A Huge Thank You

I would like to extend a huge thank you to our friends Dave, and Lyn. I have blogged about them before. They homeschooled their son from 5th grade, until graduation. They have given us a ton of school supplies in the past. Most of which we could not use yet, so I stored them for later use. Yesterday, my husband went to see Dave, and he gave him a huge bag full of stuff. They gave us a whole kids dictionary set, the complete Harry Potter book series, a Chemistry set, Legos, and a whole raft of other educational books. Starting usually in February I start to do the curriculum for the next year. These books will save me a lot of money. They will take me more time, because I will have to make my own lesson plans, but I won't have to buy a Hisory, Science or Health book for the upcoming year. I can not thank them enough, for everything they have given us.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday. It is freezing again here, after having tank top weather. It is really crazy. My sister will be here soon, yeah.

If you would like to help educate youth, you can for free, and with one click. Go to http://www.theliteracysite.com just click on the logo and they will donate a portion of their advertising earnings, to help donate books and other learning supplies. The logo is also posted at the bottom of this blog. You can click every day, once a day.

Even The Dog Is A Steelers Fan, Free Rice

The Pittsburgh Steelers, clinched a playoff spot, and a first round bye on Sunday. Who cares you ask? Only every single member of my family, even the dog. All but me. I am a lowly Bills fan, who of course crash and burned yet again this season. My husband has kindly offered to purchase me a Steelers jersey, so I would fit in, and I told him it would burn my skin lol. Congrats to the Steelers, and to the Bills please, please get rid of Losman.

In my Family Circle magazine, I just purchased they had some cool websites you can visit for charitable causes. Want to give, but do not have extra money? Then visit http://www.freerice.com I tried it this morning, and you can test your knowledge of grammar, math, geography, and others. Every time you get a correct answer, they donate a specified amount of rice to countries in need. I will be having my son give it a try, later today. It is a great way for them to learn, as well as give. The questions you miss, are repeated thereby reinforcing learning. I love it!

Lesson Plan for 12/17/08:

Writing: Book report for Sunset of the Sabertooth
Social Studies: Kentucky, St Nicholas http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23
Spelling: Lesson 13- Write each spelling word and circle the consonants
Vocabulary: Lesson 13- Write a synonym for each vocabulary word
Language Arts: Adverbs, capitalization
Math: Place value, multiplication, division
Spanish: Food and utensils part 2

Hunger for American Children Rose 50% In 2007

Did you see what I wrote? 50% in 2007, not 2008. I can't even imagine what it will be this year, with the economy in a crisis, people losing their jobs, this is just not right. Our tax payers go to bailout some bigwig slob, making millions in bonuses, taking luxury vacations, and worrying about whether he will get his Christmas bonus or not, and 50% of American children went hungry last year. We give to our local food pantry every year. This year we are beefing it up. We will be giving to the local food pantry, the Sheriff Dept, and local churches that need it. I will also be asking my children to go through their toys, and clothes to see if we have excellent condition to donate. For the past two years I was unable to give to Toys for Tots, something I always did in previous years. We just financially could not do it, but this year we will whether we can afford it or not. My children have so much to be thankful for, as well as my husband and I. We need to help our fellow Americans who are not as fortunate, and maybe think they dont have anything to be thankful for. Please help your neighbors, friends, and family this Holiday season. So many will be going without.

Lesson Plans for 11/19/08:

Reading: Read Chapter 10 of Pirates Past Noon
Writing: Write what you are thankful for
Social Studies: Government and citizenship, Iowa
Spelling: Lesson 10- write each spelling word and circle the consonants
Vocabulary: Lesson 10- Think of an Antonym for each vocabulary word
Language Arts: Phonics review, action verbs
Math: Multiplication, addition, subtraction, ordinal numbers
Spanish: Food and utensils
If time permits, watch 60 min video on Mars