10. June 2008 by Shannon.

I posted recently about my adventure in Square Foot Gardening.  WELL, I am completely sold!  My gardens are growing like wildfire!!  I wanted to show you all some pictures of this very successful homeschool project we’ve got going on around here… and I will update often (as I have something up update!!).

We built the boxes and planted the gardens on May 17th: 

May 30th:

And again from June 5th:

And today, June 10th:

I can’t imagine a more successful garden story at this point!!!  We do NO work.  Once every few days I go out there and pinch off the plant “suckers” (those little sprouts between the boughs of the tomato/pepper plants which don’t produce fruit, just sap the plants growing energy) and take some pictures and I’m done.  Seriously… it’s been THAT easy!  I have flower buds on EVERY plant except the brocoli and the eggplants so far… yes, even my zuchini and cukes have flower buds…. my tomatoes are COVERED in them.  Even my strawberries might get a fruit or two this summer… who knows!

On another note… it’s definately SUMMER here (this past weekend we saw 30 degrees celsius with humidity ranging somewhere above 90 percent!!).  Seems like only yesterday the kids were climbing the snowbanks onto the ROOF, but this weekend we were off at the splash park… Canadian weather is so dramatic! LOL!

^^Chaeli running to save herself from the spray   ~   Greyson running *into* the spray, LOL! ^^

I love how different my kids are… keeps things interesting!

On a side note:  Kenzi’s end of year evaluation is on the 25th of June… so it’s crunch time on portfolios and finishing up projects.  Busy, busy around here!!!  I’m curious to know what others do for portfolios (or if you do them at all, what method of “evaluation” to you employ in YOUR homeschool?  I’d love to hear your comments!!! :o)

Blessings!

Posted in Great Ideas, Chaeli, Greyson | Print | No Comments »

28. May 2008 by Shannon.

Okay, let’s face it.  If you are reading this blog, you are probably a homeschooler, right? 

One of the biggest challenges most homeschooling families face is the choice to live on only one income.  In our day and age, that usually means sacrificing some of the luxuries we see our two-income friends enjoying (new cars, new pools, expensive vacations *that dont’ have to double as a school field trip - grin!*).  I’m not saying that those sacrifices of material things are not worth it - when we hear our “baby” reading his first book that YOU taught him how to read, to see that lightbulb moment when our teenager “gets” algebra for the first time… these are just some of the rewards we get for that sacrifice.  BUT… seriously?  Wouldn’t it be NICE to have some of the luxuries AND still have the time and freedom to homeschool?

That’s where “Affiliate Marketting” comes in. 

Affiliate Marketting is where you find someone else’s product and you promote it for them, and in return you get a commission cheque (you know, to spend on BOOKS!  LOL, okay, maybe that’s just me… *grin*).  Usually the commission cheques range anywhere from 10 - 50% of the cost of the product you are promoting (and, btw, by promoting, I mean just buzzing about the products you are going to be using anyhow… right?  We all do that anyways.. just attend any homeschool support group and you are going to be hearing a LOT of buzz about such-n-such curriculum or such-n-such new book everyone just *has* to read, right?)

Recently, a friend of mine, Rhea, introduced me to a program to help boost my Affiliate Marketting sales… this is what she had to say:

Are you tired of getting piddly little affiliate checks in the mail.  Sick of promoting products for a measly 30 to 50% cut of the profits?

You see, I’m about to let you in on a powerful secret one of my good buddies is using to multiply his affiliate Commissions—to the point he’s making a sweet 200% to 300% commission for every product he promotes!

You read that right…that’s more than the actual product is worth!

His name is Russell Brunson and he’s make a lot of people extremely rich with his affiliate marketing skills. Now he’s finally Spilling the beans on the “Commission Bump”…an unique Strategy that allows anyone to “bump” their commissions with ease!

Check it out here:

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

You see, Russell started revealing the “Commission Bump” on Tuesday through his new product: Affiliate Evolution. He sold 1000 copies in mere hours…and it’s not slowing down. The only thing is Russell said he’s going to raise the price any time. This is such a powerful secret he’s crazy for letting it go for such a cheap price.

Again, head on over to:

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

…and evolve your affiliate marketing skills today!

Have a great day!

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

P.S.  If you’ve never sold a thing as an affiliate, Russell’s got you covered. He’s revealing a couple bonuses that’ll enable you to make your first affiliate sale in a mere 24-hours. But you’ll only get them when you take action and get Affiliate Evolution today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just signed up myself, and it really is as good as it sounds… I can’t wait to get my NEXT commission cheque (btw, yes, I really *do* make money as a stay-at-home, homeschooling, just bloggin’ and buzzing Mom!)!  

