Cool Homeschool Stuff for this Year

1. Wrap Ups. How fun are these! I love doing them too! Gracie does these while listening to Adventures in Odyssey. We've been on this Adventures in Odyssey kick this summer. You can listen online - new episodes are added all the time, too. The site is whitsend.org my kids like to listen to it while they fold laundry or draw.

Back to the Wrap Ups, Gracie and I are doing this whole 10 days to multiplication mastery program in the summer. She had a hard time in 3rd grade with some of her multiplication facts, so I am hoping this will help. She needed something hands-on - and this is ideal! She can listen to the Wrap Up CD, and do it with her hands at the same time. Sensory overload is good when you are trying to drill something in.

2. An overhead projector! I have literally 1,000's of Art Transparencies and other neat overhead stuff, so I will really be using this a lot in my Art Co-op class I'll be teaching this year. Yes, it is huge, I haven't told my husband we are going to have to store it who knows where, but think of the cool art projects I can do with it. I can put anything in the world on a wall with this thing! I might even go into business painting murals.

3. Teaching Textbooks. Algebra I. This is my first experience with a video based curriculum and let me tell you I am giddy that I won't be teaching Algebra! I can diagram sentences, analyze the complete works of Shakespeare and say volumes about the History of Art but I have no business teaching Algebra!

4. New subscription to Puritan Picks. Go HERE to see what I am talking about. This is kind of a Christian NetFlicks kind of thing. I love it because there are many videos I can check out there that I wanted for schooling, but I didn't want to buy it for just 1 or 2 watchings. And have you noticed that the local video store is disappearing? I think Redbox is causing this to happen. We read Pilgrim's Progress and I wanted the cool, new version to show the kids. There are lots of great books that are movies and I would like the kids to watch when they finish reading. Ally will read the Hiding Place this August, can't wait to watch that. ALSO - I wanted some Drive Through History movies and they have those as well.

5. Great planners for everyone! In the past, I have printed daily sheets for each kid - this year I just bought some planners and I will keep kid-friendly lesson plans that they will follow for themselves.

6. New bins for organization. I love these, got them at Walmart for $3. I needed more room for each kid's stuff this year. These are Gracie & Daniel's - Ally's are in a separate part of our school room (the Jr. High section). I couldn't just put her books with the elementary kids books, you know, come on she is a 7th grader this year.

7. Silver Metallic Sharpies and Construction paper Crayolas. Wow. I think these are my 2 favorite art things, well this month anyway. Paired with some really great black construction paper and you have brillance in art projects! These crayons are like oil pastels, really rich in color. I can't wait to set the kids loose with these! Or maybe I'll hide them and keep them all to myself!

8. Last but not least, B broke down and bought Rosetta Stone for learning Latin American Spanish. Can't wait for the whole family to go through this program together.

I have so many more exiting books and things we are doing this year. I am getting ALMOST excited to start school again. I just need a couple of teacher workdays to pull it all together. I always plan some neat little cutsies and surprises for the first day. Last year I redecorated the school room and didn't allow them to see until the 1st day. We are planning to start school on the 16th!

Shed 5 Pounds Fast! Review

I have had the opportunity to review a neat fitness program called Shed 5 Fast. You can go HERE to see Lindsay Brin's website with all the details about her fitness programs. What I like best about this program is that it is designed with Mommies in mind, so the workout is tailored to really efficiently target tummies and other trouble areas.

The DVD has 2 different workouts. Each are only 30 minutes, which is just right for me. It isn't an easy workout, but it is fun and it goes quickly, you are up and down a lot which keeps it from being boring. Lindsay outlines a whole program, the website is very helpful with plans and even a diet menu. You are supposed to do the video 3 times a week and do some cardio (walking or something) a couple times a week.

This is an excellent video to have, most every busy mom can carve out 30 minutes and you don't have to load everyone up to go to the gym or the Y. I would highly recommend this video - especially for those with young kids.

I am not through six weeks, I have been really doing a lot more cardio and jogging this summer, but I suspect you could easily lose a lot more than 5 lbs if you really pursued this program. I'm shooting for losing 5 more pounds by September. For me it is not about losing baby fat - I just want to be able to keep up with my active big kids hiking, biking, jogging and all those things. I'll update you on my progress in September and I'll let you know more about how I have done on this program. I am hoping to run (okay jog slowly) a mini-triathlon in the fall. There have been too many times lately that everyone has to wait for mom! I really want my family to be active and unfortunately as with most things - the best way to get those results in your kids is to model it!

