Posted in Site of the Week

Yesterday we went to see "The Spiderwick Chronicles" movie.  We thought it was a really good movie, but then again our taste runs a bit differently from some other homeschool familes.  Cake went to the library Monday and checked out all 5 of the Spiderwick books, as well as the field guide, and had them all read by Tuesday evening.  She thought they were wonderful so we decided to go to the movies for Valentines Day rather than go out to eat like all of the rest of the "masses" do.  Rabbit trail here:  We stopped going out for a romantic valentine dinner about 13 years ago.  We tried it for about 2 years after we were married and ended up fighting about where to go, how long we were going to have to wait, we would then leave, go somewhere else with an even longer wait, go back to the original restaurant, our name had already been called...we finally just decided we could be romantic on days other than Valentines Day, so we always order a pizza, stay at home and watch a movie!!

Now, back to the movie!  You can view a trailer for the movie here, you can find the field guide here as well;  this tells all about the characters.  Now if you really want to have fun you can make your very own, very cool Fantastical Field Guide that features a creature with its own field guide page as well as an activity.  Make sure you print in color because the page is really beautiful.

If you would like to print some activities such as Dressing your own Sprite you will find that here as well.  There are also writing pages to create your own story or change certain parts of "The Spiderwick Chronicles "to suit your own fancy.

Another fun thing we are doing today is making fairies out of silk flower petals.  You can get a bag of these at Wally World (as my husband likes to call it) for a dollar or so.  This is usually a big bag of mixed flower petals that have fallen off of the flower bush stem.  Here is one website that looks similar to the fairies we make. 

Here is an actual pdf description of how to make them

Flower fairy:

 

Lastly, here is a picture of one, but honestly the ones we have made are much prettier.  You can buy this book from Klutz..  The one at the bottom is a fantastic book by Heidi Boyd.  Tons of fairy crafts.  Hope you have as much fun as we did!

Posted in Site of the Week

I found this website today called Paws and Tales and I think it is a great website for kids.  Based on the popular Paws & Tales radio series, this audio collection features memorable stories with meaningful lessons that make each episode a valuable teaching opportunity! Your child will meet C.J., Staci, Paw Paw Chuck, and all of their Wildwood friends as they work together to discover more about the God of the Bible. Elementary-age kids will enjoy the fun stories and lesson songs, and parents will appreciate the helpful Bible study guides provided for each lesson.

This is a great resource for those times when you are trying to get that load of laundry done and the kids are sitting waiting on you to start the next subject.  Just bring that laptop to the table, click on play and let them listen while you get what you have to get done.  There are also parent activities that go along with it so you can quiz them and make sure they were really listening.

Also, apparently, a sister site is HisKids.net This has all kinds of cool things and radio shows.  There is also a live Kids Radio, where you can request a song.  This is all of the types of songs that our childrens ministry uses each week.  All kinds of links to other similar programs.  You will love this one!!!!

Posted in Site of the Week

I know I am not your average SAHM/Home Educator because I HATE to scrapbook!!!  I get with all of my friends and they want to get together to scrapbook, and I always feel so inferior because I hate it.  It must be something I did not receive in the "How to be a Good Homeschool Mom" Packet.  (Don't you wish they actually had one??)

I received as a gift for my first child a beautiful Creative Memories Scrapbook, all the stuff you need to catalog your child's life...I have two pages done and it is buried under my desk waiting for the day when I will get the courage to actually cut up those pictures and do it!!  Maybe I will just let my girls do their own!

Since I hate scrapbooking so much, but love taking pictures, I had to find a solution.  Enter Digital Scrapbooking.  I bought one of these programs last year when I had to produce a scrapbook page for our Homeschool Yearbook.  It worked out very well and was virtually pain free to produce.  Now it is time for the annual scrapbook page again, so back to Google I go.  This time I found one even better, and to beat it all, it was Totally FREE.  It is called Scrapbook Flair and it is really cool.  I have already made several pages and figured out how to add additional background pages as well as being able to import all of the graphics from my previous scrapbook program.

So if you are not one of the "I Live to Scrapbook" type of Mom's then this program is for you.  There may be hope for us yet!! 

(Please leave me a comment if you like this program.)

Posted in Site of the Week

Welcome to Blog Worthy!  My blog has been going through an Extreme Makeover courtesy of the one and only Kris Price.  You will find a wealth of information on all of her blogs.  She is a fabulous template designer and has worked deligently on my template trying to get it the way I wanted it. 

Please check out some of the neat features in the sidebar.  While browsing you can listen to some music provided by Fine Tune, check out the weather with Weather Pixie, watch some really cute videos, do some shopping at our online store Hillunlimited.com.    If you are looking for a great a homeschool magazine, homeschool books or online homeschool auction please check out my affiliate links.  Also, make sure watch the Chris Tomlin video from the movie Amazing Grace.

I would again like to invite you to visit all of  Kris' blogs Journey Back in Time, Classical Education 4 Me, and her lovely Homestead blog My Cozy Little Cottage and see what wonderful work she does designing blogs as well as writing. 

Kris you have been chosen as my first official Site of the Week.  Thank you for all you do!!!