Cut and Color Table Top Turkey

We are making this tomorrow for grandmom's/aunties Thanksgiving table. See here for template and directions. Instead of card stock, we are using recycled dry food boxes.

Image is from site.

Simple Ways to Slash Your Grocery Bill

and other basic frugal living tips at About.com Frugal Living. If you are just beginning a frugal lifestyle, this is a good basic list of strategies.

Check Your Receipt for Mistakes
Mis-rings are common and costly. Bring all receipt errors to the store's attention, and you may just get your mis-rung items for free!

This is one I continue to tackle. I find double rings on items a few times a month, although I've never gotten anything for free this way.

High School Level Courses: The History Guide

The History Guide has been created for the high school and undergraduate student who is either taking classes in history, or who intends to major in history in college. The purpose of The History Guide is to better prepare yourself for your history classes and to make your time in class more enjoyable and proficient.

The History Guide contains the complete content of three undergraduate courses in European history which will certainly be of use to those of you studying such topics at the college level or in A.P. European history classes. The History Guide contains ninety lectures in European history from ancient Sumer to the fall of Soviet-style communism in 1989. In essence, what is presented here is an online textbook in western civilization, with special reference to the western intellectual tradition.

Parents engaged in home schooling their children will find much that is of interest and I urge you to contact me if there are any details I can help provide to you.

I read through the section on the Crusades which contained a good general overview with the back story to explain the social and political climate. This is a nice resource which I'll come back to again.

DIY Printable - Make a Toy French Theatre

See here for two free PDF downloads.

Printable Vintage Preschool Cut and Paste

I got weary of looking for free printable young children's cut and paste activities for my daughter(the cut and paste queen), so I used ClipartEtc for free images to cut into pieces. Today we did E is for Elephant, and she reassembled and pasted together a few elephants. One of them has got his back legs pasted in the front(giggle). She seemed to enjoy this, so I'll probably pick another animal tomorrow. The elephant on the left was the easiest to cut apart.

Where possible, I cut away the tail, legs, ears, and head for re-assembly onto the torso. Afterwards, we had a chat about elephants and practiced writing the letter "E". ClipartEtc has an Asian working elephant pushing a log - great for social studies and a geography lesson. Free printable maps here.

Printing tip: Of the three download sizes offered, the largest one seems to do best for this activity. It comes out nice and sharp on a full page printout.

Wish List: Indoor Greenhouse

Indoor Greenhouse. Grow light is not included. I've already started cucumbers in a sunny window, but they will need more room and light soon.

I would like to try this light stick, but I'm not sure whether this would give off enough light for vegetables:

"The LiteStik uses energy-efficient LED technology, soaking up sun by day, and then its innovative light sensor allows it to come on automatically when the light dips below certain levels."

Printable Early Math Cut and Paste Shapes/Tangrams

We worked on a few of these this morning: circles, triangles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons. These are fairly easy tangrams, suitable for preschool-early K.

Recipe: Grilled Radishes

Radishes sweeten up a bit upon cooking. I also add them to stir fry. See here for recipe.

Printable Template and Instructions for Three Bears Theatre(3 Acts)

Free and in public domain. Manual Training Magazine, 1913, pages 115-128. Book is downloadable and/or individual pages can be printed by right clicking on the images of the pages at the link.

Printable Children's Poetry: The Pumpkin by Whittier

From Poems by Grades(1-4),1904, pages 223-224, free and in public domain. To print at link, right click on the image of the pages. This one is listed under grade four, but could be used by older children as well.

This is a wonderful melodic read-aloud poem for Thanksgiving. Easy to read, understand, and enjoy.

Preschool: Treat Your Cat Gently - Cut-out and Poem

I Love Little Kitty
I love little Kitty,
Her coat is so warm,
And if I don't hurt her,
She'll do me no harm.

So I'll not pull her tail,
Nor drive her away,
But Kitty and I
Very gently will play.

She shall sit by my side,
And I'll give her some food;
And she'll love me because
I am gentle and good.

I'll pat pretty Kitty,
And then she will purr;
And thus show her thanks
For my kindness to her;
But I'll not pinch her ears,
Nor tread on her paw,
Lest I should provoke her
To use her sharp claw.
I never will vex her,
Nor make her displeased -
For Kitty *doesn't like
To be worried or teased.
- Anon

See here for printable version.

*There's a grammatical error at the end of the printable version at the above link. It should read, "For Kitty doesn't like to be teased.",  or maybe, " For kitties don't like to be teased.". 

