Since tomorrow is test day, I get to post whatever I want today. That means I get to talk about blog advertising, and an interesting article on teaching socialization skills.
First let me say I agree with the writer who said that kids learn social skills by what they see, and imitate in their every day lives. Common sense would say, if you want your kids to have good socialization skills, then we as parents should set a good example. Of course your kids do not just see you, and they way you act. They see other adults, and children, and they way that they deal with situations that occur. I once heard someone say it takes a whole society to raise a child. While I may not agree with that 100 percent, I do believe all adults should set good examples whenever children are in their presence. Whether it be their child, or someone elses child. Of course that is wishful thinking, but that is my thoughts on the subject. Here is the particular
article on teaching homeschool children social skills. This article is on Homeschool.com one of my most favorite homeschool sites on the web. They have so much information, and useful links, it is amazing.
After one and a half years of blogging, I have finally made my 100 dollar Adsense payout. Now I have absolutely no idea if this is a common rate of earning, but I hope it goes faster as my blog becomes more popular. They have very strict rules, so people can not cheat, to earn money faster. If you have Adsense, how long did it take you to reach the 100 dollar payout?
Entrecard, the free service, that will drive traffic to your blog for free. They are under new ownership, but I still love the service. It is basically a traffic exchange. For every blog you visit, you should get a visit in return. It is not 100 percent, as some people do not drop every day. I like the diversity of the blogs to choose from, on their large database of blogs.
Adgitize, if you do not yet use this free service, you should. You can purchase ad space, and become a premier advertiser, or can have the free account. The leader board has 500 blogs, you can choose from to visit, and you get paid for your effort. That is the biggest difference between Entrecard, and Adgitize. While they are both free, Adgitize does pay you for the visits you make. It is not a ton of money, for free account holders, but it is something, and payout is 10 dollars. Yes, I have been paid by them. Plus I would say at least 75% of Adgitize members, also have Entrecard, so you could actually kill two birds with one stone. If you use Adgitize you must visit the blogs from their website, or your credits do not count. If you would like to join Adgitize, just click the widget at the very top of this blog.
I also use Traffic Swarm, and Twitter, for blog advertising. I don't have time to do these everyday, but they are somewhat effective. If you don't have Google Analytics, I would recommend it. It is free, and will break down, where your traffic comes from, and other elements for you. This blog, now gets almost 30% of its traffic from search engines. That is way up from the 5% it used to get. What methods of blog advertising do you use? Is it free, effective, or cost money?
Tomorrow DJ will be reading Chapter 10 of Dolphin Diaries, with summary. He will be moving on to Little House on the Prairie, starting Monday. I have added software work to Fridays, plus testing. Caitlin currently does no testing, but she does use the software. Tomorrow will be the first day DJ will be doing the software as part of class work. This software was purchased from Southwestern, and I paid 120 dollars for six discs. It is a complete curriculum for grades up to 5th grade. We finally have them all installed, and are ready to start using them. I will let you know whether we like them, and if they are worth purchasing again.
Monday, I will be starting a new contest. Sylvan contacted me again, and offered me a first grade workbook, to be given to one of my readers. So be sure to bookmark, and come back to enter.
Guess what? It is Fun Friday, at my Blogging For Fun Group. We are doing a A-Z meme, and we are up to the letter E. We have been studying the senses, in school, so this weeks was quite easy to choose. All this info posted today, will be a lesson plan for Health, next Thursday. If you homeschool, or just want your kids to get some cool info, please feel free to use it. If you click the picture to the left, it will enlarge, and you can print it. Be sure to check out the videos, they are short, and neat. DJ is posting a cool post on Bald Eagles, be sure to check it out at his blog. 
Click the images to make them bigger, and printable. These came from our Social Studies workbook. They are for two different days, but we do them in one day. You will need to use the internet, for research. We are also still doing Pilgrims, and colonial days, and we got this weeks lesson from Instructor Web. It is 30 dollars for a year subscription, with total access, to all their lessons. This is my first time using them, and I like it very much. If you homeschool, you know how extremely expensive curriculums, and books can be. You do not need to spend a fortune, though. Down at the bottom of this blog, are links I have accumulated through two, and a half years of homeschooling. Most are free, or very inexpensive, plus other resources homeschoolers will love. I will be adding more, as I continue to clean out my favorites, and add them here to this blog. I can not believe how much info I have accumulated over the years. Be sure to check them out, none of them are affiliate links, just me sharing info I have found, through many hours of searching. I have used most of them myself, or intend to use them in the future, that is why I saved them. By the way if you go back in my archives, to last year at this time, there is a cool set of videos on The First People, we will be using it again this year.
This came from 2008 Woman's World magazine. I actually made this last year, for my coworkers. It is easy, and oh so good. A great substitute if you are tired of plain old pumpkin pie. Click the picture to enlarge, and read the recipe. There are two others there too, that I have not yet tried. Happy Saturday, everyone.
Well today is Fun Friday again, at Blogging For Fun. Today the letter of the day, is D, and I am dreaming of Diamonds. Anyone who follows me, knows I am a gemstone geek. However, I am not a diamond girl, unless they are colored. I love colored diamonds. Unfortunately they are rather expensive, as you can imagine. Take for instance the lovely Hope Diamond pictured above. Said to be the largest natural blue diamond in the world. I won't tell you what it is worth, as it might make you cry. I do have some blue diamonds, I set in a wedding band. They are small, but I cherish them. I also have a vintage WG blue diamond ring available for sale in my Etsy store, if anyone is interested. 
We do not have school tomorrow. Matter of fact this week is kind of a mixed up week. We will be doing school, in the afternoon, most days, due to morning activities. So, I thought I would share some of the fun things going on in North Central Florida, for you, and your kids to do.
Click on the picture for it, and the recipe to enlarge. These are cute cookie sandwiches, with spider webs on them, very simple, and perfect for Simple Saturday. This recipe came from one of my Womans Day magazines.
