Free and Frugal Homeschooling: Printables and Planners {Giveaway}

Welcome to Day 3 of my 5 Days of Free and Frugal Homeschooling!! Today I'm going to be sharing links for FREE Printables and Planners!

If you missed it, here's

Day 1 - Curriculum Plans and a Giveaway
Day 2 - Books and a Giveaway

Oh, my goodness, there are so many places online where you can find FREE Printables!!  I don't want to overwhelm anyone, so below are just a few that I recommend.

Some of these sites offer products that you can purchase, but I have linked only to the free sections.

Free Printables

Donna Young- free printables, planners, and more
Homeschool Share - free literature-based unit studies and resources
A Journey Through Learning - Free lapbook section
In the Hands of a Child - Free lapbooks and notebooking unit studies section
CurrClick - Free ebooks section
Teachers Pay Teachers - Free section
Lapbook Lessons -  Free lapbooks
Homeschool Freebie of the Day -  A new freebie each day
NotebookingPages.com - Free notebooking pages and resources
Notebooking Nook - Freebies by subject

Free Online Planners and Forms

Donna Young
New Bee Homeschooler
The Peaceful Mom
Living Well Spending Less
My Mardel Homeschool
Peace Creek on the Prairie
The Homeschool Mom
Highland Heritage
Notebooking Nook

A few great blogs with free printables {will feature more throughout the week} 

Confessions of a Homeschooler
Homeschool Creations
Five J's

GIVEAWAY #3

In keeping with the Free and Frugal Homeschooling theme, I'll be giving away some of my favorite homeschool products this week!!

Today you can enter to win TimeTrek: The Collection from Knowledge Quest {$44.95 value}!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Before you leave though, see what over 60 other bloggers at The Schoolhouse Review Crew have had to say, or start with these eight blogs below!

Anne Marie @ Future.Flying.Saucers ~ Christian Worldview 101
Marya @ Suncoast Momma ~ Homeschooling Special Needs
Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break ~ Ordinary Homeschooling
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Our Favorite Family Recipes
Dawn @ Double O Farms ~  Helping Your Struggling Learner
Gena @ I Choose Joy! ~ Homeschooling Middle School
Monique @ Living Life and Learning ~ Homeschooling with Lapbooks
DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor ~ Diagramming the Proverbs



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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Free and Frugal Homeschooling: Books {Giveaway}

Welcome to Day 2 of my 5 Days of Free and Frugal Homeschooling!! Today I'm going to be sharing links for FREE and Frugal Books!

If you missed it, here's my Day 1 - Curriculum Plans and Giveaway.

There are a ton of free online book resources so if you haven't taken advantage of them, you should.  Here are just a few that I would recommend.

Free Online Books 

Project Gutenberg
The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project
Children's Books Online
Children's Storybooks Online
Bibliomania
Amazon Classic Literature & Fiction Freebies

Free Audio Books

LibriVox 
Free Classic Audio Books
Books Should Be Free
Storynory
Librophile
Lit2Go
Open Culture

Free Book Quizzes

Book Adventure

Other Helpful Book Sites

Scholastic - Book recommendations and resources

Frugal Book Sites

Homeschool Classifieds
Paperback Swap
Half Price Books
Abe Books

A few great blogs with free printables {will feature more throughout the week}

Homeschool Encouragement
Enchanted Homeschooling Mom
Frugal Homeschool Family

GIVEAWAY #2

In keeping with the Free and Frugal Homeschooling theme, I'll be giving away some of my favorite homeschool products this week!!

Today you can enter to win a 1 Year Membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com {$139 value}!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Before you leave though, see what over 60 other bloggers at Schoolhouse Review Crew have had to say, or start with these eight blogs below!

Anne Marie @ Future.Flying.Saucers ~ Christian Worldview 101
Marya @ Suncoast Momma ~ Homeschooling Special Needs
Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break ~ Ordinary Homeschooling
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Our Favorite Family Recipes
Dawn @ Double O Farms ~  Helping Your Struggling Learner
Gena @ I Choose Joy! ~ Homeschooling Middle School
Monique @ Living Life and Learning ~ Homeschooling with Lapbooks
DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor ~ Diagramming the Proverbs



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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Victus Study Skills System Review

Funny Bunny is 10 and she really has no concept of time, planning, studying, or working towards a goal.  Sound familiar?  Maybe you have a similar child?  I wouldn't necessarily use the word lazy to describe her, she's just not a self-motivated child.

