins, tigers, polar bears, monkeys and more. The books are loaded with lots of interesting facts about the animals and geography throughout the books in fact boxes which each contain10 facts. There are also scriptures and great moral messages in each book. Snowball even contains a math fact. Even the moms will learn by reading these books to their kids. One thing that made these extra special for my kids was that Tim signed and dated them and wrote a little note addressed to the kids. If you have the opportunity to meet him at a homeschool convention pick up one, two or all of his books and have them signed it will really mean a lot to your kids. All of the Fun Wildlife Adventure books are hardback and have raised letters on the removable jacket.
Snuggles is about a baby Japanese Snow Monkey who plans ahead to escape the harsh winter of the Japanese Alps. In the book you follow Snuggles and his family on their journey to the Japanese hot springs where they will be able to keep warm all winter. But the journey is not easy they must conquer many hurdles like trees, rivers and large mountains in order to reach the destination. Children will witness the special relationship Snuggles has with his parents.There are 10 scriptures which are all wonderful like this one, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV". There are some amazing facts about Snow Monkey, The Japanese Alps and even Evolution Theories that have been proven false. There is also a lesson on how to pray. Kids will learn how important planning is and that some people ruin their lives by not planning correctly. This is a book that you will indeed read with your kids over and over again.
Gwyns review (6 yrs old):
I love the first page of the book where Snuggles is holding onto his mom. I like his blue eyes. He is so fuzzy and cozy next to his mom. Kids will really like this book. Its a good learning book. Links to follow: -Fun Wildlife Adventures -Tim Ostermeyers YouTube Channel which has some videos from his time in the Antarctic
Where to buy:
His books can be ordered through Amazon or you can contact Tim directly to place an order. I am sure your local book store carries them too. The books range in price depending where you buy them but the average price is $18.95.
*Disclaimer - I received a copy of Snowball's Antarctic Adventure in return for my honest review. I was not
compensated for my review and all opinions are our own! Many of the
links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links.
As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend
the money on homeschool supplies.
Have you heard about the 2nd Annual Garden Challenge over at The Homeschool Village? I saw this challenge going on last year and it looked like so much fun. But since we weren't homeschooling yet and we didn't have a garden of any kind we didn't participate. But I did enjoy reading everyone's posts.
Patiently waiting for their seeds to grow.
In March while learning about Dr. Seuss the kids decided they really wanted to plant some flowers this Spring so they could speak for the trees like the Lorax. Since we don't have a back yard our garden is on our balcony. We use various containers like pretty clay pots, plastic hanging baskets and plastic flower boxes that we got at Dollar Tree. We are also using an ice cream pail. We already had some seed packets hiding in the house but the kids wanted to pick out a couple more so Rowyn choose Black Eyed Susans and Gwyn choose Cosmos. We also planted Sunflowers, Wildflowers, a head of Lettace, Tomatoes, Strawberries.
I do NOT have a green thumb. Every time I try to grow something green it dies. I even killed an Aloe plant which is darn near impossible to do. So it will be interesting to see what happens to our first family balcony garden.
Sunflowers: Well the birds had other plans. They keep digging them out of the pots. But after several times of replanting we have some sprouts.
Tomatoes: We had a great start on our tomato plants but one of the kids sat the container too close to the end of the railing a gust of wind knocked it over the side. We started a new pot but I think the birds ate the seeds because they are not coming up yet.
Black Eyed Susans and Cosmos: Both are doing well so far and we have lots of sprouts.
And this week we also added these to our gardening experience:
Mushrooms: We love growing our back to the roots mushroom kits this is the start of our second harvest on this box. These are super easy to grow and they produce mushrooms in about 10 days. You can read my review here.
More Cosmos and Sunflowers: Gwyn won an adorable princess greenhouse on the Miracle-Gro Kids Show Us What You Grow photo contest. She was super excited when the package arrived and planted them right away. There is also a growing tracking chart that came with the kit so she has started keeping track and on day 2 there is one little stem poking through the dirt.
Carrots: We also just started our carrot kit that was given to us while attending the Earth Day festival at our local nature center.
Beans: And we started a fun bean growing experiment. The instructions are here if you want to give it a try. We are on day two of our experiment and one bean is already starting to crack a little exposing what looks to be a stem.
But we don't have any buds yet on our flowers, but we are anxiously waiting. And for some reason the flowers in our hanging baskets are not growing at all.
