Beatrix Potter Copybook Download

The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit

I love this sweet Beatrix Potter tale for the youngest listeners. It is very short, perfect for copywork! There are three versions for three levels of writers. The first is a beginning version, with the words over each line, like a handwriting book. The second has the words all at the top of the lines, for more advanced writers. The last version can be used by print or cursive writers who can do copywork from a separate text.  The word are on a separate slip of paper so only the child's writing appears in the story. Some of the pictures are black and white for coloring.

Beginning Book

This is the book for the beginning writer. Each word is directly over a line, for kids who still need help with letter formation. The model is on lines, to remind them how to write them correctly. Best for kids transitioning to writing longer words and phrases. 

Copywork Book

For the child who no longer needs reminders about letter formation, this copywork book has the lines for the child's writing after the sentences, rather then directly under them. This helps transition the child from letter-by-letter copying, an important step in learning to visualize words for spelling. 

Penmanship Book

This book is for the child who is ready for beginning copywork from a separate source. Since eventually they will be copying from a book, this helps them transition to looking at a different source for their model. This also helps encourage them to look at the whole word rather then writing letter by letter. 

 All files on this page are copyrighted and may not be used or copied for use outside of your immediate family. Please refer anyone interested to this site. 

Thank you for your understanding! 

Mixing Bowl Academy Live Cooking Class Review

We all like to eat.  Some of us REALLY like to eat.  The problem with all that eating is someone has to cook!  Bop has been fascinated by the process lately, and she even says that she is going to be an 'esteraunt keeper' when she grows up.  She especially wants to learn how to cook by herself, or at least to not be just 'helping' all the time.

So, of course, when Sandie Sanchez from Mixing Bowl Academy offered us the chance to take one of her live online cooking classes, I knew that we had to do it.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, since I had never done a live class before.  Turns out, it is pretty simple.  All you have to do is click on the link provided and sign in.  You can watch the live class in a video screen, and there is a little chat box on the side which is just great.  She also had the recipe up on the screen for a quick reference.

Bananas...

Our first class was short and sweet- Strawberry smoothies!  Sandie provided us with all the information we needed in the e-mail she sent.  Date and time, ingredient list, and materials.  We made sure to have all of our materials ready before the scheduled time, so we could keep up with her.  It turns out she moves at just the right pace.  She left plenty of time for the kids to cook, but she wasn't too slow either.


Strawberries...

It took us about 20 minutes to make our smoothies, including time to chat and listen to all of her tips.  The kids loved having the chance to make their very own food, they got to do it all.  I even let them run the blender.  (Of course, I handled putting the blender parts together.)

I especially liked how Sandie's son led the cooking- he was in the video, showing the kids what to do while she taught and helped.  It really boosted the kids' confidence- he was doing it, they could too!

Sandie offers two cooking classes, Little Chefs and Jr. Chefs.  The Little Chefs class is for smaller children or beginners and includes easier recipies.  The Jr. Chefs class is for children ages 8 and up, or younger ones with help.  These sessions are $20 for one month, which  includes four weekly classes.  Your whole family can join in for this one price! She also has several enticing special sessions, including the summer cooking class, which has one class a day for a week.

Time to try it!  Mmmmmmm...

To learn more about Currclick live classes and to receive their weekly free product, you can visit the CurrClick website or check out all of Mixing Bowl Academy's classes there..  You can also go to website to learn more about the Mixing Bowl Academy or sign up!  You can also visit the Mixing Bowl Academy Facebook page.

I received one free live cooking class in exchange for my unbiased review. 

 This class is part of Currclick Live.

Free complete phonics program!

The people behind "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"  have created an interactive computer program, Funnix.  They are offering this program free for the month of January!  This does not seem to be a temporary trial, but the full, two-year program.  This program was wrote by Siegfried Engelmann and he says on the website, "We've been trying for years to do things that make schools successful, particularly with young kids and lower performers....Why not make the electronic package available to anybody who needs it? It doesn't cost us much to do it, and it could help in a small way to counteract the effects of bankrupt schools and dismal times."



I have downloaded and installed this so that I could check into it before I recommended it.  I really like the theory behind the 100 Easy Lessons book, but it was a little boring for my kids.  Add color, stories, and interactive games, and this becomes really tempting!  Especially when it is free.