So when I heard about the Victus Study Skills System , I thought it would be a good fit for her.  This system uses a different approach to studying and setting goals.  It's a way of thinking about how to study.

I received the Student Workbook and Teacher Edition.  The books are broken down into 10 lessons and those 10 lessons are broken into these three units - 

Foundational Cornerstone One: Where Am I Now?
Foundational Cornerstone Two: Where Do I Want To Be?
Foundational Cornerstone Three: How Do I Get There?

The Teacher Edition gives a good introduction of the course and it's objectives, as well as some teacher instructions before beginning.

It also gives a sample course plan, which I thought was very helpful!  It's suggested that the entire lesson plan be taught over five, one-hour sessions.  Of course, it's totally up to the instructor to determine what's best for the child, based on their age and learning style.  We worked on the curriculum for several weeks.

Where Am I Now?

This unit includes a Study Habits Checklist and then a Learning Strength Test.  Funny Bunny's results showed that her dominant learning strength is Kinesthetic and her secondary strength is Auditory.  So she learns best by doing and touching.  It then gives suggested aids for the three learning strengths. 

Where Do I Want To Be?

Unit two focuses on creating a mission statement, goals, and priorities.  Can you tell by the picture below what Funny Bunny wants to be when she is older?

She has a big dance tryout at the end of April, so she has decided that her goal right now is to make Premier Company at her dance studio, which is the next level up.  She also needed to make specific and measurable objectives.  I'm not sure she ever thought about this before, so it was a good exercise.

She chose three SMART objectives.  For it to be labeled as SMART, it needed to be...

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Bound

We then decided on an action plan to achieve each of the objectives.  To help her remember them, we wrote them on sticky notes and stuck them on the mirror in her bathroom.

How Do I Get There?

This last unit focuses on time management, schedules, organization, and practice.  It has a great deal of information and I think it would be better suited for an older child who is trying to balance school, studying, organization, note taking, and more.

Since Funny Bunny is only 10 years old and schooling at home {where I make the schedule}, I didn't really feel like we could apply it too much yet.  I do see us using this section in the future though.  Especially the sections on organization and test preparation.

Find Out More:  You can find out more online at Victus Study Skills System.  The Student Workbook and Teacher Edition books are purchased separately for $20 and $40 respectively.  The products can be taught to all ages, but more teacher involvement is required with younger students.  The books are most appropriate for 5th to 12th graders.  You can download the Table of Contents from the Student Workbook or other sample pages from the Products Page.  Find out more be reading the FAQs.

You can also find Victus Study Skills System on Facebook and Twitter.





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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Free and Frugal Homeschooling: Curriculum Plans {Giveaway}

Welcome to Day 1 of my 5 Days of Free and Frugal Homeschooling!!  Today I'm going to be talking about FREE Curriculum Plans!  Yes, you can get complete curriculum plans online for FREE!!  Below are just a few.

Ambleside Online
An Old Fashioned Education
Khan Academy
Simply Charlotte Mason
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
Mater Amabilis 
Open Education Source 
Head of the Class
Hippo Campus 
Raising Sweet Blessings

Other sites that offer great curriculum resources include

Brightly Beaming Resources - Letter of the Week and more
VocabularySpellingCity- Tool for vocabulary, spelling, writing and language arts
Scott Foresman Reading - Full year of grammar and writing for grades 1-6
BigIQKids - Spelling and vocabulary
Art Projects for Kids - K-5 classroom tested art projects
Homeschool Share - Free literature-based unit studies and resources
Classics for Kids - Wonderful interactive site about the classics
Classic Science - Free year of Elementary Life Science
Deep Space Sparkle -  Art library

A few great blogs with free printables {will feature more throughout the week}

A Moment in our World
Only Passionate Curiosity
The Measured Mom

GIVEAWAY #1

In keeping with the Free and Frugal Homeschooling theme, I'll be giving away some of my favorite homeschool products this week!!

