Relocation

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Share the Savings

Here is my "stockpile" of dental products. These items are always on sale and there are coupons for them frequently so you can get them for free or for less than $.50 each. Do I need this much toothpaste or this many toothbrushes at my house? Of course not! What can I do with them? Give them to a charity! Think about an organization that can use these items and donate them.
There is more to saving money with coupons than just getting stuff for yourself. Stock up on items to give away. You will be blessed tremendously by sharing your savings with those in need!

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Experimenting with Copper

Today we began working in our Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science book. I mainly wanted to use this book with the older two but wanted to include our 4th grader somehow and was happy to find a unit study online that used the curriculum and made it for younger children.

Today they were introduced to atoms and molecules and had the opportunity to do an experiement. They took a glass of water and added baking soda to it. Then had to connect copper wires to a battery and put the other end in the water. It made bubbles and caused one of the wires to turn green...to know which one, you'll have to do it yourself!

We are using the lab reports and other resources from DonnaYoung.org. Here are some pictures from our science experiment today!

Medieval Paris and Eye Anatomy

We are really enjoying our schooling through scrapbooking this year. Last week we finished The Apple and the Arrow using the lessons from Homeschool Share. I love being able to teach all three levels of my students using the same subjects and just adjusting the materials to their needs!

Today we began a new book & are still in the Medieval Times...I am really enjoying this time period! This time we are in Paris. We are able to take this trip back in time by reading Marguerite Makes a Book. Again, our lesson ideas mainly come from Homeschool Share but I am adding things that I find to tie in as well.

This morning, after we read Chapter 1, we pulled out the globe and our atlas and found France. They had to find it on a black and white outline map and color it in. They also looked up facts about France and made a sample flag.

My favorite part of this lesson was the study of the eye! They had to learn the parts of the eye and label them and we found a cool website that you can do a virtual dissection of the human eye. This helped them learn the parts quickly! The next website was one that was listed in the lesson plans for our book and it was so amazing! You can watch an actual dissection of a cow eye! My kids are a little more squeamish that I thought! They kept screaming and turning away from the screen. I thought it was pretty cool myself! Watch the Cow Eye Dissection and see for yourself.

For lunch, I made English Muffin Pizzas and my daughter said "I know why you made these. They look like eyeballs" Hmmm...I hadn't thought of that. Sure! I am THAT good! HA HA.

Learning To Fly

I just finished reading this book by Roxanne Henke and just had to share it with you! If you are a mother or ever plan on being one, you MUST read this book! It takes you through the journey of parenting...particularly girls.

Mainly about two families who have daughters that are the same age. You get to share in the joys and sadness of mothering in infancy all the way through college. As a mother of a high school freshman this year, this book made me reminisce about the lives of my children. Read about how, as in real life, sometimes friendships grow apart because of the different lifestyles that people live. How many times, the friendships our children have affect our own friendships. It made me think about my parenting style...am I a good mother? I hope so. There are no perfect mothers, we all know that! With God's help, we CAN get through this!

Although fiction, this book was packed full of wonderful parenting tips and advice that I hope to use.

I borrowed the only copy in the Memphis Library system so if you live in the area, it will be back on the shelves tomorrow but if not, you can get a copy of Learning to Fly from Amazon.

I will definitely be looking for more to read from Roxanne Henke!

Mega Food at Mega Savings!

Wow! I just got home from the grocery store and am SO impressed with the savings this week!
My total before I used my Kroger card and coupons was $243.86 and after all of the savings came off, I only paid $118.76! That is $125.10 in savings!
This week Kroger is having a Mega Savings Event so when you buy 10 participating items, you get $5 off your total. I bought a lot of those items!

You may be saying to yourself "Christie, I don't buy that stuff"...well, I never did before either. I am sorry but I don't have the time to make every single meal from scratch! Yes, I do make most of mine myself but there are some days that we are just so busy that I need something quick! Also, my house frequently has extra people (hungry teens) over and if they want to grab a quick bite, it is there for them! I would love to be able to make homemade pizza for them every single time they ask but well, I can't so pizza rolls come in VERY handy!

Here is what I got this week:
Kroger Dill Slices
Kroger Spanish Rice
Betty Crocker Brownie Mix (perfect for my daughter to make a quick snack when I am not home!)
Pack of 10 Ramen Noodles
2 boxes of Chex Mix Bars
2 boxes of Nature Valley Bars
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper (I have not bought these in over 10 years but can use these for charity or let my kids use them for lunch!)
1 can of Ranch Style Beans
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks
2 boxes of Fiber One Bars
3 boxes of Cocoa Puffs
2 boxes of Trix
1 box of Cap'n Crunch
1 box of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch
3 cans Rotel
6 cans of Grands Biscuits (great for quick biscuits when we sleep in and I don't want to make homemade biscuits)
2 boxes of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
4 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
6 bags of Totinos Pizza Rolls
2 loaves of Wonder Classic White Bread
2 bags of Tostitos Chips
2 bags of Fritos
2 packs of ground turkey
Gallon of milk
Gallon of OJ
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can of Cream of Celery Soup
1 box of Kroger Wheat Saltines
2 trays of bakery 9 ct cinnamon rolls (for my SS class!)
2 bags of Quaker Rice Quakes
1 bag of Ground Chuck Patties
1 bag of Simply Potatoes Hash Browns
2 packs of Kroger Burger buns
3 bags of Shredded Cheese
Oxy Clean Face Wash
Oxy Clean Pads
Oxy Clean Lotion
Always Pads
Tampax Tampons

I think that is it.... The kids have put it all up now. I love saving money!

Back to School

Yesterday we started our new school year! The oldest is now in the 9th grade, middle child is in the 7th and youngest is in the 4th...where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like I have been homeschooling my children that long! I enjoy it SO much because we are learning and exploring together.
The kids decided that they really enjoyed doing the lapbooks last year but they wanted to put all of their work into more of a scrapbook type book this year so that is what they are doing. They are currently working on pages to show what they learned from reading The Apple and The Arrow. It was a book recommendation for what we had been studying in The Mystery of History Volume II at the end of last school year. I wanted to do a review of some of last year's topics to get us back into "school mode" so I chose this. Most of the printables activities were found at Homeschool Share

The picture shows the kids working on their projects.

Did I mention that I LOVE homeschooling??