Halloween Week 100 DIY Costume Ideas

It is Halloween week, already.  If you are creative, short on cash, or just like to make your own costume, check out the video.  She has some really cute and clever ideas.  Modify for the age of your child.  Below the video find an assortment of masks to purchase.  It is a great deal.  Store them away for Halloween's to come.  What is your kiddo going to be for Halloween?  Mine has moved away from cute and is into scary.  So she is a Zombie Bride or something of that nature. All week I will be sharing Halloween themed activities, and ideas.  We get our pumpkins tomorrow and have some really cute ideas for carving this year.

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Free or Frugal Friday Homeschool

 Happy Free or Frugal Friday!  I am late, I know.  It is almost 11 PM, and I am just getting to this now.  It has been a crazy week, and tomorrow, and Sunday are crazy busy too.  First, I want to share two of my favorite apps.  The first one, Distant Suns, is not free, it is $5.99.  But if your kids love to look at constellations, planets and stars you will love this app.  Plus, if you do not have a super powered telescope this is fabulous. It is very detailed and gives tons of info.  The second one Google Sky Viewer, is not as fancy, but it is easy to see the constellations, and find them in the sky.  Plus, this one you can zoom in on the planets and get an awesome up close view.  We look at the moon a lot with this one, and the details are amazing.  Google Sky Viewer is free.  I share only Android apps, because I have an Android phone.  I do not have an Iphone or Ipad, so no Itunes apps here.  We used the Distant Suns app last year, for the International Observe the Moon Night.  This year that same event is on Sept 6th.  So, I will have to decide if I want to do a group viewing again, or just a family viewing. 

Today, I was looking through my Eclectic Homeschooler Pinterest Board, trying to find all the websites I saved for testing.  I still did not find them all, so I will share those on another Friday, but I did find Turtle Diary.  Which is one of the newer websites I had discovered, and saved, for future reference.  Now, the only option for 4th grade is Math games.  5th grade is being created, so I will be watching for that.  There is no History option, which is kind of disappointing.  But, all the other subjects look awesome.  I signed up for the free version, and I can not wait to have Caitlin give it a try.  The 3rd grade Science, and Language Arts could still be applicable to her, so that is nice too.

Then I found Playing History, which could easily make up for the lack of History in the above website.  I have not tried this one yet, but it is free, and if you sign up as a member you can review the games they play.  Both of my kids can benefit from this website, and the both love games, so it will be a win win.

Well that is it for this Friday.  Be sure to check back next week, to see what goodies I find. 

Homeschool Lessons and Games for Free or Low Cost

I have been a member on Pinterest for at least two years now, maybe three, and I have compiled quite a list of things on my Homeschool Board. Some of them I have used many times, others I have completely forgotten about. We are nearing the end of our third quarter in this school year. That means it is time for me to start planning for next year. Since typically I make my own curriculum, it takes me a long time. For DJ, who will be in High School next year, I have decided to buy some curriculums rather than trying to make my own credits for those subjects. I still have to decide for American History, Language Arts, and any elective he wishes to take. I really wanted to buy My Father's World, for Caitlin next year, but my oh my it is way too expensive. I have no idea if it is worth what they charge, but I am not in the position to pay that much money for fifth grade lessons. So, in the next weeks, and maybe months, I will be sharing websites from my Pinterest board, that actually work or are good for what they say they do. Caitlin loves the Evan Moor books, so I probably will buy the one shown below for her next year. The Astronomy web page is for us to try to follow along in the night sky with major events. My kids really enjoy this, and in April you should be able to see Jupiter. Hopefully by putting it here I will remember.

http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/index.html

http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2014.html

http://www.gameclassroom.com/4th-grade

http://www.multiplication.com/games

http://www.teachercreated.com/free/interactive-whiteboard-activities/

http://www.thestorystarter.com/jr.htm

Olympics and Yard Work

This week is a kind of fun week for us.  Because we are trying to be sure and watch our athletes in the Olympics, and activities outside of the house, we have decided to mix things up a bit.  There will be very little traditional style learning this week.  For example, today the kids made their valentines for their grandparents, and wrote their monthly letters.  In case you are wondering what I am talking about, I decided as a part of random acts of kindness, they would write their grandparents a letter each month.  This serves another purpose as well, practicing writing skills for my fourth grader.  I am really pushing the writing this year for her.  To me she still has a long way to go, but has improved so much.  She only has two more letters on her friend list, and then monthly letters to grandparents.  So, I will be looking for some new writing prompts for her.  On the plus side her spelling has improved immensely. 