Link up & share your progress! Did you “break ground” or still
growing starter plants? Are the kids excited, do you see any buds, or
are you fighting army worms?
So will you be attending this amazing conference? Online registration is now closed but remember you can still register at the door.
Here is the pricing information for the day of the conference:
A family registration is $55.00
(includes spouse, children ages 5-19 residing
at home, and non-homeschooling grandparents). Registration also
includes a
"valuable gift" full of resources and coupons. There is also a Teen Track and Children's Program that you can enroll
your children in for an additional fee. If you are not interested in
hearing the speakers you can opt for just a shopping pass which is $30.00
for a family. Are you a MOPS or POPS? If you have never attended a
conference before and if your oldest child is 4 or under on September 1,
2012 you can get in FREE.
On Thursday May 3rd beginning at 1:30 pm GHEA offers a FREE Nuts and Bolts session. This session is great for families who are just getting started with homeschooling. Did I mention this is FREE.
If you haven't checked out the amazing vendor list click here. And as for the speakers there is quite a line up you really won't want to miss click here for details.
If your a blogger come join our little lunch meet up Saturday at 12:45 in the back of the vendor hall.
I hope to see you there. I will be wandering around all three days.
Jen, from Gricefully Homeschooling, and I team up, every Friday, to bring you a list of freebees...on both of our blogs. PLUS...with the added bonus of this being a weekly link up...where you can showcase your freebies, things you've found online, and also, things you've received in the mail, totally FREE in the last week...or so.
FreeBEEs:
If you have homeschool FreeBEEs to share
please link up at the bottom of this post!
You can copy the button from my right side bar.
Internet FreeBEEs:
This week I thought I would share some resources to help your kids with virtues, character and organization.
-Owl Themed To Do List
-Behavior Charts, Notes and Contracts
-Friendship Cards - these would work for brothers and sisters too
-Give me 5 Poster - Use this poster as a reminder of what good behavior is and as an incentive to get kids to "give you 5"
-Howard Wiggle Bottom - lots of great stuff to teach kids about various character traits there are games, online books, worksheets and more
-We Choose Virtues - There are several free items at the bottom of their product page - Also through the end of April you can get the Homeschool Kit for 25% off by using code HOMESCHOOL25
-Homeschool Share character lapbook
-Christian Homeschool - lessons for helping others in need, giving, etc
-Special Olympics - Get in the Game - teach kids about perseverance through this game
-Kids online weekly planner - kids fill it out with the stickers then print it out - this can also help them learn the days of the week
-Character Counts - lots of information and printables
-Several resources for character education
-Make your own to do lists for FREE at Cozi
-Free chore chart printables
-Another great website for lots of FREE educational games, quizzes, articles and more. Sheppard Software. You can also download some of the games right to your computer if you don't want the kids online.
Giveaways:
-Home School How To Conference Premium Ticket Giveaway - my blog - giveaway ends in 2 days.
FreeBEE events:
I shared most of the upcoming events in my post last week. I know there is lots going on here in GA so make sure you check your state park websites and your county/city websites to see what might be going on around you.
Sign up FreeBEEs, items I will be reviewing soon and items I won:
This was the only thing I received this week. I will be doing a review on this in June.
If you don't enter blogger giveaways or do Twitter and/or Facebook parties you need to because you can win cool stuff.
I hope you find these resources useful. If you ever have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Also be sure to follow my FB page where I post FreeBEEs daily.
Remember when it comes to FREE resources the internet and a good search engine are your best friend.
*Disclaimer - Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies.
We had a chance to review Time4Learning for 30 days. Here are some details about Time 4 Learning taken off their website. Time4Learning is a technology-based online educational program that teaches preschool to eighth grade curriculum using a combination of animated lessons, interactive activities and reinforcing worksheets. It is a great curriculum for families who homeschool. It is also a great after school skill sharpener and is often used for remediation and test preparation. Whether mainstream, gifted, or special needs, Time4Learning provides a flexible, student-paced approach. Time4Learning covers standards-based math and language arts lessons from prek to eighth grade. As an added bonus, science lessons are available for first through sixth grade and social studies lessons are available for second through seventh grade. Art is available after the first month of membership for fourth through eighth graders.