Today you can enter to win a 1 Year Premium Family Membership at VocabularySpellingCity!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Before you leave though, see what over 60 other bloggers at The Schoolhouse Review Crew have had to say, or start with these eight blogs below!

Anne Marie @ Future.Flying.Saucers ~ Christian Worldview 101
Marya @ Suncoast Momma ~ Homeschooling Special Needs
Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break ~ Ordinary Homeschooling
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Our Favorite Family Recipes
Dawn @ Double O Farms ~  Helping Your Struggling Learner
Gena @ I Choose Joy! ~ Homeschooling Middle School
Monique @ Living Life and Learning ~ Homeschooling with Lapbooks
DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor ~ Diagramming the Proverbs



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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Homeschool Mother's Journal 4-5-14

In our homeschool...

Only 6 more weeks left!!  Waa-hoo!  We only school 4 days weeks, so that's only 24 more days!  My goal is to have our last day on May 8th before our next trip, but that is cutting it close since we have a few days scheduled with other activities.

Funny Bunny has finished working on Unit 28: The Word Became Flesh and Unit 29: Jesus, Teacher and Healer in Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ.

Here is a picture of one of her history projects.  It's hard to see, but that's Matthew 14: 27, 33 - But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."  Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Books Funny Bunny is reading independently...

And she got this new Bible and has been enjoying it

Outside our homeschool lives...

Last weekend we went to Legoland and Disney.  It was nice to get away and we had a great time!

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Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids by Jill Osborne Book Review

Funny Bunny was not only excited to receive another new book in the mail to review, but happy to see it was book two in The Good News Shoes series, Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids by Jill Osborne.

Review by Funny Bunny

"Shoe-girl" Riley Mae is back, and wherever she goes, adventure, excitement, and a lot of shoes always follows!

This time, it's a secret cabin - actually more like a resort - that the story takes place in. After that accident on the Half-Dome in Yosemite, the Hart family head out on a surprise vacation to Flip and Fawn's luxurious cabin. Just a few of the things they meet there are a family of Christians from Kenya, Africa, a bubbly nurse named Diane, and a ferocious bear named Herod.

But even if the whole "surprise vacation" thing seems great, there's still mysterious things going on, Riley is sure. And when Mom (the extra-suspicious police officer) arrives a little later with her brother and her friend, Rusty, the girls decide that there's definitely something strange happening.

Riley and Rusty are forced to push the worries to the back of their minds, however, as an even more worrying situation comes up - the Riley Mae Ready Eddy River Sandal photo shoot. And the most thrilling part: Riley, Mom, Fawn, and Matt (their guide) are going to be riding the rapids for the shoot!

Everything goes smoothly for the shoot - in the practice rounds. But as things go wrong, one by one, Eric (Flip and Fawn's long-lost brother) suddenly disappears, and someone purposely overturns the raft, everyone starts to suspect that an enemy is closer then they realized. And maybe, just maybe, that these accidents are linked.

Maybe, just maybe, these accidents aren't accidents at all. 

Find Out More: You can find out more online at Zondervan.  Riley Mae and the Ready Eddy Rapids is available in paperback and just $7.99.

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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/

Thrifty Thursday

Here are some of the thrifty deals for today!

FREE Easter Story Printable Pack @ A Moment in our World

FREE Frozen Themed Math Worksheet Pack @ Frugal Homeschool Family

FREE Jelly Bean Printables @  Upside Down Homeschooling

FREE Earth Day Coloring Pages @ In All You Do

FREE Literature Unit Study Printables @ Meet Penny

FREE Colorful Light Ray Cross Project @ Housing a Forest

FREE Easter Crown of Thorns Pastel Project @ Hodgepodge

FREE Easy Peasy Chore System @ Homeschool Giveaways & Freebies

FREE Christian Easter Story Printable @ Motherhood on a Dime

FREE Jesus and the Last Supper Lesson @ Future.Flying.Saucers

FREE Letter Z Printable @ the measured mom

FREE 98 Antonyms Worksheets @ CurrClick

I hope you enjoy some of these FREEBIES! If you know of any others, please leave a comment below.



