Notebooking Nook

Fire Sale!

{ 4:21 PM, Jan. 11, 2008 }

Well, I finally got my website working again! I'm so glad it didn't take as long as I had thought. My new computer has a upgraded operating system and some of the plug-ins for my website program weren't compatible. I just had to do some upgrades to the program. I also had lost my photos, and this is where I stored most of my sample pages for my website. Thankfully, my husband is wonderful about backing up the photos onto a separate hard drive and I was able to get them easily! I'm SO relieved it wasn't too much work!

I wanted to give a little back for all the wonderful kindness we've been shown, so I'm having a FIRE SALE ; )

Everything on my website is on sale for 40% off through January. I've even made the "I Want it All" Complete Notbooking Set as part of the deal! For a limited time, you will also get all the Joyful Steward products thrown in, this is a $21.00 value, FREE with your purchase of the "I Want it All" Complete Notebooking Set. If you were to purchase all the notebooking pages and planners separately you would pay $147.70, BUT... during the FIRE SALE you only pay...

$51.00 for EVERYTHING on the website.

I hope by doing this it will bless someone in some way. It's difficult to know how to show how much we truly appreciate all everyone has done for us! There really are no words except THANK YOU and God Bless!!!
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Quick Update

{ 11:09 AM, Jan. 2, 2008 }

I'm very busy with lots of little details. We have to provide a catalog for everything that was in our house for the insurance company, which seems like a nightmare to me, but that's my next big task. During the clean up I made up about 40 pages of things I could see and tried to find model number, if they weren't too burned to see them. I'm not looking forward to it, I must say.

But, some good news, our house is for the most part cleaned up and taken away. It is a little strange seeing my house gone but also a relieve not to have to see it broken and burned every time I go over there. We are hoping to start construction in about 6 weeks or so. Thankfully, building is a bit slow, so our contractor (and very good friend) says it should go up very quickly, hoping to have it done by end of summer. I looking forward to getting back into our own space.

I'm still receiving packages and I so happy with everything that is coming in. I spent most of yesterday trying to set our temp school room. I still had so many boxes to go through and I'm just so excited to have a few things to work with. Homeschoolers are the BEST people I know!!!
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THANK YOU, EVERYONE!!!

{ 8:23 AM, Dec. 28, 2007 }

It's been a trying few weeks, but we've learned a lot and have been extremely blessed and well taken care of. I'm in awe at the amount of love and support we have been given. Our family is closer and strengthened by the love we have felt and through your prayers.

We have received A LOT of packages from many of you and I can't tell you what it means to our family. I had to go out and replace book shelves right away, because we have received so many wonderful books! What a great blessing it is have books in our home again!

Many of you sent your packages anonymously, please know we are so thankful for your goodness and warmth towards our family. Everything that has come in has been such a blessing and relief to us.

For those of you who participated in the benefit, either as a publisher or having given a donation, please except our heart-felt thanks. We will be able to put this money to very good use.

Our family appreciates everything everyone has done to help support us. We are so blessed to have great people in our lives, both close by and our "cyber friends". It strengthens me to know that so many people care. This has been the most difficult time of our lives, but through the prayers and actions of others we have come through it stronger and closer as a family. I haven't cried now for about a week, so that's pretty good! Ok, I did cry Christmas, but not because my house burned down, but because we could spend it as a family.

I'm looking forward with hope and faith to a brighter future. I know God will provide and Jesus will walk alongside.

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Thank you for your prayers

{ 10:55 AM, Dec. 12, 2007 }

My heart is filled with graditude to all who have been praying for our family. I know we have all felt your prayers and are so very thankful for them. We are all doing better than I could have hoped, the support from our church and other local churches has been overwhelming and so greatly appreciated. The kids are sad at some of the things they lost, mostly their journals and other school projects that can't be replaced. The school room was a complete loss as well as our entire collection of books from over our 10 years of homeschooling. I too, I'm very saddened by this, but I'm so grateful to a kind and loving Heavenly Father who kept us all safe and continues to keep us safe. We have always been a very close family but things like this bring you even closer.