This video is $15.99 - BUT you can use the coupon code below to get it 20% off! Buy it HERE!

This DVD was provided by Moms into Fitness and Mama Buzz for the purposes of review only.

Mini Vacation

We took a fun mini-vacation that was one of those non-stop activity vacations that make you need another vacation. You know what I'm talking about.

Of course, 100 degree heat made things more fun!
Yes, I have way more pictures of Gracie than the other two, but she held still more than they did. Daniel rode most anything, but that big ol' Superman Tower of Power just freaked him out at the last minute and he calmly unbuckled and said he'd just rather wait. We told him he has to save some challenges for when he is 8, so he decided to try it out next year.

We had some free Six Flags tickets, so we spent the WHOLE day at Six Flags. This was the first time ever we had let the kids stay from open to CLOSE at 10:00pm. It was a lot of fun! 2 out of 3 kids were very daring and rode almost anything with Daddy. Me and my Gracie Pearl don't appreciate our tummies being flopped around, so we had a good time doing our own thing.

We were able to stay in a great hotel across the street from Six Flags which was so GREAT! We slept late the next morning and then visited the American Girl place in Dallas.

Kit had a spa facial and got her hair and toe nails done. Lucky Kit!

We really prefer to take vacations in the Fall when the weather is bearable and crowds are few. This is one of the many advantages of homeschooling. Current sports practice schedules too make our free nights pretty limited! We had to have my parents babysit our dog over night so we could go - we loaded up the 80 lb sissy and trucked her over to Nanas so she could stay in the cool air conditioning. As she is my 1st inside dog -it still amazes me that we have to cater to her like we do!

Bark Off -Review

We were excited when we were sent BarkOff to review. We actually have had a big problem with our dog, Abby barking at us. She gets bored in the evening when the kids have gone to bed and wants us to play with her and so she barks.

She didn't seem to have any reaction whatsoever to the Bark Off. Her ears didn't indicate anything and she didn't even stop barking. We replaced the batteries twice because we wanted to make sure the Bark Off was working, we set it on high, and even held it close to her head. I totally don't think it was doing anything.

HOWEVER, I must say she hasn't been barking at us as much as she used to...so who really knows. I think it might be because I started putting her in her bed when she barked. I would have to say I am totally unsure about this product. Abby's 80 lbs - maybe it would produce a better reaction in a smaller dog? I just don't know, but I can't tell you I recommend it.

You can buy bark off for $10 here to try it for yourself.

This is a MamaBuzz review. This product was provided by MamaBuzz and Telebrands for the purposes of review only.

Abby Speaks

Hi, my name is Abby Ayers. I am a 1 year old yellow labrodor retriever and I am head of ranch security at the Ayers household. The way I see it, if I wasn't around these people wouldn't know what to do. My main goal in life is to be near the Alpha Dog, although I am really passionate about chasing squirrels, cats, and men with mowers. I have 1 superpower and that is Destruction. It's just a talent of mine, really.

Here I am last Christmas. The family gave me about 10 toys and in about 30 minutes they were all just a pile of stuffing and pieces. I ate most of them, (paper included) they didn't taste that great really, but I didn't complain, it was Christmas after all. If you'll notice from the photo, in my younger days I even liked to chew on coffee table legs. I am really ashamed of that chicken I ate last Spring, but we won't talk about that. I can completely eat a LARGE size rawhide bone in about half an hour, for most normal big dogs it takes weeks to eat one of those! My people once timed me and I can eat an entire tennis ball in less than 30 minutes!

So, I have been asked by the family to review a product. I'm all about helping out, so I was happy to take a look at a neat new toy called the Crazy Critter! We had all seen them on TV and thought they might be GREAT! But the family knows how I destroy ALL toys so they didn't feel too good about this one holding up. I was a little disappointed that this particular toy fox didn't have any stuffing in it because pulling out that stuffing and spreading little puffs of it all over the house is one of the best parts of getting a new toy! The family REALLY liked that no stuffing part, though.

