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Showing posts from September, 2008

Observing Wildlife

Please make sure to check back here periodically for more pictures and information. If you click on the pictures, you will be able to see a much larger and defined picture for identification. The Praying Mantis This gentleman was found just outside our back door. We quickly got a jar to figure out whether "it" was a girl or boy. From reading online we think it is a boy because it did not have a large abdomen. Can you see in the picture how he was looking at the camera? I took this picture at the neighbors house. My daughter wasn't sure whether or not it was a butterfly or a moth. Here's a link that will help you determine what this little creature is. http://insects.about.com/od/learningaboutinsects/a/butterflyormoth.htm Here is an update from one of our fellow homeschoolers, Madeline age 11 1/2 "It is a, "Painted Lady" from the large subfamily of butterflies known as brushfoots (Nymphalinae). A Painted Lady has a white crescent at

Free Drawing Lessons by Jan Brett

Jan Brett has a lovely selection of coloring pages and other activities for children online. In fact there are to date over 4,000 of them. Today I'm currently speaking of the drawing video tutorials she has up online. These can be found here . This is such a lovely resource for any family. Especially for those with children who love to draw.

Garden of Praise

I mentioned in the previous post about a site called Freely Educate. Within that I found this lovely site, Garden of Praise . Here is an excerpt from the site. "Garden of Praise is an educational website created in 1999 by a veteran classroom teacher with 35 years experience. Our purpose is to provide free online and printable teaching materials. You are free to print material for your own use at home and in the classroom, but you may not reproduce it for profit." It is very obvious that so much time and effort has been put into this lovely site. You can find old family recipes, all kinds of lesson plans for your children, biblical encouragement and so much more. It is with pleasure that I pass along this link to you. May you be as blessed with it as I am.

Paint on the couch and carpet

Just last night, prince Jon found a very lovely and rare bottle of barn red craft paint. With wonder, excitement and maybe a little fear of the unknown, he opened up the bottle oh so carefully. 'What is that funny stuff inside?' thought the little prince. He started to slowly pour it over the lovely school desk his mother had just months previously repainted for him and his sister. It puddled very neatly onto the desk from the little bit he poured out. 'I'll try some more' he thought, and so he proceeded to dump the entire lovely bottle of red paint on the desk. To his joy and excitement it not only stayed put on the desk, it decided to creap it's way down onto the cream colored, already spotted (from stains) carpet. He was overjoyed - until.....his mother turned around. The Queen was not happy about the little prince's discovery. She quickly picked up the paint covered little prince and quickly proceeded to wash him off. While the prince was

Science Experiments by Robert Krampf

I had been introduced to this site quite awhile ago. However, I'm ashamed to admit we had never vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifisited it, even with the links coming in my inbox. Today we went on the website and learned about the center of gravity. I know this is definately going to be one of those sites that we visit very frequently. I am not the greatest at science, but this was something very easy to understand and learn. Yeah for Robert Krampf and all his hard work. You can visit his site here .

Crisp Fall Weather

Ok so fall doesn't officially start for several more days but I just can't help myself. Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. What goes better with fall than apples? The kids were just loving up the apples we recently purchased. Now I'm getting the fever to go to an apple orchard. I don't think our homeschool group can plan this field trip fast enough for me. lol. My charge to you today is make sure to get those kiddo's outside. Charlotte Mason always said, whatever the weather, get the children outside every day. You would not believe how much more smoothly your day will be if they simply have some time to frolic and explore God's creation - on their own.
First you will see a pix of my bil, Ted before he cut high fructose corn syrup out of his diet. He's the one on the far left. Next is a picture of him after cutting it out of his diet. He's the one on the right. Notice a change? I'll post more on this later. Here's a couple movies for you to watch:)

Feebies on your birthday!

So since today is my birthday I thought I'd share all the freebies you can get with it. Here are some locations where signing up can get you some yummy goodies. Cold Stone - get a free ice cream creation. Tropical Smoothie - free smoothie of choice. Zhenders Restarant - free chicken dinner and free ornament at Bronners. Logans - free nut butter fludge slide. Prime Outlest in Birch Run - started a promotion this month with a $20 gift card! Moes - 1 free burrito Macaroni Grill - free piece of chocolate cake I'm sure there are many other places that do things like this. If you are aware of any, leave me a comment and I'll add it to the list. TO get these items you must sign up for the newsletter on their online site. Enjoy!

Two Cleaning Items You Should Always Have On Hand - Vinegar and Baking Soda

These items are not only safe but cheap! Gotta love that. They also work incredibly well. These two items are baking soda and white distilled vinegar. Kitchen: 1. Plugged Drains - Pour 1/2 cup baking soda down drain followed by 1/2 cup vinegar. If the clog is very bad, skim off floaties that come to the surface and repeat. After it won't bubble anymore, give it one or two good plunges and it should be free. 2. Mix 1/4 cup baking soda in a sink full of water to wash fruits and veggies. 3. Put out a grease fire with baking soda. 4. Deodorize fridge and freezer by putting a box of baking soda in each one. 5. Add to presoaked beans to make them more digestible. 6. Dissolve 2T. baking soda in a bit of water placed in a microwave safe bowl. Put in microwave and heat till boiling. You should easily be able to clean out stuck on food on the microwave. 7. Place 1 cup vinegar on the bottom shelf of your dishwasher. Wash on the hottest, longest cycle. This will help clean your