We are in a comfortable home that is available until our home is rebuilt. There is even a bonus room we can use as a school room. The kids still need beds, but the church members are working on that and it looks like we will have most of them by tonight. Our freezer is full of meals from other local churches and our church members are feeding us for the next week, which is wonderful.

We are still trying to salvage anything we can. Fortunately, we were able to save lots of family photos that were in my closet. My closet wasn't hit as hard as the rest of the house. We feel so blessed about that, it was what I stuggled with most of that day when we weren't allowed in. God is so good!

I don't have a lot of time but wanted to let you all know how very thankful we are for each and every prayer and for all the other help.

I apologize for any problems you might be having with any Notebooking Nook orders. I use a website builder on my computer, which was a total lost. I will have to rebuild from scratch as soon as time allows. However, if any of you do have problems, I will do whatever I can to help you just as soon as possible.

Thank you again for all your prayers.

{ 8 comments } { Link }

LABOR DAY GIVEAWAY!!!

{ 7:32 AM, Aug. 27, 2007 }

I'm going to be giving away 3 of each and every product available on my website!!! That's
right, EVERYTHING!

OVER 100 PRODUCTS WILL BE GIVEN AWAY!!!

If you are interested in FREE products (and who isn't) you will need to join our mailing list for all the exciting details.

The information will be sent out on the Saturday before Labor Day! Sign up HERE!

You don't want to miss this offer!!!

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 5 comments } { Link }

Joyful Steward Student Planners Combo Set

{ 7:26 PM, Aug. 20, 2007 }

I've combined all three of the Joyful Steward Student Planners for a great value for the larger family. You will receive the Primary Level and both Intermediate Girl and Boy Levels.

By purchasing these planners as a set you save about 30%!!!

See Samples:
Primary ~ Intermediate Girl ~ Intermediate Boy

Read more about each planner:
Primary ~ Intermediate Girl ~ Intermediate Boy

Each is a 36 Week Planner

Included in the Primary Level:
Weekly Copywork / Memory Work
Weekly Student Checklist
Weekly Obedient Checklist
Book of the Week
Trait of the Week
Weely Calendar

Included in the Intermiate Level Planner:
Weekly Copywork / Memory Verse
Weekly Subject Checklist
Weekly Chore Checklist
Book Assignments
Character & Life Skills
Weekly Calendar
Extra Pages:
Several Assignment Pages to Choose From
Book Log

PLEASE NOTE: The tables in these planners are to be filled in by hand. They are unable to be filled in using your computer.

{ Posted in Homeschooling } { 0 comments } { Link }

5 Week Menu ~ Templates and Other Free Forms

{ 7:24 AM, Aug. 20, 2007 }

If you are interested a template for the 5 week menu plan click here for color and here for black and white.

Here is a sample of my completed menu.

See my blog entry on the menu here.

I also added a page to my website with lots of free homeschool and family forms.
{ Posted in Family } { 0 comments } { Link }

Our "Just for Fun" Readaloud

{ 6:24 AM, Aug. 14, 2007 }

We love good books. I try to add as many literature books as I can reasonably fit into our school schedule as I can. I have to read at least one book though that is just for fun, usually reading before we retire for the night.

We are just finishing up a wonderful little story called The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, the author of Because of Winn-Dixie. This is a very different story than that of Because of Winn-Dixie but this author sure knows how to draw a child into a story. We are absolutely loving reading this book. It is also something your child could read on his/her own. Look for it at your library or check Amazon. Lots of Fun!

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Another Dinner Hit!

{ 7:10 PM, Aug. 13, 2007 }

When I made my 5 week menu plan I searched for new recipes to try on allrecipes.com. We just had a yummy pasta tonight that was a big hit with the kids. Here's the link. You could sub the shrimp with chicken IMO. Ours didn't look anything like the picture on the screen though because I added a 28 ounce can of tomato sauce. I also changed the servings to serve 8 and we had leftovers. There are 8 of us BTW. Yummy!
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Hamburger Potato Casserole

{ 5:56 AM, Aug. 9, 2007 }

My daughter made this for dinner last night and it was a real hit. I got it from allrecipes.com
{ Posted in Recipes } { 1 comments } { Link }

The Vikings!

