Wednesday, July 31, 2013

STS Road Trip: Refreshing

It is the beginning of the beautiful, warm month of August!  One more month of beaches and swimming - unless you are like my kids and some others who have to start school next week!  Ha, ha!

The theme of the Stuff to Scrap Road Trip is "Refreshing."  Some lovely kits are coming your way with this color palette!

Click image to download from Mediafire.  PU/S4H/S4O.


If you are following the STS Road Trip, you came from WinksArt Graphics, and your next stop is Stephanie's Blog.

Here's the rest of the Road Trip:

Triple J Designs
yabbyscrap
Arizona Girl
Magical Scraps Galore
Dees-Deelights
Shuckclod's Stuff
LyllahRaven Designs
Just Saskia
JaneceScraps
EmJay Scraps
DinkeekDooScraps
JMC Designs
Saphiras Scraps
Jiovanna's Creations
Queen Bee Scraps
Cajun Diva Scraps
Scrappin Serenity
Let Me Scrapbook!
WinksArt Graphics
Note-able Scraps
Stephanie's Blog
Flower Scraps


Happy August!

Monday, July 29, 2013

Harvest Lapbook, Study Guide, and Sales!!



Hello, everyone!  Lots of exciting news today!  First, my new lapbook and study guide Harvest on the Farm went on sale today at Knowledge Box Central!
Summer is over, you are back from the beach, and the pool is closed.  What, oh what, is there to do?  Don't miss the wonderful outdoor fun you can have during harvest time!  Tour a farm, take a hayride, take a nature walk looking for leaves, or check out some books from your local library about farms and harvest.  Use our lapbook and study guide Harvest on the Farm to learn more about this wonderful time of year, as well as some of the history behind our harvest customs and festivals!
Secondly, CurrClick is running a huge "Pay-What-You-Want" Sale that ends today.  Stock up on all those titles you've been wanting for the new homeschool year!

Oh, and guess what?  Harvest on the Farm, as well as my other lapbook and study guides for the Theory of Intelligent Design, are all included in the sale!  Grab them today!!  Click on the previews for the links:




Happy Lapbooking!  :-)

Saturday, July 27, 2013

"A Little Me Time" Papers FREEBIE

Do you keep all of your blog train freebies going way back?  I do.  I love having all those kits from different designers with different styles that all go together in one big mega-kit that I can use over and over again!  One of my favorites was Stuff to Scrap's "A Little Me Time" blog train two years ago, in September 2011.  I have developed quite a fondness for kaleidoscope papers and playing with my Repper Pro, so here are some new papers to go with that old color scheme.  Click image to download from Mediafire.  PU/S4H/S4O.


My original portion of the blog train is still available on 4shared.  PU/S4H/S4O.  Click image to go to the original post.


Happy Scrapping!  :-)


Extra Credit FREEBIE Add-on!

Did you LOVE Dandelion Dust Designs' "Extra Credit" kit?  Are you getting ready for the First Day of School 2013??

Don't miss the FREEBIE add-on to "Extra Credit," available now on DDD's Facebook page!


Happy Scrapping!  :-)

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Difference Between Babysitting Boys and Girls

     My daughter has been baby-sitting her younger brother this week while the other siblings are at Camp, and I am trying to get some writing done.  She is very good with him and has played Legos and Superheroes until she plays them in her dreams.  At one point, she asked him if they could play "Babies"; he would be the baby and she would be the mommy.  That worked out great.  Until a few minutes later, when he turned into a Zombie Baby and came after her.  And that is how playing with little boys is different from playing with little girls!  Although I can't say my girls have never turned into Zombie babies, either.  At any rate, she'll be able to handle anything babysitting throws at her!!



Thursday, July 25, 2013

"Extra Credit" and FREEBIES

What type of homeschooler are you?  Are you on a year-round schedule, still finishing up last year's work, or enjoying the summer break and getting ready to start the new year?  Or if you are in public or private school, are you starting in August or September, or do you school year-round?  We homeschool and normally do not start until after Labor Day, but this year we are preparing to start the first full week in August (a week and a half, yikes!!) and get a jump on things.  I am excited about the new schoolroom we set up, and about Dandelion Dust Designs' awesome new back-to-school kit, "Extra Credit"!



Grab yours exclusively at ScrapTakeout!


