Readable/Printable Online Short Classic Children's Stories

I read this(The Happy Prince) Oscar Wilde story to my daughter last night. It was so nice to snuggle up in the dark by the light of the laptop and read this online before bedtime.

There is a good selection here. Free and printable. The site also has sections for older children and adults.

Free Educational Quizzes and Lesson Plans

I just added Free Rice to my sidebar. There are quizzes for English, geography, science(chemistry and anatomy), math, foreign languages, and SAT test prep. Ten grains of rice are donated for each correct answer. Free Rice is an educational website run by the World Food Programme, a United Nations program which is funded voluntarly by world governments, corporations, and private donations,. See here for overview at Wikipedia.

Free Online Newspaper for Children

The New York Times maintains a free news blog geared toward older children. There are special interest pieces and hard news. My fourteen year old reads the daily News Quiz and Word of the Day which proceeds it. Check out the New York Times Learning Network blog here.

Art History Elementary School October Picture Study, French 19th Century

Features:

THE HAY HARVEST— JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE

RETURN TO THE FARM— TROYON

HARVEST TIME — LEON AUGUSTINE L'HEEMITTE

THE BALLOON— DUPRE

SHEPHERDESS KNITTING — MILLET

Click here. Free and downloadable.


More for THE HAY HARVEST— JULES BASTTEN-LEPAGE

More for RETURN TO THE FARM— TROYON

More for THE BALLOON— DUPRE and and here(younger children's composition lesson)

More for SHEPHERDESS KNITTING — MILLET (parent or older child resource: Jean-François Millet, peasant and painter)

October 1954 Boys' Life Magazine Readable Online

Features a story about Daniel Boone.



Direct link here.

Autumn

Source: flickr.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Shopping Dollar General Online

Every few months I shop Dollar General online for their discounts and free shipping. Right now online orders are 10% off, and there is free shipping for orders totalling $40.00 and above. I ended up getting $5.00 off my order, which would have been the same as using the printable $5.00 off printable coupon($25.00 minimum in store only).  The difference was that I saved time and gas.

If you don't have a Dollar General store nearby, this is a great way to take advantage of their low prices. The best buys for us have always been the dishwasher detergent, off-brand cold and allergy medicines, and other toiletries. Items that are $1.00, comparable to a dollar store, are a good buy as well.

Check often, as the discounts vary. Sometimes online orders are 20% off.

Managing Large Single Payment Bills

How to Budget for Irregular Expenses

Manage large single bill payments like semi-annual or quarterly bill payments with a regularly funded reserve account. We started doing this with our insurance and property tax bills which can be rather large single payments, but manageable if paid with a fund that we have paid into every month. It's much easier if these accounts are funded automatically, so you don't forget. Simply total your irregularly occurring bills and divide by twelve, then add this monthly automatic withdrawal from your checking account to a specially designated savings account to fund your large single payment bill or bills.

This has really helped us to better budget our money month to month.

Free Classic Young Children's Fairy Tales for Bedtime Reading

The Rainbow Book of Fairy Tales for Six-Year-Olds by Lisa Ripperton

This is a compilation of vintage stories circa 1924, not dumbed down, full of rich language for children's ears, but also easy to comprehend for a young child, especially if read with affect.

Last night, I was able to read three as bedtime stories without my first grader getting antsy, although she did fall asleep during Rumpelstiltskin, and what better way to drift off to sleep! The font is nice and large for tired momma eyes. You can turn down the lights and read this book on a laptop. There are no pictures, just text.

There are many more free ebooks to browse at this site as well.

Autumn Leaf Craft: Hammered Leaves

Source: allfortheboys.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Tutorial for hammered leaves.

Unstructured Play

Source: life-lenses.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Reducing Energy Usage in the Kitchen

After  we got our last electric bill, I decided that we needed to find ways to cut back on energy use. We ultimately decided to forgo a conventional oven in favor of low energy use efficient cooking and baking appliances. We had already cut back in every other area. We began using only three items to cook meals: an electric skillet, an electric tea kettle, and a table top halogen convection oven. These items use up to 80% less energy compared to a conventional electric stove.

Free online energy calculator

                                 Average energy cost for kitchen appliances These 2008 rates are quite low, but at least it gives you an idea of which appliance uses the least amount of electricity. As you can see, an electric stove uses over twice the amount of energy as an electric frying pan. An electric oven uses more than five times the energy of a microwave!