Get them excited by adding some fun to their education! A top selection of the Homeschool.com "Top 100 Educational Websites" list, Time4Learning.com teaches standards-based concepts using multimedia lessons with a sense of humor.
Time4Learning Program Features:
1,000+ multimedia lessons for preschool to eighth
Standards-based language arts and math
Science, social studies and art in most grades
Independent grade level settings for each subject
Access to the grade above and below
Time-stamping feature on lessons (for attendance)
Lesson plans to preview curriculum contents
Online playground which rewards and motivates
Automated grading and reporting for portfolio use
...and much more!
A moms review:
Unfortunately Time4Learning was not for us. We are very eclectic relaxed homeschoolers and we don't focus on standards or testing. Gwyn utilized the First grade program and she found it hard to navigate and kept needing my assistance. She also didn't like that there weren't any incentives like other programs we have utilized. She did enjoy the graphics very much though and the lessons she did complete were engaging. When I look for an online program I prefer something that can be done independently and Time4Learning did not offer that for us. I think more audible instructions would be a great feature for them to add to the program.
A few features I did like are the printable worksheets These worksheets are completely optional and not required for students to complete. The printable worksheets are designed for additional practice and also to accommodate students who have a tactile learning preference. And I liked that Time4Learning lets you set each individual subject at the appropriate
graded level, which makes this great for special needs or gifted children.
Personally the current monthly price of $19.95 is a little too high for our budget I know of other programs which offer similar information for much less than that.
But if your a homeschool parent who is looking for an all inclusive curriculum that meets standards and tracks your students progress then this Time4Learning is definitely for you.
Time4Learning is currently $19.95 per month for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child. These prices may change however from time to time. If you would like to try a FREE demo you can do so here. Time4Learning has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If the learning program does not satisfy your family's needs, you can cancel your membership by email or phone during the first 14 days and we will refund your money directly to the credit or debit card used to pay for your membership. This offer is only valid for new members.
*Disclaimer - I received a 30 day trial for Time4Learning in return for my honest review. I was not compensated for my review and all opinions are our own! Many of the links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links. As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend the money on homeschool supplies. Please feel free to pin any of the ideas you see on my blog!
Are you too busy to go to a homeschool conference? If you answered YES then give an online conference a try. I have attended several online conferences and they are always amazing. On May 1-3The Homeschool How-To Conference will be taking place.
Whats even better about this online conference is that you can register for the FREE. Or if you want to get over $200 worth of goodies consider purchasing the PREMIUM pass for $49.00. Guess what else Homeschool How-To Conference is offering my readers a 10% discount. Use the code adventurez at checkout. If you are the winner of the giveaway (see below), they will happily refund your money!
The PREMIUM pass includes the conference attendance PLUS these amazing goodies:
2 Bible-Based Nature Unit Studies: wildflowers & clouds AND Printable - Bible Verses about Creation to use in your homeschool studies & for memory & copy work - by Kelli Becton, AdventurezInChildRearing (my amazing friend)
Gain access to homeschooling experts who are homeschooling parents themselves. They’ve been in your shoes, and they understand the problems you face.
Avoid travel aggravation. No traveling with small children, hotel bills, fast-food frustrations, or vendor-hall fatigue. Listen from the comfort of your home, in your pajamas if you wish! Or listen whenever you like if you buy the downloads or CDs. Many of the speakers are the same ones who speak at the largest national homeschooling conventions.
Meet other homeschoolers. Interact with other parents, authors, and speakers, and learn from your peers via virtual networking and Q&A Roundtables.
Learn how to make biblical homeschooling practical, as our experts show you how God’s Word can be used in every part of your homeschool.
The goal of The Homeschool How-To Conference is to encourage and teach families to use God's Word as the foundation of their homeschool. You will learn ways to use the Bible when teaching History, Science Math, Geography, Language Arts and more.
Now time for the giveaway: The Homeschool How-To Conference has graciously offered to give one of my readers a PREMIUM ticket (including the goody bag and MP3s) to the conference!
Only the first entry is mandatory. Other entries are optional and give you extra chances. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook in any way. The winner will be posted on the blog and will be emailed. Winner must reply within 24 hrs with their name, address, phone number, and email address or another winner will be chosen.
Please wait a moment for Rafflecopter to load.....