This is not something that you sit your kids down in front of  (thank goodness!) but instead you are running the mouse and observing, while the children listen and respond to the program.  They have to talk, read, and point to the screen.  There seems to be a lot of 'introductory' type material here, so with my kids who have already learned a lot of phonics, we are going to skip to lesson 10 and maybe even later.

If you have never read one of Siegfried Engelmann's books, you do need to know that material is presented rather quickly and in a different order then most phonics programs. You can go to this page to learn more about the team behind this program.   So far, this looks like something I will really like, and I think it will go great along with the Progressive Phonics books we are using now.  This has quite a bit of material in it so even if you have early readers who are past the phonics stage, there may be something here for them in the form of sight words and practice.

Check it out at the Funnix site!

Of Habits and Jungles

Inspired by Charlotte Mason and my husband, I have decided to start learning a new habit every month, one for me and one for the kids. Last months habit was a great success, so I think I will try to keep it up! It is not hard if you do it one day at a time!

The connection to Charlotte Mason is obvious, I think, but why Isaac? My husband decided to start living a healthier lifestyle, and to start he went cold turkey off all pop. (Soda, coke, whatever you call it. ) He came in one day and said he is marking it on the calendar, and he is not having any more pop. Those first days were hard for him and he checked off every one in triumph. As it got easier, he would forget to check off several days until now he is not checking them off at all. What does that mean? It's a habit! Now he has not had a drop of soda for over 2 months, and he feels great. What's more, he has lost over 40 lbs!

So, what is my habit for October? Playing with the kids. I am going to check off every day that I remember to play with them for at least an hour. Not playing games, not taking a walk, sit down on the floor, do whatever they are doing PLAYING.

Today, we played like we were in a jungle.... CJ killed a giant snake (a tree branch) because he is "a good 'ttacker"... we built a fire of sticks and cooked it... we ran from mountain lions and the 'king of the jungle' (Whatever that is, they never would tell me).... we spent the night in swingset and we woke up frightened because our fire had went out and animals were closing in.....we made a huge iguana for breakfast, and covered it with delicious spices.... in short? We had a lot of fun. Even me. :)

Favorite Websites for Free Interactive Learning

I have always thought that young children should NOT spend time in front of the screen- whether computer, TV, or video....

However, I have also always been a parent that believes in doing what WORKS. And for a lot of kids, learning with fun games WORKS. Visual kids love the stimulation, kinesthetic kids get to move, and auditory kids can HEAR instead of read.

So this week I decided to take a new approach to math and phonics- online games.

Here are a few of their favorites:

Starfall Almost everyone has heard of this one, but it is too good to leave out. Beginning phonics instruction, starting with letter sounds. Goes all the way through blends and digraphs. You cannot use this as complete instruction, probably, but it is a lot of fun and especially helpful for learning letter sounds.

Sheppard Software This site has TONS of games. Some of our favorites for schoolwork are the Early Math Games, Preschool games, and the animal games. There are a lot of 'fun' things here, too, like online painting. Don't miss this one!

Fun 4 The Brain This site is really easy to navigate, and it has lots of games in lots of subjects. If you want games that are FUN but still contain real learning, this is the place. We especially like the math drills, because in a lot of the you can pick one set of facts to learn about at a time. Perfect for MUS drill work!

Tree House Weather Kids This is not really a game, but it does have a lot of interactive learning going on. Weather, seasons, temperature and more.

KOL jr. This site has fun games in several subjects. They are not as flashy as some of the other sites, but they are still fun and the kids enjoy them just as much. We like "Learn Your Letters" and "Ant Parade".

WordWorld (PBS) This is just a part of the PBS kids site, but it is one of the best for learning. There are several games in the WordWorld section, but the kids like the Letter Pit and the Rhyming game the best.

Ziggity Zoom These games are best for the younger kids, or as a break from school. They aren't really learning games. :) They also have coloring pages and stories on the site, along with other fun things.

Primary Games This is another site with LOTS to look through. I haven't spent much time on here, but it looks like it has a lot of potential.

Play Kids Games

My Newest Treasure- Perfect for Play Dough!

I was eying this neat treasure last year, but never got around to buying them. We have almost NO cookie cutters, to the point of me fashioning a pumpkin and a leaf from tin cans. (No, they didn't really look like a pumpkin or a leaf when I was done.... more like an apple and a Christmas tree.)

