Staples GREAT Teacher school supply

If you are a teacher (or a homeschooler with proof- letter to or from state) GET TO STAPLES and you can CLEAN UP in school supplies! You can get 25 of each of the penny or nickle items (there are three most weeks) in each TRANSACTION (when you spend $5) Monday through Wednesday! When I went Wednesday night, with the managers permission and urging I got 2 transactions of this weeks items: index cards, highlighters and 8 pack of pencils. I got 50 each for 1.50!! I'm not kidding!
I did have to spend $5 for each transaction, but I needed to anyway to get somethings on my list. They do it every week through end of August!! It's 3 different items each week. Sometimes it's 5 cents and other time it's 1 cent. The manager asked me to come back tonight and I could help clean out his inventory! So Wednesday nights, might be the best night to go. You need to bring proof or sign up for the Teacher rewards on the website:
http://www.staplesrewardscenter.com/SORC/UserManagement/Benefits/benefits_base_teacher.aspx

I did it several years ago, but I just had to put in that I was a homeschooler and the name of our school if I remember correctly.
I'm not going back tonight. I think 50 packs of pencils, 100 highlighters (packs of 2) and 50 packs of index cards will get us through the year! :) I thought this might help some people get needed supplies!

Summer

Summer happens and life is crazy. I swore we were going to take a short break and keep schooling over the summer.... Weeellllll, that break was May, June and 1/2 of July so we're starting back up next week.
We have gone to weddings, played out side, rested alot and done lots of stuff on the house that had been previously neglected. Not yet done the beach, but hoping to in August or September. We're also looking forward to a short term and a probable visit from the grandparents and a probable trip in September. So we'll be around and schooling, but making time for life. And since we got ODD test results back, I'm not worried. I don't put a lot of account into those test results, but other people that would put the pressure on me do care about those tests- so phew! Pressure off! :)

I tend to like to school in Summer and Winter when it is either too cold or too hot to got outside for long lengths of time. Then take time off in the Spring and fall when we can be outside with reckless abandonment. That many not happen this year since we've taken a bit of time off. I think we are fine, but there's always the feeling of having to keep up with the Jones'. Then I try to remind myself that the only one setting the time frame is me. We have until next August to take tests and we will learn plenty between now and then. What's your year schedule like? It's always fun to see what others do and glean ideas that might work for our family.
We're ramping up to have a K and 2nd grader this year with a 2 year old who is trying to show them all up with her skills and abilities. Why is it the 2 year old can count to 30, sound out a good portion of letters and loves school while the other two are sometimes not so thrilled with school?? Must be personalities I guess!
If I can find the time I'm going to up load the list of books I've been reading and some really great free kindle book sites. They have been great sources for us for family reading material. I hope you are enjoying the summer where ever you are and I'll be back to report in on how we're doing!

2011 Reading goal

20,000 pages Yep you read that right. Here's how it happened:
At New Years a friend of my posted on Facebook how her goal for last year was to read 20,000 pages and she read 22,000. I thought it was a very interesting goal. I began January with a similar goal of 20,000 pages. I figured that woul dbe easy since I had 11 book club books and plenty of homeschooling books to read and plenty of books to preread for my 6 year old voracious reading habit.
Also I am following a mother's education class by Katrina here I have intended to do it in years past and have done pretty well for parts of the year. This year I wanted to do better and follow through all year.
In Feb I received a kindle for my birthday and this suddenly made the goal easy. Maybe too easy in fact, I may need to increase the page goal for the later half of the year. I haven't finished compiling the list of what I have read, but I'm guessing it will be high. I struggled in January to write down the books I read with the page number in a spread sheet. It just wasn't very conducive to my life. I'm learning I need to simplify things in order to get them done. Thankfully the kindle has done that and now I just need to go through my kindle contents and see what I have read. I'll be posting the listing shortly. In pieces. To keep. it. simple.

Vitamix givaway

This is a great site for frugal living and great deals. They are giving away a vitamix right now. We love to make kale smoothies and this is on our wishlist! Good luck if you enter!

http://www.thethriftymama.com/2011/05/vitamix-giveaway.html

Summer book reading Barnes and Noble

We are big into reading and books, so I was excited when I saw this article on Barnes and Noble summer reading program. I also like it because they have to keep a"journal" (book list) to do this. ODD has been pushing against the pricks to do this, but if she is required to do it to get a free book, then it won't be such a fight!
There are more details at Barnes and Noble
I haven't done this in the past because I haven't liked the book selections for the free books. I don't see the list on their website and I'm hoping that it is a better selection. If it's not I'll just front the money for the book. I want to give her something to work towards, but I also want to keep our home library the best of the best.

Have fun reading!

Pondered blessings

This week has been a down week for us as we are taking a break for the next few weeks to rest and recooperate. Hopefully just two weeks will find us ready to jump back in, but it may be an extra week to get plans ready for the next year. It has made me ponder the good things and the blessing of having my children home and being able to take a break when we need it. We're into week 2 already. We haven't really been taking a complete break. We're still doing morning devotional, and ODD is reviewing math in fun ways she doesn't realize to get ready for her end of year testing I received it the other day and realized she needs to brush up on the math concepts a bit before taking it so she doesn't get frustrated. She quite the perfectionist and if she get it wrong she's fine with it, but if she doesn't know how to do something and wants to and can't get help, she breaks sown. I'm gong for no break downs :) Thankfully she really likes to do word problems. SO I make them up as we are driving or playing out side or eating. It's a way to get the review down without having a struggle. She also sits down and does a math review worksheet each day while we are doing school, so she knows how to do it, it's just another way to help her solidify those math facts in a painless way for both of us!
As I sit here typing, the rain is pouring down on the tin roof of the covered porch, the children are sleeping quietly and I'm enjoying the calm before the storm. We are going to be driving int his today! But for now I am enjoying the beautiful sound! It makes me grateful for the home we are living in and the choices we are able to make in this great country. I'm really grateful for the freedom we have to practice our religion and to school our children in the way we as parents determine is best.
We are heading to visit family this week, so here's hoping you have a great mother's day and are able to find the blessings to count blessings your life. It makes a huge difference even in times of challenge and trial!

Montessori Giveaway

Montessori Print Shop is having a give away through the blog Living Montessori Now Check out all this stuff you can win!!

Head on over there for details. It's a fabulous prize of cds that are worth over $500 big ones! I've entered, have you?