Well we have completed our first homeschool year successfully. We have finished our 180 days so according to the state we are done with our 2011-2012 year. But we still have unit studies, field trips and lots of learning planned so we are going to just keep chugging along. Technically I now have a 1st Grader and Kindergartner, WOW. I am so happy to finally be a stay at home/homeschooling mom. Now I get to actually see my kids learn and grow first hand. I got to teach Gwyn how to tie her shoes and read. And I got to teach Rowyn to write his name and see him color in the lines for the first time.
My post is a little delayed due to a very busy schedule and I was waiting to get a video from our event last Saturday to share with you. So this post will share two weeks of homeschool fun, sorry its a little long.
Week 37:
We had another week of mostly road schooling. But right now for us this works very good because my kids are getting the hands on learning they enjoy.
Sunday the kids received their Easter baskets which had some candy and DVDs I had won online. Then we went to Easter dinner at my family's. Everyone loved my chocolate sunflower peep cake that I shared a picture on my week 36 post.
Monday was very busy. The kids had their dentist appointment where they got to see their x-rays. They found out that they each have big teeth hiding under their gums Then Rowyn had speech. We made a quick library run then we worked on our Primate learning at home. We also started growing another Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit.
Tuesday we went to INK (Interactive Neighborhood for Kids) in Gainesville, GA which is an interactive play facility where kids can pretend to be Doctors, Vets, Bankers, Musicians, Beauticians and more. There is also a real firetruck from the early 1900's which the kids can climb on and pretend to drive. And a real police car with flashing lights. And the cow you can milk was a huge hit as well. On Tuesdays you can get into INK from 2:00 PM- 7:00 PM for $2.00 admission thanks to Target (2 and under are FREE)! And I loved that all of the exhibits provided educational posters with lesson ideas for parents that covered topics like math, reading, etc.
Wednesday we went to the Atlanta Aquarium. Ben got to go with us and we had a great time. We watched the dolphin show, explored the Aquarium, had a class called Bite Size Basics and watched the 4D Deepo Show. I honestly still prefer the Chattanooga, TN Aquarium but we had a good time and the kids learned lots of great things.
Thursday we went to the Southern Museum in Kennesaw, GA where we learned all sorts of awesome things. They were offering FREE admission to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Great Locomotive Steam Chase. If you don't know what that is read more here and don't feel bad I had no clue what it was either. The kids had a great time at the museum. They got to do a scavenger hunt, watch a move about the Steam Chase, tour a train, run through a tunnel and play with model trains. They also got to see a real Medal of Honor and the train The General which is the train that was involved in the Great Locomotive Steam Chase. We learned a lot about the Civil War era and Gwyn even got to dress up like a lady from the 1800's. Go check out this place next time your in Kennesaw you won't be disappointed. When we got home Gwyn got caught up with their field trip journal.
Friday the kids played some games, learned about apes and played with their new Rose Art clay. Gwyn tried walking like Chipanzees do and realized its very hard because our arms are shorter. Then a very nice box of stuff arrived in the mail from Rose Art and the kids couldn't wait to dig in. They made Chimpanzees and Planet Earths out of the Rose Art clay. Then we got together with several families from our homeschool group. The kids had a blast playing outside while the moms discussed curriculum and homeschool styles. Then the kids made Mac and Cheese for dinner (I know its boxed but hey the kids were in the kitchen learning). After dinner we played Hungry Hippos with daddy and had some fun with math.
Saturday Gwyn had her second soccer game and scored 4 goals. Afterwards we went to the Chattachoochee Nature Center in Marietta, GA for their Earth Day event. We got to see Laughing Pizza, Captain Planet and Plastic Bag man. We learned a lot about saving the planet, animals and helping others in need. We love the Chattachoochee Nature, if your ever in the area add this one to your list of things to do as well. There is so much to do there their events are always amazing. The staff is amazing and loves answering kids questions about nature.
This is the kids Weather Wall video.
Week 38:
This week wasn't quite as busy. A few schedule had some changes throughout the week so we had more days at home which was actually nice.
Monday we had our normal morning of speech and then we worked on our Earth Day and Primate unit studies. Then we went to see the new Disneynature movie Chimpanzee. You can read our review here. If you want instructions for the Earth Day coffee filter craft click here.
Tuesday we learned all about Chimpanzees then we spent some time riding bikes and playing at the playground. The kids also did a little project to understand better how Chimpanzees use tool. So they collected "tools" from outside that they could use to crack nuts, drink water and eat pretend ants (aka chocolate morsels) with.