My favorite part of this toy was the TWO squeakers! I TOTALLY LOVED that! It was awesome! Until about 30 minutes when I ate the 1st squeaker. It really held up well though because it took me over 2 hours of constant chewing to get both squeakers out. Even without the squeakers, I LOVE this toy! I have really tried and I can't rip it into bits! Sure, I pulled off the nose and a couple other body parts, but it is pretty durable! And another cool thing about this toy is that it is long -like 22 inches long so you can really sling it around, toss it, and drag it all over the place. I totally love that!

However, after about 4 days here's what the Crazy Critter looks like. I ate its face off and it is pretty nasty. I need to hide it because my people are pretty grossed out by it and I know that the Mama is going to throw it away if she finds it again. So, it didn't last a whole week even, but that is 4 1/2 days longer than most of my toys!

I have never enjoyed a toy as much as this one! So, overall I would HIGHLY recommend this toy, and my people would too. And that is because MOST dogs aren't like me. It would be great for NORMAL dogs. But, as I said before, I have superpowers, so my experiences are certainly not typical.

If you would like to purchase a CrazyCritter go HERE. They are $10, and hasn't your dog been a good dog lately?

My owners were provided with the Crazy Critter by MamaBuzz and TeleBrands for the purposes of MY review only. Only fuzzy toy foxes were harmed the purposes of review. No REAL foxes faces were gnawed off for this review.

Art Sites

Here are some Great Art Sites! Summer is a great time to really spend some time on Art projects! One thing I have always hated about art classes is forcing kids to hurry! Art is something that really should be lingered over, the best works are often done and redone, and kids all work at different paces. Summer where we live is also HOT - so indoor art projects are ideal! These three on-line sites are great because they are mess free!

We found a great art site here -we especially liked the sand painting! This was our favorite of these three!

A neat Art Pad site here

And a really interesting site with a design a tile program here -This would be great for a study of tesselations!

I am gearing up with all kinds of fun projects for my homeschool co-op class I'll be teaching in the fall. It is an Art History class geared to 2-4th grades. I'll be sharing soon some of the great things we will discover in this class! The first thing we will do is to make some paint the primitive way with egg yolks and crushed rock. Then we will paint on some homemade paper in the Papyrus tradition! It is going to be a really neat class because it will focus on experiencing art, appreciating how it is made, not as much on creating art of our own.

Homemade Granola Bars

My family loves these Sunbelt peanut butter chip granola bars. They are always scarfed up pretty quickly around here. So, I decided I would try to make some homemade ones. So looking at granola bar recipes most of them as you probably know are held together with mostly oil, with some peanut butter or honey. I really hate a greasy granola bar so I decided to go another route.

So, I went with marshmallows. What? Were you thinking I was going to say some secret soy tofu ingredient or something? Lets just all agree your not reading this blog to discover my healthy cooking genius. Sorry, but there's actually very little cooking genius available here.

I modified the rice crispy treat recipe (off the box) using about a cup less marshmallows. The rice crispy treat bars recipe calls for 6 cups of rice crispies, so I put in about 6 1/2 cups of stuff: crushed corn flakes, granola, oats, rice crispies, other cereal crushed. Then when it was all completely mixed together I added about 3/4 cup of peanut butter chips.

Very good if I do say so myself. Healthier? Hmm. At least there is no corn syrup, 5 kinds of oil, and all those other bad things designed to make them last 20 years. With twice as much in quantity than a $2 box, I know they are cheaper and they might just last a little longer too.

Daniel

The girls are pretty busy with activities. Basketball for Gracie and Ally is gearing up for youth camp and she starts a new select softball season this month. Daniel has been chillin' and using that big old imagination of his. His favorite thing to do lately is listening to books on tape while building with Legos. Here is a photo of him with a dinosaur scene made out of Legos. He is eager to work up something really cool to enter in the county fair.

He loves to build anything; what that boy can do with cardboard and some duct tape is amazing. Offices, forts, caves - using blankets and chairs and lumber; whatever he can find. This is his Spy Office.

Daniel has decided to become a spy. He's actually training; weight lifting, working on his spy skills, making useful gadgets. The girls are so great at creating treasure hunts, mysteries, and other spy-like challenges for him.

He used his own money from his savings (and some recent extra jobs) to buy the latest Angel Wars movie and an angel wars action figure. I must say I love the series, we have the first 3 and they are rather short (30 minutes), but the new one is 88 min. long and the best yet. They are rather scary for younger kids, but full of lots of great action for boys! The action figure broke as soon as it was out of the box, he took it back, got another one, it broke the first day he had it. So, I'd definitely NOT recommend the action figures. I guess they are just poorly made.

