Tamara from TrainingHearts.com is hosting a Pass the Button Giveaway.  It's a wonderful idea for a wonderful reason with wonderful giveaways. 

Homeschool Estore's FREE product of the week is Secrets of Successful Homeschooling by Paul and Gena Suarez!!  Don't miss it.

I've also entered a toy contest on The Company Front Porch.  You can enter, too! 

The Battle for the Toy Box Contest!
I entered the Battle for the Toy Box Contest
on the HSB Company Porch.  I hope to win
over $100 worth of, Tales of Glory, Bible-based toys
from one2believe!!

Several homeschool publishers have gotten together to help the Estes Family (owners of Hands & Hearts) in their time of need.  They are offering a HUGE amount of free resources to anyone willing to donate as little as $27.00 to the Estes family's medical expenses.   

Read here for more information.  Not only can you be a blessing, but you can be blessed through your donation, too!

Today is the last day of the Homeschool E-Store Freebie Giveaway.  It's a redo of the giveaway around Mother's Day.  There are 26 free titles and the downloads are much faster than they were last time!!  Happy downloading!

https://www.homeschoolestore.com/catalog/index.php

Nancy sent me the neatest link to a website called Paper Toys.  There are all sorts of FREE patterns that you simply print, cut and paste.  I think they'll make great additions to some of our lapbooks and notebooks!  They would even work for 3-D timeline figures.

Ever wonder about the Charlotte Mason philosophy?  My friend Melissa found a FREE e-book at the Simply Charlotte Mason site. 

I've only had time to skim it so far.  But it looks like a GREAT book and seems to be an easy read.  It looks to be full of practical information, too!

After my last post about next year's curriculum, I noticed just how many Scholastic books I'm planning to use.  So, I thought I'd post about the treasures that came in my mailbox that glorious day in May! 

Remember the Scholastic $1.00 Sale I posted about?  Well, I ended up buying 30 books.  Yes, I said 30.  But with shipping, it only cost me $32.70!!!  Shipping was only $2.70! 

I took a chance buying the books thinking they might be seconds or outdated or only a few pages long.  But, I was very happily surprised when I opened the box to find brand-new, perfect condition, current, full-size books!  In fact, when I was posting links in my previous post, I noticed all the books are selling at Amazon for $10.00 or more!

Why am I posting?  To brag?  Absolutely not!  I'm posting to encourage you to take advantage of deals when they come along.  It can be well worth your money.  On the other hand, it can be a waste of your money if you spend, but never use what you buy.  Be frugal, but be smart.  It's kind of the same philosophy as buying 50 pounds of flour at the bulk store for 1/3 the regular price, then letting 40 pounds go to waste because you couldn't use it in time.  You haven't really saved any money. 

One advantage we have as homeschoolers, though, are places like VegSource where we can at least get back some money when selling our things.  That's why I usually pick something up when a great deal comes along.  If I can't use it, I either sell it or bless someone else with it.  Now, on to the books!

Hands of A Child has a new freebie at their website!!  It's a Mary Cassatt lapbook unit that looks really good! 

I don't feel like I did quite as well at this curriculum sale as I did at the one Tuesday.  Although, I did make it home with some serious deals!  Here's $46.00 dollars well spent.

The pictures aren't great.  I was trying to take them on my porch (which needs a good painting) at dusk. 

Anyway,  in the geography stash, I was most excited about the KY activity book.  We're doing a KY history unit this coming year.  The magnetic states puzzle is really fun, too.

 I found some great vintage art books for FREE and the Masterpiece of the Month book has large posters of famous artist's pieces to use with the lessons.

I was very excited to find Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations and the Bible, as well as Remembering God's Awesome Acts (put out by the same people who wrote Considering God's Creation.)

Here's the only math related book I found.

I bought this white board and bulletin board for $1.00 each.

Here are some reading things.  I'm not overly excited about any of them, but they were all FREE!

I bought some cookbooks for Mahayla.  These are great!

I'm super-excited about my science finds.  I only paid $3.00 each for the Lyrical Life Science sets!

Can you believe someone was selling Jotham's Journey?!  The tapes are all workshops from homeschool conventions.  The topics range from building character into your children to family devotions to teaching writing.  Every one of the tapes were FREE!