There are 2 free QPs to download at Mediafire!  P/U only.



Happy Schooling!  :-)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit in exchange for layouts.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Whale-wiches


Our latest lunch creations.  It seems that when Little Man cooks, we eat some type of critter!  :-)



These fun sandwiches have tuna salad inside.






Happy Critter-Making!  :-)




Saturday, July 20, 2013

Music to My Ears Free Quickpage

Finally!  I am back with the free quickpage for Music to My Ears from Dandelion Dust Designs.    If you haven't downloaded the free kit from DDD's Facebook page, scroll on down.  It's still available!



Click image below to download from Mediafire.  PU only.


Happy Scrapping!  :-)

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Music To My Ears FREEBIE


I pretty much love all things musical, so I am very excited about Dandelion Dust Designs' new Facebook Freebie, "Music to My Ears!"  Simply "like" DDD on Facebook and download under "Special Freebie."  Check back here in a day or two for my freebie to go along with this kit!


Happy Scrapping!  :-)


The King Philip’s War Adventure FREEBIE

From Homeschool Freebie of the Day:


THE KING PHILLIP’S WAR ADVENTURE


Author Susan Kilbride is celebrating the publication of her third historical chapter book, The Salem Adventure, by offering the second book in the series, The King Philip’s War Adventure, FREE today and tomorrow on Kindle. (Regularly $4.95)
About the book: Finn & Ginny’s parents are lost back in time, and the two young twins have decided to take a second trip back to early America to find them. In The Pilgrim Adventure they had found themselves living on the Mayflower, but this time they get caught up in the horrors of King Philip’s War. The King Philip’s War Adventure is the second book in the Our America series. It is designed to teach the story of King Philip’s War in such a fun way that the reader won’t even realize that it’s educational. The King Philip’s War Adventure is based on actual accounts written by the people who lived through the war, and kids who read this book may find that they know more about King Philip’s War than their parents do. Ages 10 and up.
Susan is also giving away a free pdf of colonial activities to go along with The Salem Adventure. For links to the free Kindle book and the free colonial activities, plus links to several more of Susan’s free pdfs, go here: http://funtasticunitstudies.com/lessons-and-activities/
For more great freebies, sign up at Homeschool Freebie of the Day!

Happy Homeschooling!  :-)

Monday, July 15, 2013

More "Summer Sunset" Papers


I have a second set of papers for you from "Summer Sunset," the July Stuff to Scrap Road Trip.  (Same preview.)  They are similar to the first set of papers but with some variance in the patterns.  Click preview to download from Mediafire.  PU/S4H/S4O.  Enjoy!

 Happy Scrapping!  :-)

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Happy Camper Add-On Freebie



There is a free Add-On to "Happy Camper"on Dandelion Dust Designs' Facebook page!  Click image to visit and download!

Happy Scrapping!  :-)

Thursday, July 11, 2013

"Happy Camper" and FREEBIES

My family did some camping when I was a kid, I was in Girl Scouts, and my husband and oldest son have done quite a bit of camping with the Boy Scouts, but when I had four little kids and my husband wanted to go camping my response was, "Are you CRAZY???!!!"  Now that they are older, though, we are finding it to be a great family activity.  They enjoy the outdoors and don't mind being without electronics and TVs for a few days at all.  In fact, my younger three can be entertained for HOURS by a few roly-polies!!

This is a relatively new phase of life for us, and so I have been collecting some camping kits to scrap all our wonderful adventures, and I was THRILLED when Dandelion Dust Designs added this fabulous kit to my collection!  Here are two pages from a recent family camping trip with the Cub Scouts.



The wordart in the first layout is from the "Happy Camper" kit, and I added an "s."  There is also a lovely alpha with the kit that resembles patches like you might get in some type of scouting, but to save myself the time of placing all the letters in my rather long title, I used a font instead in my second layout.  I used "LD Campfire" by Lettering Delights.  I love how the letters are made from the smoke from the little campfires!!

You can get "Happy Camper" for all your family camping photos exclusively at ScrapTakeout:


Don't leave without a couple of FREE QPs!  Click to download from Mediafire.  PU only.



Happy Camping!  :-)

Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this kit in exchange for layouts.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

STM Freebies - 4th of July Stars

We have another FREEBIE for you this evening!!



