Zebra - Animal of the Week

This week we are studying Zebras! 
Download this week's Animal of the Week pages here.

Here are some books we are going to check out:

• Appaloosa Zebra by Jessie Haas
• Lots and lots of zebra stripes: patterns in nature by Stephen R. Swinburne
• Zella, Zack, and Zodiac by Bill Peet

Enjoy!

Pinterest Party TIME!

My friends and I love a good Pinterest Party! This Friday we are getting together for a Fall Themed Pinterest Party!

Picture: No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
from afamilyfeast.com

What's a Pinterest Party? You might be asking. We try to pick 2 or 3 projects (depending on how lengthy they are) and we get all the necessary items and craft away. We also have food we find on Pinterest. We try to only include things we see on Pinterest.  Typically we only include food items we've seen on Pinterest, but haven't tried. And yes, we've had duds and failures....but that's part of the fun. 
This week I'm in charge of the food. Here's the menu:

• Pumpkin Smoothies
• Baked Apples
• Apple Nachos
• Carmel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
• Pumpkin Ice Cream
• No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles
• Pumpkin Ravioli

See the links to these yummy recipes on my Fall/Halloween Board on Pinterest.  I've prepped by making the Pumpkin Ice Cream (takes good so far...just needs to freeze), No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake (cheated and tried it and it was de-lish), and Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles.  I'll make everything else tomorrow. Can't wait to try ALL of them!

Animal of the Week - Ducks/Swans/Geese

This week we are studying a few "birdies"! We'll look at Ducks, Swans, and Geese since they are sort of similar and usually together. We'll look at the similarities and differences. 

We have lots of Geese in our neck of the woods. They have starting to migrate finally, but they are quite a nuisance in the spring. Our town finally got a Geese crossing sign right down from our subdivision  to help with all the Geese that try to cross the four lane road. I've been stopped many times. You have to honk because they sometimes just won't move.  Ask my daughter about the time the Geese pooped on us during our walk, too. HAHAHA  Lets just say, if you see Geese get up and fly....RUN FOR IT!


Print the Duck/Geese/Swan Animal of the Week here.

We'll look for these books this week:

• Duck & Good Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills
• Grady the Goose by Denise Brenna-Nelson
• 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Erin Carle
• Just Ducks! by Nicola Davies
• The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

Books for Homeschoolers Too

When my kid was in public school it seemed like every week he would come home with a new fundraiser. We sold discount cards and trash bags. There were food drives, box tops, money for spirit week (to wear a hat cost $1), walk-a-thons, book drives, book fairs, etc etc. The list goes on and on. Now some of that was for other causes, good causes, other than for the school, but all cost money. School, even when tuition is free, is expensive.

This year we are homeschooling. Whew....I finally feel like I can breathe! The obligations are for things we WANT to do. We also spend our money on things we WANT and need...but we know where our money goes. 

A fellow homeschool mom and I were discussing how we really missed those Scholastic flyers we'd get sent home when our kids were in school. Remember those sweet flyers with all the books your kids would drool over? We missed them and we wanted to have the opportunity to buy the discounted books too. I thought about just contacting a fellow teacher I knew, but I didn't want to intrude and be bothersome so I decided to google. I ran across fiveoclockdanceparty's blog here: http://fiveoclockdanceparty.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/scholastic-book-club-available-to-homeschoolers/

Searching for Scholastic Homeschool didn't point me to their homeschool page but they do have such a thing. You can find it here: http://clubsonline.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5920

Recommended on the listed blog was to create a teacher's account, then call 1-800-497-8291 and confirm you are actually homeschooling. They also will ask for some info and want a school name. This is just whatever name you want but just be ready when you call. The list of the other information is listed on their site: http://clubsonline.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5920

My dilemma is that I already had a parent account and could not create a teacher account because I wanted to use the same email.  When I called, I let them know and they switched my account over to a teacher. Now they told me when I can, log into a teacher account. Basically I am still a parent too, but to order as a teacher, I need to be in teacher space...but I can also order as a parent. Just be careful when you order and make sure you switch your kids teacher to yourself so whatever you do, you still get books :-) and you don't have your child's old teacher listed. 

When you do this and have your own "class site", your class will get a class code. You can send this to family and friends and they can order books for you or for themselves, but you get the points to go towards free books. 

Also you can create a class wish list. This way, when they log in your class code, they can see what you want and 'order for the class'.

Now, we love the library and we use it every week! BUT nothing beats getting your own book to keep and read over and over. 


I also made an Amazon wishlist. Since most catalogs sells through Amazon or Amazon also carries that product, I can register for all the wants there. Not only can I share it with family and friends (for birthdays and Christmas especially) but I like to keep track of books and things I'd like to get for the kids, when have finished curriculum. 

Happy Reading!

Animal of the Week - Cheetah

This week we are studying Cheetahs! 

If you want to learn more about the fastest mammal on earth download our Animal of the Week sheets here. (PDF)

We might just have to go to the Zoo and see us a real live Cheetah. Our Cheetahs like to hide though, so who knows if we'll be able to see them. Our zoo does a Cheetah Run every month though. I'm not sure if my kids remember it from last year but we went and it was really interesting. Apparently, Cheetahs are super fast but only for a few seconds. They rigged a line zig zagging through the cheetah habitat and it shows their ability to dart at the objects or prey. But they certainly could not keep up with the objects, if they didn't pull them off the line on the first or second try. 

Books we are looking for this week include:

• National Geographic Readers: Cheetahs by Laura Marsh 
• Cheetah by Taylor Morrison
• What's Faster Than A Speeding Cheetah? by Robert E. Well

There is also a cool lap book on Cheetahs over at Homeschool Share.com. If you'd like to study more about any of these animals check our their website because they have great unit studies or lap books available for a lot of them. 

Stay Speedy!

Animal of the Week - Camel

This week's animal is the Camel!
Download the info sheet, coloring pages, reading log, and craft here.

I do put cursive writing on my writing sheets because that is what we are currently working on. If you would prefer regular writing, you can make your own writing sheets at the TwistyNoodle.com. They have the cutest coloring sheets which I use frequently and you can put in your own text and choose cursive or regular for your budding writing to practice. 

This week at the library was slim pickings! There were basically only three books, so that is what we go!

• The Christmas Camel by Nancy Winslow Park
• Pamela Camel by Bill Peet
• Cappy the Lonely Camel by Donald Rubinetti

There are certainly many more camel books aren't there but our library just doesn't carry them. 

We hope to learn about Camels this week! Should be fun!