{ 7:32 AM, Jul. 26, 2007 }

We are just about to start back up with school and this year are excited to study the Middle Ages for history. I've just completed one of several sets I plan on making for our study of this time period. The Vikings, is always an interesting subject to delve deeply into and this set of notebooking pages will be a great addition to our study!

For those of you studying the Middle Ages, you might also be interest in the Daily Life in the Medieval World Notebooking Pages.

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 1 comments } { Link }

Thomas Edison Notebooking Pages

{ 7:24 AM, Jul. 26, 2007 }

If you are planning on studying Thomas Edison any time soon, you will want to check out these notebooking pages! They would be an excellent addition to your study.

There are several other Great Inventors to choose from as well. I have only one set left to make for the Great inventors, The Wright Brothers will be the final set included and then I will sell a complete set with all the inventors included in one. The completed packet will be sold for less than $10.

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 0 comments } { Link }

Night at the Museum Notebooking Pages

{ 9:11 AM, Jul. 22, 2007 }

These Night at the Museum Notebooking Pages were posted on my Notebooking Nook group and I thought it seemed like a lot of fun. If you aren't planning on starting school anytime soon, this might be a fun thing for your kids to work on.
{ Posted in Notebooking } { 0 comments } { Link }

Joyful Steward Student Planner

{ 9:20 AM, Jul. 16, 2007 }

Click the cover page to see samples and order this product.

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Young children love checklists! Seeing what they have accomplished seems to give them great satisfaction. I’ve created this planner to help your children learn about stewardship, learn to plan and set goals and at the same time rejoice in their Savior.

I’ll explain what you will find on each page in this planner.

At the top of a planning page you will find a bible verse that can be used for copywork, as well as a memory verse for the week. There are also primary lines to copy the verse onto. Some children will be able to copy this verse in one day, while others may take the entire week. Both are fine. I would suggest for those who copy it in one day, to read through it daily and also use it as a memory verse for that week.

The subject checklist is to help your child see all he has accomplished in school for the week. You can use small stickers, stamps, happy faces or just use check marks.

I’ve also added a checklist for being obedient. Young children love to make their parents happy and having you tell them they can check off those good things they've accomplished, will be a good incentive to behaving properly.

You will also find a “Book of the Week” table. This is for your child to add the book or one of the books he will be reading during the week. He can then circle the picture that matches how he felt about this book.

The “Trait of the Week” table is for your child to practice a good trait during the week. You can choose to use a trait that matches closely with the memory verse or choose something you think your child needs to work on. At the end of the week, he can circle the happy or sad face to decide how he did.

Lastly, I’ve added a calendar. This is for your child to add the things he might be looking forward to during the week. He could also help keep track of his appointments, to perhaps give you a reminder as well!

I have always felt strongly about teaching children to be stewards over their time, belongings, and behavior. I hope these planning pages will assist in teaching your young children to set goals, become more accountable and a better steward.
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Pot Roast with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

{ 12:30 PM, Jul. 14, 2007 }

I have had a few requests for some of the recipes on my menu. I thought I'd add them as I prepare them. We are officially starting our menu tomorrow and so I'll add the Roast Beef first. Many of the recipes I'm using we have never used before, so I can't vouch for them all. This dinner being one of them.

Remember, I have 6 kids, a husband with a large appetite and we love having leftovers.

4 lb. chuck roast
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix
2- 10 3/4 oz. cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Place roast in slow cooker. Sprinkle with dry soup mix. Top with mushroom soup.
Cover. Cook on High 1 hour, and then Low 8 hours., or until meat is tender.
Slice. Serve with mashed potatoes or cooked noodles.