Then we watched some Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing.  Caitlin's skiier made it through, but we didn't get to see that yet, and DJ's snowboarders were not in the slope style, but we did get to watch a young man named Sage, from the USA take the gold in that event.  How exciting! 

Then, after lunch, we were outdoors doing yard work.  The lawnmower would not start, so I planted some of the flowers I bought last Friday.  My new tire garden is coming along, I need four more tires, and they need to be painted.  We got some raking done, and picking up sticks and garbage blown around from this nasty Winter.  A lot of my plants were damaged this Winter, it has been so cold.  They have been trimmed back and are already starting to come back, bigger and better I hope.  I planted Peonies, Bleeding Hearts, and some fruit bushes today. 

Caitlin, and I, painted the cabinet nobs in the kitchen black, added a nice touch, and I started working on her special birthday plates.  I will share those later.

Last week we started the Virtual Tour of the United States, with Alaska.  I need to find some info on the Exxon Valdez spill for them to ponder.  If you want to add the tour to your Geography lessons, you can follow along on my Pinterest board.  This is actually to go along with our popsicle stick game to learn the states and the capitols.  We continue our other History work as well.

I have not yet decided for tomorrow, but will probably be similar to today.

Quizlet

Next week is the last week of our first quarter of school.  That means review and test to see what was learned and what was not.  Of course I prefer online quizzes, if possible, to save on printing ink.  I hate buying ink all the time.  While I was browsing around looking for online quizzes, to suit what I need to test on, I came across Quizlet.  I actually think I had found this site before, but it was still in development and was not working real well.  I checked it out and it is quite an awesome little site.  Not just for quizzing but for learning and studying.  I like it, and plan on using it a lot in the future.  Check it out.

Halloween Books for Kids

We finished off another awesome week of homeschooling. The kids are racking up miles for the 5 Points of Life Relay for Kids, and should have the paper filled up soon. I work this weekend, and next week is another busy week with Archery, 4H, Earth Kids, Church and of course Run Club. Anyone who says homeschooled children are not socialized apparently do not know what they are talking about. We are plenty socialized, good socialization not nonsense socialization. Below are some Halloween theme books your kiddos might enjoy reading. The first one appears to be free, so enjoy it while it is. Be sure to check the price before you complete check out. I have been nailed a couple of times with posts that offer free books, but not all are free and I did not pay attention. Some are worth paying for too, though. We love The Berenstein Bears, well at least my youngest does. My son prefers the scary stories. Remember that at the bottom of this blog is my Amazon Homeschool Store.  Look there for all your textbook, workbook and craft needs.  I will be scouring around for Halloween apps this weekend to share.

We Give Books and A Free Renaissance Lapbook

If your kids like lapbooks, mine are not crazy about them, then head over to get your free Renaissance Lapbook.  I cam on early today to be sure I shared this with you.  DJ will be going into the Renaissance after he finishes with the Middle Ages.  History is so interesting.  I really disliked it in school, but had the teachers taught using something other than just a textbook, maybe I would have enjoyed it more.  I love it now, and can't get enough of it.  Do your kids like History?

We Give Books, is a free online reading website with a twist.  Every book your child reads, the same book gets donated to a school or group in need of books for expanding literacy.  It is free, and my daughter loves to read books online.  We used it a lot over the Summer, and have sort of gotten away from it so far this school year.  I am going to try to remember to visit this site regularly.  Not many reading programs are free, so check it out, and if you look there are teaching resources for each book as well.  A wonderful resource for sure.  Oh and today is Jump Start Read for the Record.  Help them meet the digital online reading goal for today, October 3.

We had such a good week of school, that today and tomorrow will be very light.  Tomorrow my work hours change, so no school probably at all tomorrow.  Today, we have Run Club, then Spelling, Vocabulary and Language Arts tests in the afternoon.  We might get to squeeze in a National Geographic video on pyramids.  That will round out Caitlin's lessons on pyramids for the week.  I love Netflix, and Nat Geo both awesome resources and History Channel too.

I am stunned at how well DJ is moving along with Math.  He completed so many assignments this week, and with ease and good grades.  He is using CK12 Arithmetic this year, and the format is working wonderful for him.  It is all free too.  He is also using CK12 for Earth Science this year.  Check it out, it too is completely free to use.