So when I saw the box of 101 cookie cutters on clearance yesterday, for 50% off, I jumped on it! Than, of course we had to make some new play dough. It was time for some in FALL colors, anyway!

READY, SET, PLAY!!

They are so much fun for play dough! But I am also thinking of all the cookies we can make. I am not very good at sugar cookies, I always make them a LITTLE crispier then they were meant to be. But, maybe now I will get enough practice to make really yummy ones.

Oh, and yes, I will wash them before going from play dough to cookies. :)

Our Play Dough recipe: (definitely not original, but the best I have found)

1 cup flour

2 Tbsp cream of tartar

½ cup salt

Mix together in bowl or saucepan.

1 cup water

food coloring

Mix food coloring into water

1 to 2 Tbsp cooking oil

Scent (Optional)

Add scent if you want, such as essential oils, candy flavoring, or peppermint oil. If it is oil based, mix it into the oil. Add water and oil to dry mixture. Mix until smooth. (Small lumps are OK) Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Mixture will get VERY lumpy at first, then smooth and when it has cleaned the sides of the pan and has formed a solid ball on the spoon, it is done! Let cool and enjoy!

National Geographic Map Giveaway!

Wow, this looks so neat.... almost makes me sad I can't enter. :) Oh, well, I am here to tell YOU about it so you can enter.

If you have been reading my blog for very long, you may already know that I love maps. Really, really love them. However, we do not have a lot of maps. We have some children's atlases, and a small wall map that I printed off of a website. But we don't really have any real, colorful wall maps. You know, the kind you can look at for ever and still not begin to get a picture of the vastness of the world? The kind you run and check, during those strange dinner conversations, where someone wonders where such and such country is? (OK, maybe that's just us....)

I am ashamed to admit (Hanging my head) that we don't have one of those. Or a globe. Have you seen the prices of those things?? We are going to have to put a globe on our Christmas list, because I am not going to spend $125 bucks to get a good one right now.

So, if you are in a similar quandary, you NEED this giveaway! You can go to Download 'N Go's blog and sign up. There are four different ways to sign up- if you do all four you will increase your chances of winning! These are high-quality children's wall maps from National Geographic.

You can read more about them if you go to National Geographic, or just go right to DNG to sign up!

P.S. If you don't want to wait, or take a chance on missing out on these great maps, you can get a discount code through DNG for FREE SHIPPING on any order from National Geographic! I wonder if I can use this? Maybe it's time to get that globe...

Do you Know What an Entomologist Is?

en·to·mol·o·gy

(nt-ml-j)n.The scientific study of insects.

I may be raising future little entomologists here... they all three love bugs. Bop is scared of spiders, but they enjoy catching crickets to feed to the salamanders. (Yes, we have salamanders... we caught them in our basement when it flooded. )

Well, for my little entomologists, guess what we got in the mail today?? A gift from my friend over at HomeschoolShare:

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

They are babies, only about 3/4 of an inch long. My husband said "Quick! Squish them!" But, of course, I didn't. I made them a nice little home in a plastic shoebox. They will have to get something a little roomier as they grow... and grow they will! I read that they will get anywhere from 2-4 inches long. How FUN!

In case you are worried about my sanity, these cockroaches are tropical, non-invasive herbivores. What does that mean? It means they will not escape and take over my house. They will not become pests, since they would die as soon as it got cold. And, they do not carry any diseases since they eat only fresh plants. They like carrots, apples, lettuce... they are regular little vegetarians.

And the kids are delighted. :)

Hey, maybe they will have babies later, to feed to the salamanders!!

Word Family Printables

I am going to start sharing some of my printables, now that I finally know how! This game is perfect for that child who needs reading practice, but gets tired of READING- in a book or workbook. it is also great for kinesthetic and visual learners, since it involves MOVING things and SEEING. :) However, my auditory 1st grader still loves to do it for a change.

I chose to organize these in word families to start with, but later I hope to add some for different letters, and start doing long vowels for Bop.

Short "a" Word Families

Short "e" Word Families

Short "i" Word Families

Short "o" Word Families

Short "u" Word Families

 All files on this page are copyrighted and may not be used or copied for use outside of your immediate family. Please refer anyone interested to this site. 

