This entry will be a "sticky post" at the top until the contest ends on July 27. Scroll down for more recent posts.

Each Spring my local homeschool group has a meeting where everyone shares their "3 Favorite Things" from the previous year - three things that have made their homeschooling easier or more productive. Some of these have been curriculum or manipulatives or games or forms of discipline, and we always gain great ideas from one another.

To celebrate my 300th blog entry, I wanted to ask my blogging (and non-blogging) friends to share their 3 Favorite Things. And to make it more interesting, I'll choose one of you to receive a $10 Starbucks gift card. I'll randomly choose a winner after 8:00 pm MDT on Sunday, July 27. (For those of you who aren't sure, that's 10:00 pm EDT and 7:00 pm PDT.)

Here's how it all works:

If you have a blog, then write a blog entry linking back to this post and sharing your 3 Favorite Things, then leave a comment with a link to your blog post.

If you don't have a blog, then simply leave a comment here sharing your 3 Favorite Things. Please be sure to leave me your email address or some way I can get in contact if you win.

Share the word with others!

And here are my 3 Favorite Things:

• "School Dollars": This is more of my children's favorite than mine, but it works well as a motivator for good bahavior. Each day that I get full cooperation from a child, that child earns one "school dollar" that can be used for various rewards. Last year I let them choose things at the store that I would buy for the value of their school dollars if they chose - or they could save up for various priviledges like having dessert without finishing dinner ($3), going out for a movie ($6), or lunch out ($15). But when it got to the point that I was spending $1 or $2 for silly little toys every time we went to Wal-Mart, I knew something had to change. This year they're earning school dollars towards larger incentives that Dad & I set - for example, after our 1st 4 weeks of school, we'll take them to an amusement park if they've both earned 20 school dollars. And if their behavior is not fully cooperative on a given day, then they have to do extra chores to earn the school dollar.
• Beethoven's Wig CDs: My daughter discovered these at the library, and I love them! I had a whole "curriculum" where we were listening to music from classical composers and learning a little bit about their lives, but the Beethoven's Wig CDs accomplished more of what I had in mind. Each CD has several well-known pieces recorded twice - the second time is the music by itself, but the first recording has silly words sung to it - and the songs help kids (moms, too) learn something about the composer and the music. For example, Mendelssohn's Wedding March becomes a song about a great big wedding cake, and I'm sure it has the composer's name in there somewhere. We really enjoyed listening to these CDs, and I highly recommend them!
• My local support group: I couldn't keep homeschooling without these wonderful ladies. They help me keep my focus in the right place, help me to know I'm not the only mom who feels that my kids would listen more to another teacher than to me, and help me keep my sanity with an occasional evening out. We have shared successes and hard times with each other, and God has brought me a community of friends like I never had before. To any of you ladies reading this blog entry, I love you all!

Thanks in advance to all who will participate. I'm looking forward to reading about what you do and getting ideas from you.