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Wordless Wednesday: Checkers

Intense game of checkers on Tom Sawyer's Island at Magic Kingdom.

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Young Women of Faith Bible, NIV Review

 Review by Funny Bunny:

The Young Women of Faith Bible (NIV) is a study Bible just for girls! It has many cool and helpful features such as the Journal Pages, the If I Were There pages, the Memory Verse pages, and more!

Now was a great time to get this Bible, as I am currently studying the book of Romans. The side notes help me understand the passages better, the journal pages help me relate to other girls my age, and the If I Were There pages show how I might feel if I were in a Biblical person's position.

This Bible helps me focus not only on the well-known Bible stories, but on my very own personal story! It helps me learn more about my relationship with God, how to serve Him, and ways other disciples were devoted to following in His ways. With the Good News in tow, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me! This Bible helps me learn more about Him and what He wants.

This particular Bible is probably, in my opinion, for ages 9-12. However, older children may like it, and younger children can have fun with it by having their moms read it to them.

Speaking of moms, the NIV Woman of Faith Study Bible is connected to the Young Woman of Faith Study Bible, so you and your mom can share in God's Word together!

I really think this is a fantastic Bible, with easy-to-read type, good study tips and passages, and lots of fun to read - alone, or with mom!

From the Publisher:

The study Bible that’s just for girls! This Bible is filled with engaging features that will help you learn more about yourself and your relationship with God. Designed to encourage you to develop a habit of studying God's Word, you’ll discover how relevant the Bible can be to your everyday life. Weekly studies and many of the side notes are also linked to the women's study Bible, the NIV Women of Faith Study Bible, allowing you and your mom to share God's Word together. Features include: Weekly Bible Studies, Side Notes, Journal Pages, Memory Verses, I Believe Statements of Faith, and If I Were There Bible Stories.

Find Out More:  You can find out more online at Zondervan.  The Young Women of Faith Bible, NIV is available with a hardcover and is $29.99.

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Menu Plan Monday - March 31

If you've been following my food journey, you know that I started eating plant-based on February 3rd.  Today ends two months of my journey. 

We took a trip to Legoland and Disney over the weekend.  I tried my best to stick with it so my goal was to eat vegan, or at the very least, vegetarian.  I just didn't want to stress over oil and sugar. 

Here are a few of the highlights -

Friday afternoon - Garden salad at Legoland and a few healthy snacks that I brought.

Friday evening - Vegetable Jambalaya at Boatwright's Dining Hall at Port Orleans Riverside. {A lighter take on a New Orleans Classic with Asparagus, Mushrooms, Peppers, Onions, and Tomatoes with Rice} I also had several pieces of Cornbread.  Not plant based but I just couldn't resist!!

Saturday afternoon - Quinoa Salad at Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom. {Quinoa Salad with Green Beans, Potatoes, Olives, Roasted Bell Peppers, Golden Beets and Tomatoes}.  It was really good!!

Saturday evening - Buffet at The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom.  The chef came out and showed me all the meat and dairy free options at the buffet.  Then he brought me some Tofutti ice cream from the back.  I was totally stuffed!!

Sunday afternoon  - Vegetarian Platter at the Tangierine Cafe in Morocco at EPCOT.  {Hummus, Tabouleh, Lentils, Falafel and Marinated Olives with fresh Moroccan Bread}.  This meal surprised me the most.  It was very good and a great deal for the amount of food I got. 

I brought my own snacks but did get a pretzel on Sunday, just because I was craving it!

I wish I had taken some pictures but I wasn't even thinking about it at the time.  Of course, most of the food had lots of oil, but my goal was to eat as close to plant-based as I could. 

Here are a few of the meals I had last week before we left.

Lazy Pasta

Pancakes, Grits, and Fruit

For the menu this week our dinners will include:

Quick Burgers
Vegetable Stirfry {Hubby made this one and I'll share the recipe next week}
Black Beans and Brown Rice Extravaganza
Spaghetti, Salad, and Happy Herbivore Fat Free Cornbread



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©2010-2014 Our Homeschool Reviews. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://ourhomeschoolreviews.blogspot.com/