There is nothing I would like more than to see MORE homeschool Moms storm the internet and start practicing Proverbs 31:16 and “(she) considers a field, and buys it:  with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard”  If you are a homeschool Mom - consider THIS field!  If you are willing to type emails to friends and take time to blog your days - consider planting THIS vineyard!!   I can’t tell you how pleased my husband was the first time I bought something for our homeschool using commissions I made from the ‘net… and I know that with  Russel’s help, maybe a BIG homeschool field trip might not be too far in the distance (can Mom and Dad take a “field trip” sans kids? *wink*).

Blessings!

Posted in Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

23. May 2008 by Shannon.

Nah… I’d rather pass on those, BUT…. after suffering really bad and ending up in bed this afternon, I am wide awake this evening…

 And, apparently, feeling quite creative/resourceful!  I was putting stuff away that the Littles had taken out, when I noticed that Greyson was doing some “math flashcards” (they have the simple problem, shown in pictures, “such as three fish - two fish =” and a blank to fill in the answer).  Not all the answers were right obviously, BUT he was definately INTERESTED.  I also noticed (while cleaning up) that he had found some colouring pages and had coloured quite nicely on LOTS of them… so he must like colouring AND math, right?  

Now, I know what you are thinking I’m going to say… you’re thinking I’m gonna say that we could do up some colour by numbers using math equations… NOPE!  I had an even more “fun” idea… and less frustrating, imho.

 Math Hidden Colouring Pages!

Look…. FIRST I drew a picture and covered it with post it notes (which just touched to overlapping) and wrote math equations on them:

THEN, as he DOES the math equations (CORRECTLY)… he gets to peel off that part of the picture!

THEN when he’s done… he has a picture to colour as a REWARD for working hard at his math! 

How stinkin’ clever is that?  I’m POSITIVE there are lots of other creative Moms who have thought of this first… and NO, I will not be using my DH’s work post-it notes for my son’s math… this was a quick mock-up to show you what I mean.  I’m going to get some coloured ones and vary the colours for each problem… make it more fun.  But as  you know from past posts… I’m the Mock-Up Queen!  LOL!

Hope this blesses you!

Posted in Great Ideas, Greyson, General Homeschool | Print | 1 Comment »

23. May 2008 by Shannon.

That is the title of the “project” I’ve been wanting to work on for years.  For those who haven’t figured out that the name of this site (little homeshool on the HILL) might mean something… well, it does.  We live on a small mountain.  And as such, we have very, very rocky land.  The only way I’m going to have a nice veggie garden is if I build UP.  SO, that’s where Square Foot Gardening comes in.

This is not a new concept either… it’s been around since I was a wee babe.  I even think my Grandad was using a variation on it (from my childhood memories… mmmm… I loved puttering with him in his veggie garden, probably doing more damage than good, but he was ever patient and ever kind - I miss you, Grandad!).  Anyhow… we’ve never managed to “get it going” here in the spring because of all the blackflies on the mountain… but this year we finally decided to just DO it - and surprisingly, we weren’t bothered that much by the blackflies after all.

I am NOT sorry!!!  My garden looks fantastic!!!

What we have planted.  Well, in that first box (and I am sure later on I might be sorry with the volume, but I really love them… ) are 4 zuchini plants.  The second box (the big one) are 9 cucumber plants, two tomato (one grape red, and one yelllow) plants, 3 squares with bean seeds planted… we’ll see how those work out, and one brocolli.  The last box has 4 more tomato plants (cherry, pink, big red and an orange variety), one green pepper plant, and three more brocolli.  I know, not too much variety there, but I really don’t like growing lettuce, hate red peppers, have a kid who is allergic to carrots, and well, cellery probably wouldn’t work in these boxes… so besides cauliflower, I couldnt’ think of anything much else to plant. 

There are pots too, which we did a day or so later, which aren’t in this picture.  one big pot has strawberries in them, and three pots have eggplants (one plant each pot) and one additional  pot has chives planted in them.  Now to week, watch, tend, and wait and see what our harvest yields. 

This was a fantastic homeschool project… we did it with the Littles (the Bigs were out for the day).  they had SUCH a kick out of mixing up the 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss (they called it PoppaMoss, since their Grandfather “Poppa” ’s name is Pete) and 1/3 compost (we used composted sheep manure… and thanks to Dad who didn’t think the first time he did it, spent the day calling it sheeppoop).  They got really dirty, as did Mom and Dad (guess that’s part of the fun, eh?)!  But at the end of the day, we felt so accomplished.  We had built boxes, and since we bought 4 10-foot long pieces, we were able to cut 2-foot long ends, then split the rest into a bunch of 4-foot lengths…which gave us exactly what we needed to make the three gardens.  We put them together with L-brackets (actually, I have to admit, at this point our oldest son, Ev *was* still home and helping… ).  It went very fast, the hardest part was digging off the top layer of the ground.  We wanted to get rid of as many dandilions roots as we could - and BOY were there a LOT! 