Wednesday we went to Andretti Speed Lab with daddy to use up some of our gift cards. The kids had lots of fun and won lots of tickets which they turned in for super bouncy balls. Later that night we enjoyed the Bats Alive webinar as a family.
Thursday we had fun at a Self Defense/Safety class at ATA with the homeschool group. Afterwards we had lunch at our favorite restaurant IHOP with the kids adopted Canadian Grandma. Then we went to a newly discovered park. The kids had fun playing on a huge 3 story playground and we got to do some bird watching as well.
Friday we spent the day with some of the homeschool group families at a yardsale. The kids had a blast playing while the moms tried to make some extra cash for field trips.
Saturday we had a great field trip to Yerkes Primate Research Field Center (please refrain from leaving hateful comments). Since we are learning about Primates I figured it was important for the kids to also learn about how Primates are used for research. We had read about animal research in several Primate books and learned how Primates have a similar DNA make up to that of humans. I was a little worried about the field trip because Gwyn is quite the animal lover and wasn't sure how she would react. The field station is primarily used for breeding and behavior studies. So we didn't see Primates locked in little cages. The actual research on the animals takes place at the Atlanta Emory location. The Primates we saw were in large fenced in outdoor areas with plenty of food and enrichment toys (it was sort of like going to the Zoo). Since it is breeding time for one of the species we got to see lots of babies. They explained what kind of research and behavior studies they do at the Yerkes facilities. And both Gwyn and I got to ask lots of questions. We saw Chimpanzees, Rhesus Macaques and Sooty Mangabeys. We heard from the director of the facility, researchers studying the animals and the veterinary
and behavioral management staff
caring for the animals. Prior to going we discussed what an opinion was. I did not tell the kids my personal opinion but just explained why research is done on various types of animals. This week we will discuss the topic some more using some resources I found online from - ASPCA, All About Animals, Kids 4 Research. One of my goals as a homeschool parent is to have my kids think for themselves and develop their own opinions. And to be able to defend their beliefs and opinions. I personally feel that if they are exposed especially through opportunities like this to topics that are considered controversial then they will be able to better formulate their opinions.
If your ever interested in visiting the Field Center they tours for groups of 10 or more people and they are FREE (they will take donations though to help support their research and animal care programs). They also need phone book donations. The phonebooks provide hours of enrichment activities for the animals. This really was of interest to Gwyn and she was upset she didn't get to see any of them using them. So one of the employees is going to possibly email us a video of them using the phone books.
These are the only photos I have because they do not allow photography inside the facility.
On Saturday night I had a blast with a few of the mommas from the homschool group.
For April we will be learning about Primates, Earth Day, Easter and South America. Below is our YouTube Channel and Pinterest board for April.
YouTube Channel for April:
This is our April YouTube playlist keep checking back because I will be adding more videos throughout the month. It includes various videos we will be using throughout April.
Pinterest Board for April - I would love it if you follow me:
New ideas will be added throughout the month. These are some of the things we are doing for our April units. Check out my other boards on Pinterest for more ideas like ABC's, 123's, Art, Holidays, etc.
I hope you find these resources useful. If you ever have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Also be sure to follow my Facebook page where I post FreeBEEs daily.
This week we have been learning about Earth Day and making some fun crafts. One project we made was coffee filter Earths. They are super easy and look awesome when done.
Materials:
-Coffee Filters
-Rose Art Markers - Blue, Green, Brown
-Water Bottle
Have the kids color the filter with blue, green and brown markers.
The nice thing is it doesn't matter how messy they get with the coloring it will still turn out awesome.
Next spritz the coffee filter with a water bottle. About 3-5 sprays is enough. Then let it dry.
My kids decided they wanted to put their Earths onto a black sky with stars but you can also just hang the coffee filter up once it dries.
Making their stars.
Finished projects. Word of advice its probably better to use a glue stick to glue the Earth to the paper. The white glue showed through.
*Disclaimer - Rose Art supplies from Mega Brand supplies us with lots of wonderful products in return for honest review and craft project how to's. I was not
compensated for my review and all opinions are our own! Many of the
links found on my side bars and in my blog posts are affiliate links.
As a result, I might get paid money and I will most likely spend
the money on homeschool supplies