Appliance	Temperature	Time	Energy	Cost
Electric Oven	350	1 hour	2.0 kWh	$.16
Electric Convection Oven	325	45 minutes	1.39 kWh	$.11
Gas Oven	350	1 hour	.112 therm	$.07
Electric Frying Pan	420	1 hour	.9 kWh	$.07
Toaster Oven	425	50 minutes	.95 kWh	$.08
Electric Crockpot	200	7 hour	.7 kWh	$.06
Microwave Oven	"High"	15 minutes	.36 kWh	$.03

So far, I've found meals are cooking more quickly with our new appliances, and there is a lot of flexibility with the skillet and halogen oven. The skillet even bakes cakes as long as I line the pan with foil,so they cook evenly and don't burn on the bottom. The electric kettle is so fast! We use this for coffee(French press), tea, noodles, and hot chocolate. I can cook pasta by adding boiling tea kettle water to a sealed container with the pasta. After about ten minutes the pasta is cooked perfectly. I haven't tried this yet, but rice can be made in the skillet as well. All that is needed is to add boiling water, cover, and let it cook on a low setting for about 30 minutes.

The halogen oven cooks our larger meals like roasts and small to medium sized whole chickens. I am able to cook ten pounds of chicken thighs all at once in the halogen oven. It cooks large frozen pizzas in 20 minutes. There are two racks so you can cook your meats and vegetables at the same time. It's not as fast as a microwave, but faster than an oven. Smaller oven safe cookware is safe to use with this oven, so cakes, muffins, casseroles, etc. can be made easily. Larger families would find this impractical because space is limited, but for the four of us, this is efficient. A cake pan fits just fine as well as a medium sized ovensafe glass bowl.

We began remodeling our kitchen this week and got the radical idea of not replacing the worn-out stove, but to stick with these three appliances, and have them serve as our only means of cooking and baking. We plan to stay in this house for many years to come, so having an odd kitchen is not an issue. If we do sell the house, we'll add the conventional items back to the kitchen. My husband is making our new counters himself which will be freestanding with storage underneath(European style), so these appliances will have a custom place of their own.

Our electrical bill is reflecting the absence of the energy hogging stove. I am glad to see it go.

Note: the halogen oven is a bit fussy. We had to return the first one for a replacement after the bulb burnt out within 24 hours of use. The replacement oven was sent within three days, and has been working nicely. There are replacement bulbs which can be found on ebay for about $25.00. I read that they are a bit hard to replace with many screws to remove, but it is possible to replace the bulb yourself. You can't let anything get too close to the bulb; you can't touch it, or get water near it. Boiling water in it is not a good idea. Although there are no warnings about this, I think this may have caused my first bulb to fail. I ordered the electric kettle soon after this. The oven is self cleaning with the addition of a tiny bit of soapy water in the bottom of the bowl, but I don't want to chance it, so I simply wipe down the bowl with a soapy sponge and periodically put it through the dishwasher.

What we bought:
 Secura Digital Halogen Infrared Turbo Convection Countertop Oven

Hamilton Beach 7-1/5-Cup Stainless Steel Electric Kettle

Presto 06852 16-Inch Electric Skillet with Glass Cover

Printable Robinson Crusoe Paper Doll Set

Source: squidoo.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

School Begins Tuesday!

My son begins ninth grade on Tuesday. It will be much more work this year now that he is in high school. He chose Christian Light Education for its independent study approach. After all these years of homeschooling he has his school routine down pat, and barely needs me to help him. This is, of course, the goal - greater independence and responsibility. I find myself almost out of a job! I still have my daughter's school, but she is pretty easy. I'm using the same curriculum with her that I used with my son, so it's pretty much a cake walk.

I'm afraid my homeschool posts may be boring from now on! YouTube has been filling in a lot of extended learning for my daughter. In fact, the internet is providing a huge resource of free learning opportunities. Finally getting high speed has been a real blessing. I'm not making or planning our homeschool from scratch as much because so much is readily available online, or I am just reusing what we already have at home.

We've been homeschooling since my son was in Kindergarten, nine years now, and so much has changed in this short time. Homeschooling is becoming much more common and resources are abundant. I'll continue to share links, and will add my Pinterest homeschool pins on the sidebar.

Free Young Novel Writer's Curriculum

Three levels for elementary, middle school, and high school - walks the student through writing a novel. This is an amazing freebie.

See here.

Another good one here,Teaching Writing without (buying) a Writing Curriculum 

Ht to fivejs.com

Free English Grammar Lessons

Source: fivejs.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Click through the fivejs.com link above.

Great Deal on Cat Litter

Arm & Hammer Double Duty Clumping Litter, 37-Pound This is $13.98 with free shipping on Amazon.

I just ordered three and there are only 15 left. The prices change on these, so it may not always be this inexpensive. I ordered a 27 pound box for $10.00(now $15.00) last week before I saw this deal. Family Dollar had 14 pound containers of Tidy Cat on sale for $6.00, so this is much less expensive.