Easy Crafts for Christmas

These truly are easy and fun. They are frugal involving paper, glue, and glitter for the most part. Ramblings of a Crazy Woman has many ideas with pictures of her crafts for younger children. She has been busy! I linked to her November archives. I love the crafts with hand prints, one of which has a selection of poems to go along with the craft. It's worth a look, and great for those of us who are time and budget challenged. ;)

Fourth Grade Reading Lessons with Comprehension Questions Week V/Free Printables

Click and print:

Harry's Riches

Harry and His Dog

The Eagle

Consequences of Idleness

The Noblest Revenge

Week V Vocabulary List

Week V Vocabulary Quizzes

Selections are from the Revised Fourth Grade McGuffey's Reader(1920 edit.), free and in public domain.

Previous weeks here.

It's a Wonderful Life Free at Google Video

Google has movies now. Click here, Autumn Rose has it on her blog.

The Internet Archives also has It's a Wonderful Life on MP3(audio).

All are free and in public domain.

More Free Educational Vintage Radio Programs

Homeschool Radio School has two free MP3 downloads this week:

Path of Praise: "Cavalcade of America" 1951, history of Thanksgiving.

And just for fun: Baby Snooks' Thanksgiving

Download instructions: Right click and "save as target". See download directions at bottom of page at site.

Click here. Both are in public domain.

Free Printable Math Word Problems

Free printable worksheets for math word problems(earlier post).

Vintage printable math books with word problems throughout for first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and possibly fifth grade and beyond. The books are not graded, are free and in public domain.

Free printable math problems for fourth and fifth grade.

Word problems for grades 5-12.

Algebra word problems.

Word problem strategies with problems for early elementary school math.

Word problem strategies for middle school with problem examples.

Ungraded, mentions that printable math problem worksheets appropriate for basic through intermediate.

HT to School Librarian in Action for some of these links.

Continuing with Free Fourth Grade Reading Lessons

Ds has two more lessons in his Pathway fourth grade reader and workbook. I will be sad to finish this reader. I've liked this wholesome series with life lessons. The stories are so cute! My favorite was Dotty the Salmon. The reading and vocabulary was challenging, but the stories kept ds's interest and it was enjoyable.

So, I'll be back to using the vintage readers from my homeschool library. I posted a short series of these a while back. I'll continue sharing beginning with Week V, only this time I'll be adding five lessons a week.

I won't be doing this for the entire school year as we still plan to use Rod & Staff's fourth grade reader which cover the New Testament. We school all year round, so there is no rush.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Ringless/Hookless Shower Curtain

Ringless/hookless shower curtains are made of water resistant fabric(polyester), wash easily and are mold resistant. They hang nicely and don't cling to you in the shower. I can't tell you how much easier it is with this shower curtain to get it off and on for cleaning. The flexible ring makes it pop right on when you push it against the shower curtain rod. It comes off just as easily. Ringless or hookless shower curtains are economical because you never have to buy liners.

I got mine a few years ago at a close-out sale on QVC. They were difficult to come by then, but when I did a Google search for this post, I found quite a few available. This one looks a lot like mine, and it's reasonably priced.

See more tips over at Shannon's. :)

Free Printable Vintage Children's Thanksgiving Poems and Stories

These are in public domain. I've copied and pasted them to Google Documents. Just click and print.

Fourth Grade Reader:LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS poem with a vocabulary list and comprehension questions. Also from this reader, Thanksgiving Dinner at Plumfield by L.M. Alcott Book source here.

I'll add more as I find them. Please visit my homeschooling library blog for more free public domain books.

Thanksgiving(blessing poem), source: a vintage children's reader.

Printable at site:

From The Elson Primary School Reader Book Four, The First Thanksgiving Day, pages 50- 62, a play. It was too long for me to copy, edit and paste in plain text. If you switch to HTML(bottom right margin at text page), you can right click and save page, or try the download button(iffy).

Stories of Colonial Children, pages 43-50 cover the First Thanksgiving.Free and in public domain. Switch to plain text to copy and paste, download book(iffy), or switch to HMTL(bottom right margin) to right click and save pages. It may be in HTML mode already.

Historical Plays of Colonial Days, for Fifth Year Pupils. Free and in public domain. I've linked it to HTML mode so there are hyperlinks on the table of contents. You can switch it to plain text if you want to copy and paste. See page 39, Little Pilgrims, and a few others.

More here.

Free Downloads: Homeschool Living Books for the Ears

This picture is a sample of what they have for sale. Here is the free audio-program: Homeschool For the Holidays.