Variation:
Add cubed potatoes and sliced carrots to beef. Proceed with directions above.

I will be serving with mashed potatoes, adding carrots to the crockpot and rolls.

(If you want a juicy beef roast ready by noon, put your roast in the slow cooker in the evening and let it cook on Low all night.)

This recipe was taken from Fix-It and Forget -It Cookbook, Feasting with you Slow Cooker by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good.
{ Posted in Recipes } { 2 comments } { Link }

Copywork ~ What's it All About?

{ 7:45 AM, Jul. 12, 2007 }

Copywork is exactly what it sounds like... copying! Your child will spend a few minutes each day copying great pieces of work from a wide variety of sources – literature, poetry, scripture, fables, quotes, and so on. While your child is copying these great works, emphasize the importance of using their very best penmanship and making their copy as close to the original as possible. By using this method, your child will see the proper way to punctuate, usage of different parts of speech, as well as capitalization. Basically, they will see how a great piece literature should look and be written.

Copywork will allow your child to see different writing styles and structure, which in turn, if consistent, will help them become better writers. If your child can manage it, have them look and write the whole word instead of letter by letter, this will assist them in becoming better spellers. My younger children who started out doing copywork from the start are much better writers and spellers. They don't seem to have to work so hard at spelling. While my older children, who began copywork later struggled a bit more. That’s not to say copywork was a for sure cure for spelling, however, I do believe it helped a lot.

If your child is very young, you can start with the formation of their letters. Spend only as much time as your child can handle doing this. Once this is mastered you will move on to words, sentences, paragraphs, poems, scripture, quotes... I think you get the point.

Allow them to illustrate their pages or find pages that are made for copywork practice. Placing these pages in a notebook is a great way to store their work. This allows them to not only be able to show off their beautiful penmanship to grandparents and friends, but also allows both you and your child to see their progression. My kids often like to illustrate or color a picture that goes along with their copywork for the day. Some children enjoy illustrating their own pictures while others enjoy coloring pictures already provided for them. Copywork notebooks allow your child to add any illustration, making them very personal.

Over the years I've done different things to get my children motivated about doing their copywork – I used to keep separate jars with scripture verses, quotes, and poems and they would pull them out and that was their copywork for the day. We still alternate days doing a verse, quote, poem, literature and their choice for each day of the week. However, some selections take more than one day to complete. One bookshelf in my schoolroom is dedicated to keeping books of poetry, fables, quotes and so forth. I also keep a notebook where I continually add verses, poems and quotes to be used for copywork.

In short, if you choose to use this method, you will find that your child will become better at spelling, writing, grammar and penmanship. It is so easy to implement, there really is no reason to not give it a try!

Click here for free pages I have a available for copywork.

Click here to see some products I have available for copywork.

{ Posted in Notebooking } { 1 comments } { Link }

Five Week Menu Plan

{ 7:29 PM, Jul. 11, 2007 }

I attended the UHEA conference this year and went to a class that inspired me to want to make a 5 week menu. The gal who taught the class made up this type of a menu for her family. She has the same things for breakfast and lunch every week. Monday is always the same, etc. I will probably add it to my website down the road, when I do updates next. For now, here is a copy of what I came up with.

I'm now working on a master shopping list. By the time the 5 weeks are up, if we enjoyed these meals we can just start over again. Basically, this might be all we'll ever need. I think it is a great idea!
{ Posted in Family } { 9 comments } { Link }

Free Item of the Week at Homeschoolestore

{ 11:43 AM, Jul. 9, 2007 }

I recently added my products to Homeschoolestore and this week you can get my Nature Study Journal and Copywork Pages for FREE this week only!

I also added some free Bird Copywork and Narration pages to Homeschoolestore last week. Some of you might have them already, if so, I added a couple title pages you might be interested in.

The set above will always be free. Just click on the title pages to take you to the downloads.

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My School Room

{ 6:18 PM, Jul. 8, 2007 }

I wanted to add my photos of my school room again. I had someone ask about it recently and thought I'd repost them. (I lost my original blog when HSB did some updates).