Daniel is just getting to that age where I am starting to see signs of him growing up. He's almost as tall as his 10 year old sister! He was kissing his daddy and me on the cheek recently and I said, "He won't be kissin' us like that when he is a big tall teenager." And he said, "I will NEVER be too big to be kissing my parents!" We'll just see about that, won't we?

5 Things Kids Should Know in the Summer

1. Every kid should know boredom and how to cope with it (non-electronically)! In our house, "I'm bored" is not allowed. I tell the kids being bored shows that you don't have the imagination & creativity to come up with something to do. Then there's the ol', "Oh, I can give you something to do..." At this point my kids are suddenly un-bored. My experience working with teenagers has shown that most kids are so continually entertained they can not handle doing nothing -once again electronic free.

2. Kids should know WORK! Summer is a great time to really spend some time having kids master some more involved chores. Chores need to be discipled and that is time consuming. Plan a new chore that your child can be discipled to take over by the end of the summer. Today I'm working on the middle child becoming the master -mopper around here! I'd love to turn that chore over to a kid!

3. A step further - Kids should know work for money and EARNING their own way in the summer. Extra time means time for extra projects for pay; from parents, grandparents, and others. There are so many trips, camps, activities to save for - or if you need incentive to save take them to a toy store and get some inspiration. My 3 just followed me to Mardell's for a book sale and came home eager to to do some extra work for some extra money!

4. Close friendships. I was reading an article in the recent Women's Day about how kids need to interact with a group and not have 1 close best friends friendship. MULARKY. Childhood friendships help you know how to relate to a future spouse. Group friendships are a lot of fun for kids, but bouncing around to the next friend when one of them bothers you, how does that train up a child? Close friendships provide lessons in faithfulness, patience, discretion, love. Cousins and siblings really meet this need too because you HAVE to learn to love & deal them unconditionally. What better practice is that for life and marriage?

5. Discipline. Maybe this is just for older kids- it's time to begin to learn about budgeting time and determining what is important. Summer time is more free; kids should have plenty of time to set aside for a personal devotion time, for chores, for pursuits they are passionate about, and for play. What an ideal time for some discipleship on time! Sit down with your older kids and talk about the plans for the week; talk about what they want to accomplish and help them create their own plan. I love the list of summer goals. What are some skills they want to really get good at? Ask them lots of questions to guide their goals. How much money do they want to earn? There may be some sports skills they want to really work on, or something they want to read and learn about.

Freezer Cooking Week

I love freezer cooking! You know, you work one day in the kitchen, make a big huge mess, but basically you can theoretically not have to make much fuss for the the whole month of cooking. Genius.

I do a mini-version of freezer cooking. Okay, I LIKE to do a mini version when I have the time and energy. I like to come home from the grocery store and immediately cook up 3 lbs of ground meat and put 3 pounds of chicken in the crockpot. The next day I could cook up 6+casseroles in no time OR, I can put the meat ready to go in the freezer for quick meals. This pretty much will get us through 2 weeks of meals.

Here is a spaghetti squash all ready for eating! My spaghetti squash has taken over the garden! It is growing down the side of the house into the hedges and into the driveway. I have about 5 getting ready to pick. I still CANNOT believe that my picky, vegetable hating son loves this vegetable so much. I cook the squash cut in two, face down for about an hour; then as seen above I scoop the seeds out and fluff the squash with a fork into strings - every bit of it should turn to strings, (if it doesn't you didn't cook it long enough) I scrape it all the way to the skin. I cook a little bit of whole wheat spaghetti. Originally, I did this to disguise the squash, but now it is just to make it enough in volume to feed everyone. I add sauce as always for normal spaghetti.

I am spreading some cooking out into 3 days to keep my summer days laid back and easy. Day 1 - beef. Day 2-baking. Day 3 - chicken.

Today, my lovely 9 year old assistant in all things domestic (most days I think I am her assistant) is going to be cooking up some massive muffins for the freezer in 3 flavors.

Not Me Monday

I did Not force my children to dress up like cows to get free chicken on Chick fil A's free chicken day! No, not me! I did not put on a cow-looking shirt myself too! And a responsible mother like me would NOT forget to double check the date before going to all that trouble! And, I did NOT walk into Chick fil A all dressed up on the WRONG day! No way, not me. I wouldn't humiliate myself and my children like that! No way, not me!