STM Freebies - 4th of July Stars

Check out these great freebies!
They make great Party Favors or Decorations! Easy and fun to make!

Available free until July 14th.



to get $10 off My Memories Suite Software! (in the US and Canada)



Happy Scrapping!  :-)

"Summer Joys" FREEBIE from Dandelion Dust Designs

Hop on over and "like" Dandelion Dust Designs on Facebook and pick up this fun "Summer Joys" FREE minikit!


I am in love with all the bright colors, and when the Facebook page gets to 2500 "Likes," there will be a bright, brand new free kit called "Summer Dots" to download.  So go "Like" Dandelion Dust Designs!!!  :-)

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Creation Museum


Several weeks ago we had an opportunity to take a field trip to the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio.  My parents went with us.  You can see in the picture that my mother is going to beat the dinosaur in the nose with her museum map.  That is very like my mother!  You really do not mess with her grandchildren, especially if she has a museum map in her hand.

We really enjoyed this museum.  We had the opportunity to hear Steve Ham (Ken Ham's brother) speak and to meet him.  As a side note, I spoke with him about my book Amazing Animals by Design and am hoping the museum book store may decide to carry it!

Now, since I have been writing about the theory of intelligent design, I get a lot of questions as to how it is similar to or different from Creationism.  The primary difference is the starting point of the study.  Creationism begins with the Judeo-Christian belief that God created the world, and it studies scientific evidence to see if it supports that belief (and it does!).  Intelligent Design starts with the evidence itself, determined to follow wherever it leads, and the ID scientists find that the evidence supports the theory that the universe was created by an intelligent and purposeful Designer rather than by a series of random events and natural selection.  Many ID scientists believe that the Designer is the God of the Bible, while others simply present the scientific evidence and stop there.  You can find out more at my Amazing by Design blog.

I have said before and will say again here that I personally am a Creationist.  I believe God created the world because the Bible says so.  I am interested in the study of intelligent design theory because of the different perspective.  Many of these scientists started out not believing in God, believing the Bible was only a figurative story, or just not being sure, and they came to believe in God because of the scientific evidence.  I believe this is a powerful witnessing tool, and that their scientific study will equip our children well to deal with scientific studies in high schools or universities.  While some critics may say that Creationists are simply looking for evidence to support their own belief and finding what they choose to find, I believe the same could be said of Darwinian evolutionists.  Intelligent Design Theory is a good way to teach my kids to look at evidence objectively, and to realize that all evidence can be interpreted in different ways.  This could lead to a whole discussion about the importance of our Worldview, which I had better leave for another article!!

Now back to the Creation Museum.  It is owned by the Answers In Genesis foundation, and they are, of course, creationists.  The museum is full of information about creation, dinosaurs, other early creatures, Noah's Ark, the Flood, and how science supports creationism rather than Darwinism.  It was wonderful for my children to experience the life-size exhibits after talking about these things in school.  There is a petting zoo and several animals in terrariums.  My children loved watching the chameleons run from branch to leaf and back and quickly change color.  They also loved the Zorse and the Zonkey - crosses between a zebra with a horse and a donkey, respectively, to demonstrate how genetics work.  My youngest thought they looked cool and enjoyed feeding them, while my oldest, who studied genetics in biology this year, was fascinated with the breeding.

The Creation Museum was great for all ages.  The younger kids enjoyed the scavenger hunt through the museum.  They all enjoyed explaining things they had learned in science this year to the grandparents as we browsed the exhibits - and of course grandparents always act enthralled whether they already knew that information or not!!  I enjoyed seeing all the exhibits that reinforced what we had been learning.  I especially appreciate seeing things that are backed by hard scientific or Biblical evidence and seeing how they fit together.  There were a few things here that were more speculation.  For credibility's sake, I prefer to stick with the facts when teaching my children.  We look forward to AIG completing their life-size model of what Noah's Ark could have looked like.

Enough rambling.  Let me show you some pictures!  If you are in the Cincinnati area this summer, certainly consider the Creation Museum for a field trip!










Happy museum - visiting!!  :-)



Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Helpful Homeschooling Links



I compiled a list of links for a friend of mine beginning homeschool, and I thought I'd share it on the blog.  These sites provide an assortment of helpful information, freebies, and low-cost ideas and curriculum for a variety of ages.  Hope you find something you can use!