Çastle Sketch, Bones and A Freebie

I forgot to share the Homeschool Freebie yesterday.  It was a good one too.  Hopefully they will repeat it.  If  you sign up at their website you can get notified of the freebie of the day.   Today's freebie is also a good one.  3 ebooks on learning to draw.  I took the nature one, and the one with the owl on the cover.  Because we paint, and my son prefers to draw, these are perfect for us.  Hop over to homeschool freebie of the day, and grab yours. 

Yesterday, DJ finished is castle sketch.  He took the virtual tour of Raglan Castle, then had to draw a sketch of it.  Today, he will continue learning about Knights, and how to become a Knight.  There is a whole, long, drawn out process you know.  Because he is older, I have to find more complicated projects for him to do, for each lesson.  He is not into Arts and Crafts anymore, at least not the ones his sister likes.  He will probably be doing a blog post on the process of becoming a knight, so watch for that to go up.

Caitlin has been studying different functions of the body, for Science.  Yesterday, she put together a boney skeleton, that is missing a foot, as you can see in the picture.  She asked if it was ok if it was a one footed skeleton?  LOL, I guess it doesn't much matter. You can find lots of free skeleton pages with a simple Bing search.  Today she is finishing up the Circulatory system, and visiting the Ocean on The Magic School Bus.  If you have Netflix, you can watch it right on there.  I love Netflix.  We use it all the time in our Homeschool Adventures.

Robinson Crusoe Audio Book

If you have children that like to listen to audio books, then today's freebie is perfect.  It is a Robinson Crusoe mp3 audio book.  My kids hate listening to books, so this is not one we will use.  I hope many others will find it very useful though.  Just click the link to visit the website, to obtain your freebie. 

Today is our Earth Kids meeting, and we continue studying Oceans and the creatures that live there.  I will post all the links, and pictures of the projects we do, after the meeting is completed.  I told the kids today, I am switching the meetings to only once a month, rather than twice.  They are not super happy about that, but there are several good reasons to do it.  As with all classes, done during school hours, there is a reading, math and geography lesson, centered around the Leafy Sea Dragon, oh and art too.  I am making a pizza in the shape of a Leafy Sea Dragon.  You will have to come back to see how it comes out.  I have never done one like this before.  I figure we are going to eat it anyways, so if I mess it up no big deal.  I found a cake also, but that looked way complicated.

I love all the Scholastic products, and am considering trying the book below with my daughter next year, for fifth grade. I do have the Saxon book I can use, that my son used, but will have to see.

Lesson Snips, a website I have used a lot in my years of homeschooling, is both a paid and free website. You sign up, and then pick if you want free, or paid. I recommend the free. I had the paid, but was not happy with it for many reasons. You get a lot of stuff for free. Check it out, and they have all subjects, and all grades.

Teaching the Alphabet

My kids already know the alphabet, but today at homeschoolfreebieoftheday, they have a very cool set of activities for teaching the alphabet.  35 as a matter of fact.  This particular freebie is available only for today, so be sure to get it if you want it. 

We had a much more peaceful day yesterday, than the previous.  Kids are progressing nicely with their lessons, and we are even a bit ahead.  I like to be ahead so when we get to the holidays, and all kinds of activities are going on, we won't fall behind. 

Caitlin finished Charlotte's Web, and if anyone wants their child to read it, but don't want to buy it and library not available, there is an app in the Google app store for the book.  You can read it right on your phone, or tablet.  That is what we did.  She has now moved onto a Magic Tree House Book, Sunset of the Sabertooth.  DJ loved these books, and I am glad I saved them.  Their website is awesome, with a great game the kids can play.  I found two different activities to help her remember key events in the story.  You can click here and here, to use them.  I hope I can find these for all the books.  The Scholastic website also has activities for the books, but just wasn't what I was looking for at this time. 

DJ continues with The Outsiders, and is really enjoying it.  This is a ninth grade level reader, so he is a grade ahead with reading.  He is working his way through the lessons that go with it.  He is a very strong reader, and writer, but frequently ignores the rules of grammar. 

Most of the resources, I both use and share, are usually free.  I do throw in some stuff that is paid for, that I would purchase myself, or will purchase in the future.  I try to remember to post something for all grade levels, not just the grades my kids are in.  At the bottom of this blog is my Amazon Homeschool store.  I do earn a very small percent of each item sold.  Very small, lol!  I have never even made payout yet. 

Today, we have Run Club, finally stopped raining, and tomorrow Earth Kids.  They will be doing activities for the Leafy Seadragon.  One of my favorite animals, or is it a fish?