Open House

Friday night we invited my parents, sister, and of course Daddy to Open House. We had pink lemonade and cookies for everyone and then invited them to come see all the girls' hard work for this year.

Everything laid out and ready to go.

Little Bit showing Grandpa her work. 

Sweetheart and Aunt T.  Yes, they are very nearly the same size. 

Grandma finally stopped taking pictures so she could look too. 

Daddy got home....

Avert your eyes from the black shelves! They will look very different soon!

That's all!

Here is our Open House from 2008. (sniff sniff. My babies were so little!)

What Time Is It?

We're done!!!! Yesterday we finished the last spelling lesson (well, 2 spelling lessons for Sweetheart) and that was it. I had youtube all cued up and ready to go. I pushed play and we danced around the living room to High School Musical's summertime song. It was wonderful. The girls just giggled and giggled. Sweetheart is so happy to be a "middle schooler." I told her she could not be that old because she was my little baby.

"OK then Mom. I'm a "sixth grader". Is that better?"

"Yes. Because in some places 6th grade is still elementary school."

"Moooommmm!"

I am so proud this year. We actually finished our History book, science book, Bible book, and both spelling books. I cannot remember a year when we finished that many things all the way through. (Math? Not so much.)

Tonight we are having Open House for our homeschool. The girls want to show off all the hard work they did this year. We invited the grandparents, an aunt, and of course Daddy. We're going to serve refreshments.

(Shh. It's a great excuse to get help cleaning up the room for the end of the year!) Have a great weekend everyone!

Affording Your Curriculum Choices

The eternal question. First of all, let me state for the record that I firmly believe you can homeschool your children with nothing but a Bible, pencil, paper, a library card, the internet, and a printer.Or some combination of those. And do a good job of it! But thankfully, we can afford to buy some curriculum.

But I can't afford to buy everything I want. Everyone's situation is different and guess what else? Every YEAR is different! But I thought I'd share how one family, who doesn't make a ton of money (and what homeschooling family does?) but can afford to buy some stuff this year....is going to do it.

Think of it as a behind the scenes tour to that last post!

The first year we homeschooled, I still worked part-time when we ordered our curriculum. I stuck with ABeka, as Sweetheart had been using that in private school. I knew exactly 0 homeschoolers.  I drove to a local hotel where they had the curriculum set up, picked out my wares, and wrote a check for $210.00.

It has never been that simple since!

For next year, here is what we are doing:

1. Borrowing
Once you get some contacts, like a homeschool group or co-op or some friends....this one is an awesome deal! I loan, and I borrow. Homeschoolers are good like that. Here is what I'm borrowing next year:

from our old church

from a friend

from a lady in our homeschool group who has used her copy to teach 8 children to read. i feel honored to be using it.

from a friend in Georgia--the DVD and teacher book.

Plus, the Instructor's Guide for Core A of Sonlight. A friend is giving that to me. It's an old one.

2. Buying Used
Oh my word there are so many different places to do this! From local stores, to online, to curriculum sales. Ask folks in your area. There are TONS of places to find used homeschool curriculum. Even friends. The best thing I did this year was mention curriculum on Facebook! Within hours I had leads on several things I needed. I also put a request on our homeschool group's website and got some offers like that. And if a homeschooler or teacher has a garage sale---GO! Here is what I'm buying used for next year:

Actually, I already bought this, but I bought it used.

I'll look for this one used too. 

• Plus a LOT of the books from Core A for Sonlight. 

3. Make Your Own
I think this is a frugal thing, but sometimes I just cannot fork over money for something I KNOW I could do cheaper myself! Now granted, sometimes it's better to just fork over the money if your life situation means you will not have time to make the items. Here is what I'm making for next year:

We've made our own timelines for 3 years so I'm not going to purchase one from Sonlight for next year. The girls love making their own pieces so we're going to stick with that. It's the cost of a sketch book from Hobby Lobby and some die cut people.

4. Use the Library
We'd all love to own every book. It would make life so wonderful. But let's face it, it's cheaper to go to the library. Notice I did not say free. The library is never free for me. Did I tell you about the time 3 year old Little Bit set up to play "library" with me? She had books, a card, and her cash register. Hmm. Anyway, here are some things I'm planning to use the library for next year:

• A lot of the books for Sonlight Core A. 
• Supplemental books and movies to go with whatever we're studying. 

5. Get it Free
www.paperbackswap.com is a great way to get free books. Many e-books are free and the Kindle app is free. Currclick has free downloads each week. Also visit www.homeschoolfreebie.com Any others I missed?

6. Re-Use
Who doesn't love non-consumable materials? Here are some things I used with Sweetheart that I will now be using with Little Bit next year:

7. Buy New--however reluctantly
Look for sales, look for "free shipping days", look around....there are usually multiple places that sell curriculum. If you have to buy new, find the cheapest place. Consider shipping costs too. I have an awesome app on my phone where you scan a barcode and it shows you all the places you can buy an item online and compares the prices. Sometimes you want to buy new. Especially if it will be used with multiple children. Here are some things I am buying new for next year:

These are less than $6 a piece + shipping. Consumable, but very affordable. 

Consumable--and affordable. Less than $8.00

The Junior version of this will be out in July. Yay!  Consumable and not  cheap, but worth it. I'm going to compare prices a lot of places. 

Again...offered many places. I'll have to shop around. IF I can't find it used!