OH!  We also had a pleasant surprise!  A few years back I tried a pseudo-SFG (not really planned out at all) and had planted asparagus into one corner (being perrenial and all)… well, we were about to take apart that mess and Lo and Behold, guess what???  We had a harvest of asparagus buried under all those weeds and grasses!  So, it pays to pay attention, Lord only knows how many years that’s been harvestable and we just let it get overgrown.  Live and Learn, eh?

So.  That was our foray into Square Foot Gardening for this year.  I will keep y’all posted on how my garden grows!  I cannot recommend this enough to all you homeschoolers out there who might be interested in a “plants” project for the kids… all you need is a couple of planks of wood, some mix, some plants (or seeds, if you like)… and you can easily make a couple of the small gardens… maybe one for each child? 

Now, if I could only get the SUN to shine on my pretty little garden, that would help! *grin*

Blessings!

Posted in Great Ideas, Chaeli, Greyson, Everett, Bragging | Print | 1 Comment »

22. April 2008 by Shannon.

Yesirree… I finally got to making up my mock-up of the timelines for lapbooks…

Thank you for patience!!!!

Alright… in this first picture, I have cut an 8.5X11 sheet of cardstock (okay, I’m lying, this is just construction paper, my kids used up all the cardstock.. gotta buy more… *grin*) in half widthwise.

Attach the smaller cardstock pieces end to end as long as you need to to cover the time line you want. If you stick masking tape (as I have, without cutting it, someone ran off with my scissors too.. sigh.) to one side only, you get a nice clean line on the reverse for your timeline…

Tape one end to one inside seam of your lapbook…

Add your line and you have yourself a Time Line in a Lapbook! Of couse, you can add as many sheets as you need to the timeline to accomodate the time period you are studying.

Fold accordion style to “put away” your timeline.

OH! And I have an idea of what you could put on the reverse side if you are not going to be continuing your timeline on it… stick more minibooks, sticik photos, small drawings, make a bibliography list of the books you used on the unit, maybe a calendar of “events” you did while doing your lapbook… the options are limitless!! I also thought, if you were to draw a vertical line halfway through each “page” as it flips out, instead of putting a timeline bar across horozontally… you could use it as a “sequence of events” timeline for younger children… like “what came first in the story” “what came next” .. and have them draw the events ON A SEPARATE PAGE (critical, because if they are like my kids and mess up their “good timeline” they will be crushed!) which can then be cut out and put in to the different “squares” of the sequence timeline… I’ll probably use it this way in the autumn when I am working with Greyson for Kindergarten. I can’t wait!!! *grin*

And Greys would like me to share with you what HE was doing while Mommy was playing with her lapbooks… *wink*

Doesn’t he look proud? He tells me, “It’s Santa and a Christmas Tree bringing presents to Chaeli” (okay.. this I don’t understand, we DON’T do Santa, that looks like a Palm tree to me.. and well… IT’S APRIL!!! Gosh goodness, we finally got rid of the snow and the kid is talking Christmas again!!!! YIKES!)

Before I go, I’d like to add a little plug for a fellow lapbooker here who has come up with a very nice “digilapbook” on creepy-crawlies… very cool! I have to look more into this one!

I hope my ideas have inspired you in your lapbooking adventures… I probably won’t be around mcuh for the next week and a bit - but I’ll be THINKING, and BRAINSTORMING new ideas to share with you!!!

And NEXT week I’ll be attending the Ultimate Homeschool Expo!!! I REALLY hope I will see you there!!! Don’t miss this incredible event - a homeschool convention in your computer, perfect to either participate in LIVE - or to take along with you as you wear the many hats of your day! Get your ticket here for your own membership site with so many goodies to help you on your homeschool journey!

Blessings!!

Posted in LapBooks, Great Ideas, Greyson, General Homeschool | Print | 3 Comments »

16. April 2008 by Shannon.

<pasted from a post I made in Lapbooking7up at Yahoogroups on why I love lapbooks so much> 

I love webdesign… and when I heard of lapbooks, gosh, 10 years ago… I totally “got it” because it was like a website. You “click” (life the flap) on thigns to get further information... like when y ou click a link on a website to learn more… it just seemed so intuitive… and prepatory for internet technology (really!). My kids totally “got” the net at a very young age, even down to how we don’t click just anything, because when the “flap is closed” we don’t know what’s behind it… so we are particular about what we “open”…. it was a natural connection for my kids… (not that we put scary things in our lapbooks.. grin!