Thank you for your understanding! 

Free Origami for Kids!

I am something of a paper addict. I admit it. I love paper crafts, scrap booking, I even love printing things just because. So, of course, an origami site is obviously appealing to me.

Bop has been asking to do origami ever since we read the book "Pink Paper Swans", by Virginia Kroll. She thinks it is just great. But at 5 years old, there is not much origami she can really DO. She can help me do it, but she has a lot of trouble getting the folds right on her own.

So what is so special about Origami Club? First, there are tons of different designs here. You are

sure to find something for each one of your family. From animals and plants for your nature lovers, to useful origami for the more practical minded, this is a really fun place to look around. There is even printable origami paper, though

I am not sure how much anyone would want to use that feature, considering the price of ink.

The feature that really sets this site apart is the animated directions. They can see first hand how to make EACH fold. What a helpful idea! There are plenty of easy designs for youngsters, and each creation is scored so you know at a glance how easy it is. If you have trouble following the animation, there are visual diagrams you can follow, as well.

This site is Japanese, not surprisingly, and you will find some funny grammatical errors, but nothing you won't be able to work with. We were able to make several of the designs in an hour, and Bop was able to do some without help. The kids both loved it and they were not happy when I told them we HAD to stop to eat lunch. I am sure this is a site we will be using a lot more! :)

Did you know you can cut any paper into a square?

Just fold a diagonal and cut off the extra!

Stringing beads for Little Fingers

Baby Girl got this great set of wooden beads and strings for her birthday. She just loves to stick things on, or in, or through other things. But she was getting really frustrated with this. She knew what to do, but the string was just too floppy and they kept falling off.

So finally, after scouring the house trying to find something that would work, I tried this!

Eureka!

I really, really hope you don't need me to tell you this, but just in case: A screwdriver is potentially dangerous and could cause severe injury. Please never leave your child unattended around any tools.

Silly Kidism :)

"Pretend this house is a sink, and we are a spoon family.

...And I am a fork, come to visit." :)

Scripture Memory Verses for Little Ones

Okay. I'll admit it. My kids don't know too many memory verses. Compared (I know, we arent supposed to compare. ) with a lot of you, I really feel lacking in this part. I think preschoolers have the cognitive ability to memorize a new verse every week, but then it gets complicated...

I always have trouble finding verses I want, so I spend forever looking for the perfect one. Not too long, not to hard to understand, but relevant. Do I look for one that corresponds with their Bible lessons? One that goes with the letter of the week? One that goes with our unit study? A chapter, one verse at a time? A Psalms, a Proverbs, a story for the life of Jesus? Plus, I loved the idea of verses set to music, but that just adds more time (a lot more time) to the job.

Yes, I am very, very good at complicating things.

So this week when I realized I had forgotten to pick out

a memory verse (again...) instead of searching through the Bible for an hour, I searched the web. And I found out there is a great selection of memory verses for kids already picked out!

And, better yet, I found verses that have been set to music, made into a great printable, and are free!

I can't believe I spent hours doing this myself!

I plan to start at the top and just work our way down, one a week. We will print them off on cardstock and put them in a three ring binder. There. UN-complicated!!

As an added bonus, this site also has fun things to help older kids memorize, including word strips to rearrange, copywork, and some fun ideas for games made out of the verses. There are LOTS of verses here to pick from, too.

Review: Travel Kits E-book

Travel Kits
A Simple Way to Bless Others


"ARE WE THERE YET?" Who hasn't heard this cry and wished that there was something you could do to make traveling more entertaining and educational for your bored kiddos? If you are like me, you always try to pack toys, books and snacks for a trip, but children seem to get tired of the same old things so fast during a long ride.

This fun E-book from The Old Schoolhouse is here to help! Filled with hundreds of ideas and lots of photos, too, you will not regret buying it. After my initial glance through it, I was already regreting not having purchased it before our Summer trip to the mountains.

Lest you think this is just a book to use for your own children, the sub-title "A Simple way to Bless Others" is very descriptive of the book's contents. This books had a lot of fun ideas for adults, older children, and even ways to bless college or military members who will be away for home for longer.