Update: I found the original which is actually by Jane Taylor(not Anon)  in public domain, and it has the proper grammar at the end. See Poems by grades(1-4), 1907. To print this page, simply right click on the image of the page at the link, and print or save. If you don't right click on the image of the page, the entire screen will print.

You could also just copy and paste the one here on my post. It's in public domain.

Check here for cute vintage cat clip art. We've used this resource to cut and paste pictures on worksheets, stories, poems, etc. It's free for non-commercial purposes.

Food Inflation Expected into 2011

U.S. food companies have already started to raise prices to blunt price spikes for a number of commodities, including corn, wheat and coffee.
“Although inflation has been relatively weak for most of 2009 and 2010, higher food commodity and energy prices are now exerting pressure on wholesale and retail food prices,” USDA food economist Ephraim Leibtag said. Read details here.

It's a good time to stock up on sales. If you canned during this past year, pat yourself on the back. You'll have saved yourself some money in the coming new year.

Flexible Spending Account Changes for 2011 and Beyond

"Starting in 2011, OTC medicines will no longer be eligible for reimbursement unless you are expressly directed by your doctor to use them.
Looking a bit further ahead, another big change will be a federally-mandated $2500 cap on FSA contributions starting in 2013. This new limit is part of the healthcare reform legislation that was passed this past spring."
Read details here.

I Thus Warmed Myself by the Still Glowing Embers

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau tells us:

"Like the wasps, before I finally went into winter quarters in November, I used to resort to the northeast side of Walden, which the sun, reflected from the pitch pine woods and the stony shore, made the fireside of the pond; it is so much pleasanter and wholesomer

to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire. I thus warmed myself by the still glowing embers which the summer, like a departed hunter, had left."

Image from the northeast sitting area of my backyard in mid-September .

The Kindle eReader - Old Fashioned Learning with New Technology

We've been using vintage public domain texts, published before 1924, for ancillary learning since my son was in kindergarten, and I use it with my five year old daughter. The Robinson Homeschool Self-Teach Program, using vintage texts, has always interested me; however, I'd like to begin having the children read e-books(free) on a regular basis for school. The Robinson CDs are set up for printing, per Dr. Robinson's no computer learning philosophy, and are not ebook friendly(older TIFF versions). I like the new ebook technology, so we won't be ordering the Robinson CDs, but I will use his book list as a resource.We have a mini-laptop with which we currently read ebooks, but its backlit screen is hard on the eyes. I looked at the Kindle ebook reader; it is not backlit and uses electronic ink. Excerpt from Amazon on the Kindle:

Reads Like Real Paper, Not a Computer Screen
Kindle's wireless reading device uses an electronic ink display is ideal for reading because it does not create the same eyestrain as reading on traditional backlit LCD tablets or laptops.
Clearer Text and the Sharpest Display
Electronic ink uses actual ink to create crisp, print-like text similar to what you see in a physical book. Kindle's proprietary, hand-built fonts take advantage of the special characteristics of the ink to make letters clear and sharp.
No Glare, Even in Bright Sunlight 
Kindle's screen reflects light like ordinary paper, eliminating the glare created by backlit LCD displays on tablets or smart phones. Kindle can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.

Kindle also has a USB port, so I can download books from my PC, if needed. There is a native PDF reader in all new versions of the Kindle. The first generation Kindle had a SD card reader for external storage, but the newer Kindles do not. Current Kindles hold 3,500 books, but I still wish I could transfer books via a SD or stick memory. Supposedly PDF downloads from my favorite Google Books(free public domain texts) download easily and view well. In addition, there are a good number of free classics for download at the Amazon Kindle book store. Project Gutenberg public domain texts have always been fairly ebook friendly.  

I'm thinking about using vintage texts for Reading, Religion, and History. Math and English will probably be via Christian Light Education, and Science is still up in the air.

I'll wait for Black Friday to purchase a Kindle. They are likely to go down in price; however the least expensive version without the Wifi or 3G is relatively inexpensive at only $139.00. I'm looking at the Kindle DX for its larger screen and 3G, although it is not as reasonably priced. My husband prefers ebooks, and may be borrowing the Kindle for the text-to-speech option which is a standard Kindle feature. If he likes it enough, we'll probably be purchasing one for him as well.

Homeschool Humor

Tips for Frugal Grocery Shopping

Something new I learned:
"Weigh everything. A ten-pound bag of potatoes might actually weigh up to 12 pounds and a three-pound bag of apples might weigh four to five pounds. You get more for your money. "

I love learning new tips!Too bad my daughter isn't taller(or the scales lower); she'd like weighing the bags to compare weights.

Read more tips here.

Printable price book for comparison shopping(PDF)