Mowing

We went to my parents and mowed their property Wednesday. Daniel did most of the mowing. I pray that he continues growing up to be a boy unafraid of hard work, course it's more fun when you get to drive! His path around the yard was ALL over the place, but he got it done.

Max has taught him well! Max and Nana were off traveling, I think they might be headed to Canada. I didn't know anything about the mower, but thankfully Daniel remembered all that Max told him.

The girls just spent a few minutes on the mower, and Daddy came in after work and worked on the big tractor till dark.

Seems like we've been running around in the car alot. Our two biggest travel must haves are Happy Hour slushies at Sonic and audio books. We've been listening to lots of books on CD, the kids like to put them on in their rooms while they play, and you just can't beat Hank the Cowdog on a car trip!

Sewing Projects

Ally finished her 4th quilt! It is for her friend's birthday. It has really snuggly fleece on the back. She made a similar zig zag quilt for one of her best friends who moved to India this week. She and her parents will be serving as missionaries in Bangalore.

I made a super easy apron. It was one of those pre-printed fabric things, so it probably took less than an hour all together. I was planning to kind of use it as a pattern to make a few more. I'm not an apron girl, but it sure makes me FEEL domestic, even if I am not BEING domestic! I am seriously behind on all things domestic this week.

Gracie's been sewing a bit too, this week, but her projects are all top secret!

Our 4th Fun

At the spur of the moment we decided to go to a local country town fireworks show on Saturday night (not really expecting much) and it was a REALLY good one! It lasted about 45 minutes and was really impressive!

Is this a "You Might be a Redneck If..." moment? We forgot to bring chairs, so we took the seat out of the car.

Our kids are finally at the age that fireworks are fun! I think now that they are old enough to pop them themselves, they have a new appreciation for them. I remember when they were littler the late hours, loud noises, junk food just made it tough!

Waiting for the show...

I had fun playing with my camera's fireworks setting!
In the middle of the show, we turned around to find Pearl out cold! This is the same kid that is famous for falling asleep in several rock concerts including Sanctus Real and Casting Crowns.

Sunday's when the REAL fun began! We went to my mom's so we could blow some stuff up out in the country. Dad went to a fireworks stand and bought a bunch of blackcats, parachutes, and other loud stuff and entered a drawing for $100 in free fireworks. The kids had a blast popping them, but Daniel kept asking about the drawing, he was SURE they would win. And sure enough, we got a phone call at 8:30pm and we won. The kids confessed later they had all gotten together and prayed about it - that whole favor of the Lord thing. So, they all loaded up and went back for some REALLY COOL fireworks. They had so much fun picking them out, too!

They put on a great show!

And EVERYONE was worn out by the time we made it home! It'll be a 4th they'll never forget!

A Garden Pest Mystery

I have these large piles in the garden where apparently something has been burrowing. The piles are probably about 8 to 12 inches in diameter. There is also a pretty large hole this critter is making like 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide! What does that? My dad said salamanders, but we've never seen any around here and I wouldn't think there'd be enough water around for them. One thing we DO have plenty of is slugs and snails which are supposed to be a salamanders favorite food. Any ideas what this critter could be?
My garden is doing pretty well. Although, I had this huge thriving volunteer squash and it was at the edge of my driveway. I ran over it today. My husbands been speculatin' about how long it would be before I did.

Princes and Frogs Sign

I love the Christian band Superchick! This sign was inspired by my favorite song of theirs called "Princes and Frogs." It is a song about purity and waiting for your prince! If you haven't heard it -you can hear it on you tube HERE. The sign reads, "All princes start as frogs - and all gentlemen as dogs. Just wait till it's plain to see - What were growing up to be - Cause some frogs will still be frogs - And some dogs will still be dogs - Some boys could become men - Just don't kiss them till then." I love that message. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this sign, but I sure had fun making it! It'd be perfect for a teenage girl. Thankfully my girls still think of all boys as frogs and dogs, so I'm not sure they appreciate the message just yet!


I set up a new blog HERE which lists alot of the signs I have made and the story about why all the sign-making too. I still have a ways to go - I guess I should list prices and stuff. I'll get to it sometime.