I was thinking, after doing lapbooks, when thety feel like they are “outgrowing”the cutting and pasting stage (some do)… they could move on to learning html… maybe creating a “virtual” lapbook on their area of study…

<end of pasting>

<new pasting from same group>

… all you’d need to do is get them to put up a webpage, then add a little javascrip that would allow for small popup windows when people clicked on certain areas of the page… like on a picture or whatever, but instead of getting a whole new page (unless it was for a lot of information), thye’d get a “ballloon” popup, which has a small X to close it, and the main page is not lost…

<end of pasting>

I also have to add a little idea here that a new friend of mine, BJ (who can’t remember just yet where she got the idea from so I’ll add that info later or she can add it as a comment if she remembers, *wink*) did with a lapbook on Spain.  Here’s how she did it:

“Another way to make a fabric flag lapbook style: We used the lapbook flag of Spain which some nice person posted (on other site?) but he wanted his flag to be of fabric. What he did instead was cover the lapbook flag with 2 layers of a used dryer anti-static fleece sheet, traced over the flag & then coloured it with felt pen - sure did look like fabric to some people ”

OH!  And we came up with a good name for those Lapbooks IN Notebooks idea… we’re officially (with the help of my Lapbooking7up friends) calling them NotePacks.  *grin* … and to take it one step further (here I go spiralling inwards again, I’m definately part Fractal!)… notebook pages IN said NotePacks would of course be called LapNotes.   Alright, alright… I’ll stop being so silly! LOL!

I’m bubbling over with ideas for this now… expect more soon, now it’s a matter of making a mock up of each idea and taking pictures to put on here… I hope you are all liking these ideas as much as I am.  I’m all inspired now!

Blessings!

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »

10. April 2008 by Shannon.

HAPPY SPRING!

(okay, I know that was technically last month, but up here in Canada we’re FINALLY seeing signs of spring - LOTS of MUCK!) 

Previously I posted a way to use duct tape to put lapbooks into your notebooks… but sometimes there are lapbook specific pages you’d like to include IN your lapbook (which is now IN your notebook… we’re spiralling inward now! *grin*).  I took pictures too..

As you can see, I’ve used brads to hold the notebook closed. It is secure and doesn’t slip open at all because it’s wrapped across twice. It also looks pretty *grin*  I would suggest (if you are going to add this to a notebook, though, that you put duct tape BEFORE you add the brads, as if you put it on after, then the brads will be rendered useless for helping keep the lapbook closed.  You might need to use a sharp edge to make “guides” for the brads to get through the duct tape too… that stuff is tough!). 

Opening up…

As you can see the page protector doesn’t pass the right side of the back of the lapbook, so it doesn’t interfere with closing the lapbook.

As you can see, the brads on the front cover become “duotang” type fasteners on the inside left cover which holds the edge of clear page protectors… as many as you see fit to add (obviously there is a limit or your lapbook won’t close easily - but still, it does let you add those special “unit related” pages to a lapbook - you can probably add about 10 or so, which gives you - double sided - 20 notebook pages to add to your lapbook).BTW, I used a “fake” lapbook to demonstrate, so no, this is not one of our real lapbooks - I just wanted to demonstrate my idea - but we will be adding pages this way in out next lapbook project “Art Appreciation” by Hands of a Child - this will be our very first HOAC Co-Op!  I’m so excited!  When we are done, we will be sure to post pictures!!

I hope you like my idea! Let me know how you find it works in YOUR homeschool!

Blessings!

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

8. April 2008 by Shannon.

My very dear friend, Cindy Rushton (okay, I’m just name dropping now, aren’t I? *grin*  But, yes, she is my friend!!) has something incredible to offer YOU!

For the second year in a row, she’s put together the Ultimate Homeschool Expo!  It’s like a convention that comes to YOU… no driving, no hotels, no parking problems, no crowded vendor halls to navigate… and what’s BEST???? NO MISSED WORKSHOPS!  Seriously!  That was my biggest pet peeve when I would go to Homeschool Conventions, wanting to hear Speaker A speak at the same time block as Speaker B was speaking who I really wanted to hear too… and not all sessions are recorded.  It was very frustrating!

Cindy has found a solution…. clever little cookie that she is!