We will be starting our 10th year homeschooling and one very important part of this for me is making sure everything has a place. There is nothing worse for me than trying to find something and it not being there. That's not to say everything is always where it's suppose to be, not even close, but it's a nice goal, right?!

This set of shelves is where we store all our notebooking and scrapbooking supples. I'm a big fan of the clear plastic draws. I like these for several reasons, they are durable, afforable, clear and they can be pulled out and put back where they belong. I perfer to have many small draws rather than a few big ones because things get lost on the bottom of them. In the bottom three canvan baskets we have one with legos, one with blocks and one is actually empty at the moment. I also label everything, this is because I don't want the kids to ever have an excuse to say "I didn't know where to put it". I'd heard that way too often in the past, but no more!

I purchased the cubby book shelf at Target for about $50 and all the plastic draws bins at Wal-Mart for between $3-$10. I use a tool caddy to home all the little scrapbook supplies and purchased that for about $10 at Wal-mart.

This is just a close up of on of the draw sets, it holds the 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. We also make scrapbook pages for school, but that's another post.

This set of drawers holds the kids crayons, colored pencils and markers. Again, I love being able to pull out the entire draw. It's so easy and convenient.

This is Mom's set of draws for pencils, pens, highlighters, markers and labels. The binders next to them are mine for each subject. I divide each subject into 36 weeks and add any ideas, notebooking pages, worksheets, projects, etc. to the week where it would apply. This has been a big time saver for me having everything I need in separate binders and in separate weeks.

This is my set of bookshelves. I just have them sitting on a folding table. I have used them for the last seven years and this has worked very nicely.

The set of bookshelves under the window hold the books I plan to use for the year. One set holds literature, one set science and the last set history and geography. The top shelf of all the book shelves are reference books for that subject. The corner shelf holds my copy machine, paper, and misc. supplies.

This is our main desk area. When we are working on something together we all sit around this table, which is again just 2 folding tables. My youngest kids always sit by me, so they can have extra help. We do A LOT of notebooking at this table. We used to do our school devotional here, but have found sitting in the family room is much more comfortable. Actually, we do most our reading and lessons in other rooms and only come in the school room to do our math, writing or anything that needs a desk.

You can see the kids desks lined up there to the right. Each of the kids has there own desk where they can sit and do their independent work.

Each of the kids also has their own bookshelf. This has been great to have. It teaches them to govern their own things, keeps them organized and if they are messy the kids who share a nearby shelf gets on their case. A little peer pressure is a good thing when it comes to this sort of thing.

The boxes on the bottom shelf hold our science project supplies for the school year. Well, at least the ones that can be stored in a box. Most science books will have a supply list at the beginning of the book with all the supplies you will need for each project throughout the year.

This world map was a school project a few years ago (this picture is a couple years old). We put it on the wall with an overhead projector. My kids traced on the lines with a pencil than went over it with a marker. We paint in countries we have studied as we go. When we decided to do this, we thought it would be good to paint the school room blue so we would have our oceans and other bodies of water already done. I love having this map on the wall, it has been wonderful for the kids to have a visual and to see what they have learned over the years. I'm sure I will treasure it even more once they are all gone. The only thing I would do different is make it a bit smaller, it eats up an entire wall. Wall space is kind of precious as many of you know.

{ Posted in Homeschooling } { 8 comments } { Link }

Proud to be an American

{ 4:56 PM, Jul. 8, 2007 }

I put out my set of Proud to be an American notebooking pages about two weeks ago. Someone from my Notebooking Nook Yahoo! group pointed out a spelling error on my Benjamin Franklin pages and I wanted to let those who purchased from Homeschoolestore that these pages have been revised. They are available free on my website for anyone to use. You can find them by clicking here.

I also put these pages on sale through July 20th! If you use the PROMO CODE: ProudAmerican you wil receive this set of notebooking pages for $5.00! Click here for a direct link to this set of notebooking pages.