They also offer free weekly audioprograms. This week's free MP3: Tisquantum, Strange Friend of the Pilgrims.

Free downloads for playing MP3 audios on your computer. I downloaded the Windows Media Player 11 at the Microsoft site with no problems.

Easy Holiday Party Cake: Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Click on title.

Picture Tutorial: Homeschool Multiplication Math Lapbook

Click on title

Free Winter Lapbook

What is Snow, grades 3-6, by In the Hands of a Child. Free pdf download here.

12/11/09: This item is no longer free. It hasn't been free since 2007. This was only a temporary offer.

Thrifty Multi-Purpose Shampoo/Soap: Dr. Bronner's All Natural Castile Soap

I purchased a one gallon bottle of Dr. Bronner's all natural castile soap in March of this year, and as you can see, I still have quite a bit left. I've been using it to bathe my baby/toddler, and since the soap is concentrated, all it takes is a little drizzle in this(see picture-purple bottle) recycled baby shampoo bottle. I add water to fill about half the bottle, and it's plenty strong enough to wash the hair and body.

I purchased mine from Amazonfor $28.00 with $5.75 shipping when they had a clear-out sale. The price has gone up, but I'll keep an eye on it and post if I see a sale. Dr. Bronner's can be found at health food stores as well; I just couldn't find the gallon containers around my area.

I got the peppermint version because it was on sale. It does sting the eyes a bit, so when I use it on the toddler's hair, I work it from the back of the head forward. I've not had any problems using it this way.

Dr. Bronner's soaps are made with organic oils and are certified to USDA National Organic Program standards. Essential oils are used for the scented soaps. Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps contain no synthetic surfactants or petrochemicals, and are packaged in recycled plastic bottles. I heard that if you can find a store that carries the soap in bulk, you can reuse the bottle for refills. It's great stuff and thrifty! At this rate, I shouldn't have to buy baby shampoo or soap for years.

I've read good reviewsfrom adults using Dr. Bronner's soap. I just haven't tried it yet because I am still trying to use up a huge stockpile of free-with-rebate and deeply discounted shampoos which I've accumulated.

Experiences Homeschooling a Speech Delayed Child, Part II

I am not a speech therapist or doctor, just a mom sharing her experience. It is always a good idea to consult your pediatrician if you suspect a speech delay. Part I is here.

Homeschool Speech Enrichment Ideas

The big leap in speech occurred at age six for our son. It was not a leap he would have made on his own, it was the curriculum and one-on-one teaching which got him there. He's nine years old now and doing great, with very little if any speech delay.

Here are a few things we did during the tough years, years when I worried about if he'd ever learn to talk or read, roughly between ages three and six. The time and energy worrying would have been spent more wisely in prayer, but I'm wiser now for having gone through this.

Helpful Stuff For Speech Enrichment:

We developed vocabulary with anything I could think of. I used preschool and kindergarten workbooks, like the big fat ones from K-Mart and wallyworld, and free online printables with picture identification. We went over the same concepts everyday until he got it. It took time and patience. I kept a notebook recording the concepts and words he still needed to cover, and found more sheets online which addressed these areas. I also went back and pulled worksheets which he had trouble answering, and we re-did them. We were able to do this by making reusable worksheets.

One example of a game I made up was a letter game with cut out pictures. I'd have about fifteen small cut out pictures I had collected off the net from free worksheet sites. I'd arrange them randomly on paper, and slide them into a clear plastic three ringed binder sleeve. He'd then place a penny on each thing that started with the letter I selected. I gave him the exact number of pennies that he needed to find the objects. He knew when he was done when the pennies where used up. These could be mixed up and interchanged for variety, and used again with other letters.

We used DLTK letter people which required cutting and coloring. I remember doing letter of the week. It was fun to collect free alphabet resources online each week.

We also used quite a few read along books on tape, and read along books on cd-rom. One particular read along series was very good for car learning: Let's Discover Words. A Troll Picture Dictionary. I purchased this series on ebay...I think it is out of print, but some libraries might still have them. It's worth the search. Each letter has it's own read along book and tape covering words which begin with that particular letter.

Computer learning software was helpful. There are many children's learning programs on cd-rom. Some of our favorites were Sesame Street learning, Reader Rabbit and Dr. Seuss Kindergarten. He did well with this type of visual learning.