These are less than $3.00 each. 

Ug. Bite the bullet. It will be used again by Little Bit. 

Already got this on sale + free shipping. Great deal!

Will be used again for Little Bit. 

It's work, I'm telling you. Lots of time spent on the computer and hoofing it around to different sales and stores. But it's worth it. Any other ways to get your homeschool curriculum? I mean...legally?

Curriculum Choices for 2011-2012 School Year

**Deep breath**

Don't you just LOVE picking out and browsing and searching and researching curriculum??? I do. I absolutely love it. I think I'm just about done making decisions for next year. All that's left now is to actually....pay for it.

And plan it, teach it, blah blah blah. Details, details.

Here we go....oh, for new readers my girls are 7 and 11. They will be entering 2nd grade and 6th grade. Well, probably more like "first and 1/2" but that's a topic for another time.

Math
I will not need to buy anything for math right now. (Whew!) Sweetheart will be finishing the last 10 lessons or so of this

and then starting this

Little Bit will be continuing to work on this

Bible
We'll get back to this in a minute. But the curriculum we were using last year, we still love. I don't think we'll have time for this in our school day, so we will use it some nights for family worship time.

Handwriting

Sweetheart will use this

and Little Bit will use this

Pretty simple and easy.

English/Language/Writing/Grammar

For the first time ever I will be teaching these topics! I chose this 

based on Erin's TOS review. Sweetheart is SO excited about this curriculum. I am too, honestly.

Little Bit will be using something similar to what Kenny is doing in this post. I cannot find those printable pages for the life of me, but I can make some. She will also have copywork.


Spelling

We will continue using All About Spelling. Love it. Can't say enough good things about it. Sweetheart will be on Level 4 and Little Bit on Level 2. (I'm an affiliate so if you buy....click that link!)

Science

This one is up in the air. Not the curriculum we'll be using, but how much we'll be in each other's business. For Little Bit, I chose this

but I want Sweetheart to do it too. We will hopefully use these

But Sweetheart needs more than that. Along with Carrie's kiddos, she will be doing this





and using these

But I want Little Bit to do that too. So...they may just "sit in" with each other. Probably I will just act like both of them are for both of them, you know? I'll figure out how to work them both in later.

And now for the exciting one (and expensive one!). We will be using this for History and Reading (and Bible)

Sweetheart will be studying core D+E (American History) from Sonlight. I am thrilled. I've eyed that Sonlight catalog for years. When I finally sat down with S and confessed what I really wanted to use he said, "How much?" Then I told him. And then he said, "That's nothing. Get it." I love him so much. (Thank you for mowing honey!) And our Bible will be taken care of through this curriculum.

And then last week I decided I really wanted her own thing for Little Bit. But buying core A new does not make sense as 1. we don't have the money for both cores and 2. there are no others behind her to use it. So I am going to beg, borrow, and check out this core in pieces. I'll git 'er done, but it's going to take work.

Along with that (here comes the "first and 1/2")...Little Bit and I started using this at the end of last school year.

We are going to keep plugging along in it until reading clicks for her. She's getting there. It's exciting to watch. She is enjoying this book a lot and it is working so much better than anything we've done previously. Maybe the timing is just right? But we'll keep going with that book as long as it's useful to us.

I am so excited about all these choices--especially the new ones. Math, Handwriting, and Spelling are old hat so they aren't as exciting. :)

I hope this post is helpful.. If you have any questions about anything I've chosen, I will be happy to answer them. I know curriculum choices are very personal and we are all so blessed to homeschool these days with so many choices before us. Paying for all this is going to take work, and honestly I'm not buying all this. I'll share about the finances of curriculum next time.

The First Grocery Report

Well, I went on my very first "saving grocery trip" this morning. I'd like to tell you about it. Here is a report from a complete coupon novice.

This week my only goal was to learn to price match at W-mart. I didn't use any coupons. Here is W-mart's price match policy. I'll add in other couponing techniques later. One thing at a time.

So I sat down with all the store ads yesterday and wrote down what was on sale that I might need. I fought the urge to stock up buying things that were a good bargain but we didn't specifically need this week. I wrote down, for example:

Ground Beef 93% lean (Kroger $2.99)

on a separate sheet of paper. Then I put a * next to "meat" on my grocery list so when I got to the meat section, I would remember to check my price match page.

Sometimes, W-mart had the better deal so I didn't use the price match. I ended up price matching 14 items. I put those at the back of the conveyor belt. I lucked out and got a cashier who knew what she was doing. In fact, she was training two new cashiers so I provided a good lesson for them.

It was so easy. I just read off what I had on my list (I had hi-lighted what I was buying on my price match list while I shopped) and she did a price override, typing in the price I told her. I didn't even say the store names. No questions asked. No proof needed. It was weird.

I ended up saving (I think my math is correct) 16% on my grocery bill. But here's the thing! When I am being really cheap, meaning I don't buy a lot of meat that week, I spend a certain amount. I spent a few dollars LESS than that amount today AND got 5 pounds of lean ground beef and a big family pack of chicken breast. AND STILL CAME OUT CHEAPER than my cheap weeks!!! And also got some name brand things that I normally would say "no" to.

I am very pleased with my first saving trip. Thank you Karly!

One more point. I went early while the cashiers were fresh and the store wasn't crowded. I think that really helped.

This saving thing is going to be a breeze!