 A Homeschool Convention that comes into YOUR home on YOUR time.  So, while you are washing the dishes, you can be listening in to the seminar of your choice, or maybe in the wee hours while rocking a little one to sleep… or how about some “grown up” car listening?  That’s when I listen to Cindy the most, while “car schooling”.  Her sweet southern accent and inspirational words just take all the road rage right out of me… *big grin*. 

There are over 90 workshops given by literally dozens of speakers!!!  If you could listen to just two a week, you’d be inspired ALL YEAR LONG (actually LONGER!)!  How’s that for a deal and a half… and what’s even better is you get even more goodies than just workshops, you get a Mommy Grab Bag full of incredible treats and deals, you get “door prizes” (this is the most fun part, especially when you are listening in live, and POP!  Up comes another treat!  Yippee!), and when you participate live, you can even ask QUESTIONS … yes, you can get the answers you are looking for in a uplifting, inpiring, and encouraging environment!!!  I can’t imagine our homeschool without the blessings Cindy has poured into it.  And now…  YOU can get to know MY friend too!

Come join us at the Ultimate Homeschool Expo!  There are MANY free preview chats, some this very week, and then the BIG week… well, it’s enough to make your head and heart SOAR with ideas and inspiration!  Go check out her UHSE page TODAY!  You won’t regret it!!!

Blessings!

PS, Cindy just sent me this freebie to pass on to YOU!  (she how generous she is??? How can you not like a friend like that, eh?)

This is a sampler of one of her free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to give it to you! It is a audio and ebook set that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. Here is the link:
Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year Super Set!

Let’s Get Ready for the New School Year Mommy Planner…
Ebook by Cindy Rushton

Need some help gearing up for the new school year? Wish you had a friend to take you by the hand and help you plan your year? You will LOVE this! It includes a quick Mommy Planner with a potpourri of planning sheets from all of Cindy’s products to help you get started on the right track with your homeschool planning. It is full of goodies! AND YOURS…

Download Part One
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp1.pdf

Download Part Two
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp2.pdf
PLUS! Companion Audio!
Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year–Audio

Download by Mp3
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/GetReadyNewSchoolYear.mp3

ENJOY!

Posted in Great Ideas, Curriculum Choices, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »

19. March 2008 by Shannon.

I knew there had to be a way to bring Duct Tape into homeschooling! LOL!

My daughter loves to do “lapbooks” or “portfolders” or “lappacks”… basically a file folder refolded to make a portable viewing station housing a collection of little homemade folded booklets. It’s a great way to teach children to organize their thoughts… and we’ve been using it for years. THIS year however we decided to head in the direction of notebooking (keeping a binder full of page protectors in which we keep all our work each day)… now… Kenzi still wanted to do lapbooks… but how to put them into the binder to keep all her work together? Hmmmm…. Mom had to think about this a little.

Then it came to me! DUCT TAPE. Of course we all know that DUCT TAPE is the answer to all Life’s Questions… in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a striking resemblance between God and Red Green when the DAY comes…. (jk)

SO, I thought I would include some pictures, so you have an idea of what I’m talking about.

First, take an ordinary folder and refold it to make your project pack…

Second, measure a piece of duct tape just slightly smaller than the long folded edge of your folder.

Third, stick a (roughly) 1/4 inch section onto the folder. I do this while hanging the edge of the folder off the edge of the counter so the duct tape doesn’t stick to anything else (like my counter! LOL!)

Then flip the folder over carefully and folding carefully, stick the duct tape to the folder abotu 1/4 inch again to the other side, leaving about a 1/2 inch “tag” along the edge.

Be careful to stick it down straight, or you’ll end up with ridges and lumps in your duct tape!

Now… if you have a great three hole punch, go ahead and punch this like it is… I do not. And because it is tempermental, I decided the safest route was to go with my one hole punch and a piece of loose leaf to guide me.

Once the holes are punched… there you go! Slip it into your binder and move onto your next project!

Personally, I think this would be a neat thing to do to a bunch of folders in one session… it’s kinda sticky work, might as well get it over at once… so either hang on to the folders and insert them later, OR, you could make a bunch of folder packs up at once and duct tape them and THEN use them…. because the duct tape is so durable it won’t matter if it’s being handled.

Some examples of our lapbooks…. some of these are double (two folders attached together by one of the shorter edges… holds more mini books that way!

We love lapbooking! :o)  (okay, so these are just the outside covers…but honest, there are mini books inside… and maybe someday I might even get around to photographing them!  …. but then, that is what the notebook is for, isnt’t it?

Enjoy and I hope this has helped someone!

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, Kenzi, General Homeschool | Print | 9 Comments »