Do you have spring fever?

I wanted to let you know about a great new resource we’ve found that mixes one of my favorite Springtime passions – gardening and growing things!
The Erskine family has just opened their new site, “Green Thumb Family”. It is the neatest blog, just chock full of stuff about growing both great gardens AND great kids! If you’ve ever wondered about integrating your gardening with your homeschooling, here’s your answer!
You can check out the site at: http://www.greenthumbfamily.com/
But hold on, it gets EVEN BETTER!
The Erskines have put together a super “toolkit” which currently has 14(!) great hands-on resources, and more coming almost daily. You can see it on their site, BUT DON’T ORDER IT THERE! We have a special page set up where you can get the whole thing (AND all the updates) at a nice discount for the next 10 days!
Here’s the page you’ll want to remember, it’s the only place you can get the toolkit at a discount:
http://www.homewaypress.com/index.htm?hop=discounths
We highly recommend you check out the blog, then get yourself a copy of this “toolkit” asap. Spring is just around the corner, and this would be a wonderful way to make it a great growing season, both for your garden AND your family!
This comes at the perfect time for me and my children. We were just talking about planting our garden this week.
Have a blessed day! Tami

Busy week

Hello! I am off to a bookfair this week-end, so all of my spare time this week has been spent on getting ready for it. It has been a lovely week here in NC. The sun has been shining, and the temperatures have been very pleasant. We have enjoyed some school time in the outdoors. I also love listening to my children “plan” their gardens this year. It seems that weeds are quite pesky, and the children don’t like to hoe the weeds daily. But they like the fruits of their labor, so we will be picking out seeds in the very near future. I wouldn’t be surprised if their Daddy didn’t take them seed shopping this week-end while I am selling books.

Have a blessed day! Tami

Our month ahead

As I am looking toward the end of our school year coming up at the end of this month, I am trying to review my plans for the year and see what unit studies we have left to complete. I have three lapbook projects left, thanks to my friends at Hands of a Child. And I would like to complete all of them with the boys. The first one is a project book on airplanes, and the second is a project book on North Carolina. I have an additional book on the Biltmore House to complete along with the NC project book. We will start with the one on airplanes, since I think we really need a science-oriented lapbook. We just completed a study of the light bulb and Thomas Edison. And I think a study about flight and airplanes would be a good spring project. And I think I will use the NC project book over a period of several months during our “school break.”

I also am looking forward to cleaning my school cabinet out and reorganizing it. It always amazes me at the stuff that ends up in there by the end of the year. And I love being able to file away completed projects and books.

What are your plans for March?

Have a blessed day! Tami

An interesting twist for the end of our school year….

Last summer we started our school year off in July. It was hot, and we could not get outside to enjoy the weather without getting overheated. So I decided it was a good time to start school. It really isn’t unusual for us to school year round, but July marked the beginning of this school year, and we will be finishing up most of our books by the end of this month! That is quite a strange feeling for me! I have already been thinking of what things we will continue to keep our skills fresh.

All of the children who can read will continue some sort of reading that I assign. And I will be keeping the 4 older ones on some sort of math practice. My 3rd and 1st grader really need to keep practicing their respective math facts. I am considering the Summer Bridge Books for Math for them. They also have a series of books on reading, but I like to assign their reading from good classics. My pre-algebra student will also have to keep doing his MUS. He just started a new book, so we have already talked about him continuing it until it is complete.

We will also do our year-end testing in April. I have been very pleased with the testing services of Christian Liberty Press, and I plan on using them again this year.

And I think we will do a few fun lapbooks over the course of the spring. I have one on airplanes that I think would make a great unit study. We have a small air museum not far from us, so that would make a neat spring field trip.

What are your school plans for the spring?

Have a blessed day! Tami

I am getting ready to study the Tabernacle with my children, and I have been researching books. I thought I would list what I have found so far. I was also able to add these to my website for anyone else who needs them.

The Tabernacle Wallchart (It has 4 reproducible pages on the back of the wallchart.)
Have a blessed day! Tami

WFMW – Plastic Tumblers

For this week’s Works for Me Wednesday, I have a tip that is especially helpful to those with larger than the average families, or for those families with younger children. On a recent trip to Sam’s Club, I spent a little time in the catering area. You know that part of the store where they sell really large pans. I spied a box with 12 plastic tumblers in it. They held 20-ounces. Suddenly, a light bulb went off, and I thought of the mismatched glassware we had in our cabinet. Over the years we have had nice glassware, and I mean “glass” in the word “glassware.” So our glasses were a bit mismatched, and I only had a small number of those lovely Tupperware plastic cups. So I bit the bullet and bought the set of 12 matching plastic tumblers! Those same tumblers that you would see in a restaurant setting. After bringing them home, my family OOOOHHHH–ed and AAAAAHHHH-ed over them, and we washed them and put them to use. They are WONDERFUL!! Now all 7 of us (baby gets a sippy cup still) have matching cups at dinner, and it does not matter if one falls from the table. One of the most attractive features of our new “plasticware” was the price! They were quite affordable. Next time you visit your local warehouse-type store, check out some of their catering supplies. You might be surprised at what you find there. I am attaching a stock photo of mine for your pleasure.

Have a blessed day! Tami