He loved puzzles, so we got him puzzle after puzzle. I think he finally stopped at the 1000 piece puzzles. It was great for fine motor coordination, thinking and concentration, and pre-reading skills. When he began to read well around age seven, he stopped doing as many puzzles. The puzzles seemed to help him to transition to reading, so we ran with it. Solid well written literature was important for developing his vocabulary and improved language skills. Written language and spoken language are linked.

He enjoyed puppets, so we did quite a bit of learning with puppets. Sometimes the puppets taught. ;) He also seemed to be receptive to learning with flannel pieces. We used the book list from Before Five In A Row, and bought the matching hand made felt(flannel) story pieces from a few ladies on ebay who sell and auction these at reasonable prices. The visual clues of telling the story with the felt pieces helps engage a speech delayed child. He/she can also get prompts from the story pieces when narrating the story back to you.

We used felt pieces for teaching concepts like up and down, in and out, next to and below, top and bottom, etc. Just by moving felt pieces around the felt board we extended their use. I'd give directions like, put the duck next to the barn, or put the duck next to the cow, and he'd learn in an interactive visual way. This helped with speech enormously.

Here are some ideas I got from Dr. Camerata's web site. He works with late talking children at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.

Recasting:
- Follows the child's lead
- Recasts the child's immediate verbal utterance or referent of
the child's attention.
- Does not require a verbal response from the child.

- Concentrated Play: Child led play using recasting.

- Modeling Language: Using short language to talk about what is happening now.

Other similar ideas:

- Self talk : Describe what you are doing as you do it.

- Parallel Talk : Describe what your child is doing as he does it.

- Expanding : Add sentence structure to what your child says.

- Extending : Add meaning to what your child says.

More ideas and explanations of these techniques here. There is also a beginning vocabulary list you and your child can work on, and links to verb and nouns phrases, and other developing elements of speech.

These ideas are not just good for speech delayed children, it's wonderful for any young children because you are expanding their language and communication skills in a one-on-one child led situation. You are spending special time with your child, bonding in love. What better way to learn!

Update: Some of the speech enrichment links above are not working as the site has moved, or is in the process of moving. Here is the main link. 

More Resources:

Helpful resource for home-based speech therapy. This is a homeschool deaf education link, but the therapies could be useful for hearing children with communication issues.

Support for homeschooling children with special needs: NATHAN, National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network.

Straight Talk - Speech and Language Program to use at home by Marisa Lapish, M.A. Home based speech therapy guides.

Plain & Simple Phonics: Created for children with delays that need to move very slowly. According to the website, there is a lot of repetition and no hand printing.

Homemade Dye and Ink

Today the family went to a local museum and ds went through an interactive Jamestown exhibit. This was our second time through, and it's loosely themed on the television show Survivor. You get a bead board and make life choices about 17th century living(first landing). It was fun, and the children learn quite a bit about what was needed to survive in the New World. At the end you add up your beds, and based on your score, you find out if you survived or not. Some of the questions were based on what was needed for making everyday objects.

Easy Fun School had some interesting links for homemade dyes and inks made in Colonial times(and before).

Coffee Dye

Cranberry Dye

Homemade Ink from Berries

Homemade Ink from Nuts

Marigold Dye

Mustard Dye

Purple Cabbage Dye

Spinach Dye

Tea Dye

Walnut Shell Dye

Fun and frugal.

Printable Grocery Price Book

Here is a nice printable page for creating a price book to track grocery prices. My husband made something similar himself with excel, and we use it every time we shop. This has helped us keep a lid on expenses, and ensure we are finding bargains.

In addition, we shop with this list that has many of the ingredients needed for cooking with the More-With-Less Cookbook. It keeps our grocery store trips short, and inexpensive. We are less likely to impulse shop with a list. As an added benefit, it has helped with waste. We are able to take an inventory before we shop, and use things up before buying more.

I've mentioned this before, but we are still using the Allrecipes.com ingredients search when trying to find recipes to use up specific ingredients. What a budget saver this has been! It also helps with meal boredom...sometimes we get tired of the same meals. Allrecipes.com has helped us mix it up, as well as use it up.

See more tips at Frugal Fridays.

Make a Quilt From Your Old Clothes

Debbie over at Homemaking Dreams made a quilt from her son's jeans and other clothing items. Do click on the picture(on her blog) and take a closer look, it's so nicely done.

She has linked the free pattern and tutorial. The pattern is called Gentleman's Quarters. My grandmother had handmade quilts on all the guest beds at her home, and they were very similar to this pattern. It brings back pleasant memories seeing this particular pattern.