Homeschool Giveaways - for a lot of giveaways and some freebies.

www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com - sign up for a bunch of great freebies.  They are on break for the summer now but have a freebie almost every day during the school year. 

http://www.thehomemakersmentor.com/ has freebies all summer.  They are brand new.

http://www.schoolexpress.com/ has a lot of free worksheets and will send you a free unit study every Sunday.

http://schoolhouseteachers.com  - low monthly subscription, pretty much all you need in one spot!

http://edhelper.com - low monthly subscription, lots of material 

www.readingeggs.com - several free weeks and then a subscription  

www.cleverdragons.com - for boys  
www.alwaysicecream.com - for girls  







www.stevespangler.com (Will send you free science experiments to do with household products.  You can also watch the experiments on his site or on YouTube.)

www.superchargedscience.com (Will send you free science experiments to do with household products.)

www.letteringdelights.com (not specifically for school but they offer alphas and graphics that I use for school stuff a lot.  New freebie every Friday and several freebies for joining.)

www.TOSMagazine.com - Get the free magazine download every month and also sign up for "The Homeschool Minute" email newsletter for some good information and encouragement.


http://www.actionalert.com/landing1.aspx - to monitor the computer.  There is a free version.

http://noteablescraps.blogspot.com/2011/09/school-planner-dividers-freebie.html - Free school planner dividers from yours truly.  :-)

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/curious_george.php - FREE CURIOUS GEORGE LAPBOOK!!



http://cars.disney.com/games-activities - Not necessarily educational, but a little!  

http://www.thecolor.com/ - interactive coloring

http://www.bigbrainz.com/ - free math games



Unit Studies and lapbooks:

www.knowledgeboxcentral.com - I'm writing for this company and of course they are my favorite!  Prices are very reasonable, they run a lot of specials, and most of the lapbook pages are black and white so you don't use a ton of ink.  I usually print them on colored paper, and the kids can also color the shapes.  I read the unit study off the computer or e-readers so I don't have to print it all out.

http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.net/ - These are in color so you don't need the colored paper, but they use more ink to print.  They also don't separate out the unit study part, so you pretty much end up printing everything.  I specifically like their VeggieTales lapbooks, which I have not found elsewhere.


The Curiosity Files - not so much lapbooks but good science unit studies.  I love these.  I think you can get them from Currclick (above) or as part of the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership.  The SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership also includes a bunch of "When I Grow Up" unit studies for preK and early grades.

You can find Schoolhouse Rock videos, Drive Thru History videos, Veggie Tales, and all sorts of educational videos and science experiments to watch on YouTube and Netflix if you have a Netflix subscription.  Obviously, I never let my kids loose on YouTube.  I find the stuff and then show it to them.

Just Google "lapbooks," "preschool crafts," "how to teach ABCs," etc., etc. and find all kinds of stuff.

PINTEREST!!!  Nuff said!!

Your local library, craft days at Michaels, and field trips all over town.  Get a few other homeschoolers together and call any business in town - a farm, an ice cream shop, a fire station, the city hall - they are all more than happy to give field trips.  

HSLDA.org - for information, encouragement, and legal advice or protection if needed.  They have helped me tremendously in moving from state to state with the military and knowing what state laws I need to know in each place.  There's also a members-only "ebay" type auction for used homeschool curriculum.

You know you want to check out my blog!  http://www.noteablescraps.blogspot.com.  Go to the sidelinks for "homeschooling," "lapbooks," or "TOS Review."  


I know, I know, every time someone asks me a question they get way more info than they ever wanted!!  I am just going to include here, though, a list of sites we let our kids go to on the Internet for games and activities.  Some are educational.  Not sure if they are all still active.


Happy Homeschooling!  :-)

Monday, July 1, 2013

"Filled With Pride" Add-on FREEBIE

Happy July!  Are you getting all geared up for your big plans for the Fourth?  (If you are not in the U.S., you are still welcome to have a BBQ on our Independence Day!)  :-)

Dandelion Dust Designs has a FREE add-on to the Filled With Pride kit on their Facebook Page.


Scroll down a few posts for more information on the Filled With Pride kit, Filled With Pride Quickpage freebies, and a blog train!

Happy July 4th!  :-)

July Issue of TOS Magazine