And my best find of the day probably has to be this.  It's a huge book in perfect condition and full of fun projects that I got for...........FREE!!

Speaking of free, Mahayla wanted me to show you her stash that she was able to get without spending a dime.

Used Curriculum Sales - I LOVE these things!  There are usually two fairly big sales in my area during June.  The first one was yesterday and I still have one on Friday to look forward to!! 

I only spent $37.00 yesterday and here's all the loot I brought home!

All sorts of Answers In Genesis kid's books about dinosaurs, a Buddy Davis cd, and an Answers In Genesis kid's video.

An entire set of math related literature, many of them hardbacks.  Plus a couple of math activity books.

Some books for me and some to share.

Some great picture and chapter books, along with a B4Five In A Row guide.

Some fun games and puzzles.

And a boat-load of history and geography things.  Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book was 50 cents! 

WooHoo!  Gotta love bargains!  If I have as good a day Friday, I'll post those treasures, too.

WOWIO is a site that offers FREE dowloads of books.  You are allowed five downloads a day.  So far, I've downloaded 10 books full of info and projects for Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, Native Americans, Colonial times, Pioneers, the Civil War and WWII.  Plus an art book on botanical illustrations.  I have some more art and children's books on my list to download another day.

You do have to enter a little questionaire when signing up.  You also have to have a non-anonymous email address.  No hotmail or yahoo accounts.  A friend of mine has had trouble in the sign-up process, but I haven't had any problems.  The downloads take several minutes, but I just start a download and go do a load of laundry or something.  

Have fun with your FREE books!!  

I just found out that I can earn a FREE I-POD if ten people sign up using this email address as their referral - cynthiawest@bellsouth.net  Thanks for including this when you sign up!!!  By the way, you can earn one, too!

Yard Sales Are Coming!

In my neck of the woods, yard sale season is just beginning. What do yard sales have to do with homeschooling? Plenty. I have stocked my homeschooling shelves more than you would believe with dime and quarter finds from yard sales. Here’s a list of things to watch for:

*Books, books and more books!

*Games - Check to be sure all the pieces are there!

*Manipulatives - you wouldn’t believe the number of ex-teachers who sell their things in yard sales

*Art supplies - I’ve found barely used oil pastels, construction paper, paint brushes, art sets, acrylic paints, stencils

*Old sheets, pillow cases for sewing projects - this is a cheap source for pretty fabric

*Craft supplies, yarn, knitting needles - lots of little old ladies sell these things

*Book shelves - I bought one last year for $2.00!

*Audio tapes, videos, dvds, computer cds - just make sure they look to be in good condition and the computer cds will work with your operating system

*File cabinets

*Puzzles

I’d love to hear other great homeschooling buys you’ve found at yard sales!!

Shop early, the good stuff doesn’t last long. Goodwill and Salvation Army type stores are great places to shop, too!

I’m off for my first round of the season tomorrow. Oh joy!!

Related Tags: yard sales, bargains, homeschooling

Scholastic Books is having a $1.00 Sale on many great teacher resource books!!  I just bought 30 - yep, I said 30!!  Believe it or not, the shipping was only $2.70.  So, for $32.70 there will be 30 new books showing up at my door soon.  Yippee!

I don't have time to type all the titles, but here are a few I ordered:

30 Biography Book Reports

50 Fabulous Measurement Activities

Building Skills In Writing:  Story Writing

Great Grammar Lessons That Work

Marvelous Map Activities For Young Learners

Read Around the World With 20 Great Picture and Chapter Books

Ready To Go Super Book of Outline Maps

See what I mean?  Now GO.  What are you waiting for?   

Editing to add:  VERY IMPORTANT - Their site is extremely slow.  It's much faster to write down your titles and call customer service at 800-560-6816.  They prefer item numbers rather than titles, but the site was moving too slowly, so she just took my order using titles. 

While I was visiting elclecticeducation, I ran across a freebie she had listed.  Not only did I download the wonderful freebie - Bible verse copywork pages - but I found all sorts of resources that look wonderful on this site.  Hope you enjoy, too!

http://www.thehomeschoolshop.com/