My favorite part of this book is it's photos. There are tons of color photos that are almost as valuable as the words themselves. Pictures of Travel kits put together, gift ideas, wrapping ideas, and fun things to add... they are so fun to look at! This book makes me wish I had a money tree so I could do this for EVERYONE I know. But, really, these ideas don't require a lot of money. You can spend as much as you want, and still put together fun things.

At $12.45, this is a bit more expensive then a lot of e-books, but when you consider the volume of information included, the price starts to look like a bargain. I probably would never have bought it myself, because I am a real cheapskate. I really don't buy much of anything. :D But after seeing it, and reading it (Which, by the way, is fun. It is not a boring book!) I can say it is totally worth your money.

I consider myself a pretty creative person, but there are hundreds of ideas in this book I never would have thought of. I will be using a lot of these ideas on our trip to the zoo this fall. We will have grandparents, children, aunts and uncles, and our own family going, and it is three hours one way. I am really looking forward to putting together some zoo animal-themed travel kits! With the ideas in this book, I am sure there will be more fun things then they will be able to get done in those three hours!

If you are a e-book fan, or you simply like great ideas, The Old Schoolhouse store's e-book section is chock-full of great homeschool books, curriculum supplements, parenting advice, and bible studies.

I received this product free of charge

as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew,

for review purposes. I promise to be honest

and fair in my reviews, and I received no

other compensation in exchange for my review.

You can visit The Old Schoolhouse Crew blog

to read more reviews on this product.

Game Day

Game day! We had a lot of fun, just doing whatever games the kids wanted to, out of their workboxes. I let them pick the order and what to do.

New magnetic letters (Garage sale find!)

Bop coloring on a unicorn Bare Book we are making busy books for Church

How fun those Math-U-See blocks are! He builds while Bop does her math work

Baby Girl sorting fake berries into colors.... well, that was the idea. She just had fun putting them in and out. :)

Bop sorting word families. These are from the Progressive Phonics program's short e book. FREE!

She doesn't know how to play sudoku, of course.... but she can put counting chips on colored dots!

Ummmm....... I don;t think thats how it is supposed to go. :)

CJ had more fun with the rice pouring tray then Baby Girl did.

I know it is an old trick, but the kids thought it was so fun to see themselves "tiny" and "giant"!

Look what good care he is taking of his miniature sissy! :D

Art Carousel

After seeing the great art carousel featured on the blog Homeschool Creations, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to use the metal buckets and magnets, but I couldn't find anything that would work around here.

I finally decided these plastic cups would work, and they were on clearance! My total cost for this was about 7 dollars, most of that was the Lazy Susan since I couldn't find one second-hand. I think it was definitely worth it!

I wanted something that was cute enough to complement our dining room/school room, and I think this looks nicer then a bunch of tin cans.... which I thought about using. :) Safer too, since I never can get those edges completely smooth.

What do you think? What materials do you think would make a cute art carousel?

Family-Friendly Picture Hosting!

If you have ever done much with any of the commen picture hosting site, you know that they are not places you would want your children to roam, even supervised. You never know what will pop up on the most innocent of searches. If you are like me, after seeing some of the profiles and 'favorites' on there, you also steer away from posting pictures of your children.

So the advent of a Family Friendly, highly moderated picture hosting site is a exciting thing!

Pix-O-Sphere is exactly what the online world needed, a safe picture hosting site, perfect for bloggers, families, and photographers. This site allows you to sell your pictures, buy pictures for your blog, magazine, or website, or just host your pictures for your friends and family.

Go on over and take a look! You may find it is just what you need!

We Got our Bare Books!!

We were so excited to get this box today. We have been waiting and waiting....

Not really, they had great shipping times, but we were very impatient.

We are going to be using these books for lapbook and notebook bases. Right now we are trying to combine our lapbooks and notebooks, but they will have mainly lapbook things for now. We

needed something that would be sturdy enough for the lapbook pieces, yet hold several different lapbooks at a time. I was tired of the mess of lapbooks in folders, and I wanted to consolidate and make them sturdier.

I was ready to give up on lapbooks, even though we loved them and there were still so many I wanted to do! I couldn't tolerate the clutter of a new folder being done every week, and the kids tore them up when they went back and looked through them. (Which, after all, is half the point)

Solution? I first saw the Bare Book method on The Marine Corps Nomads blog, (She also has a great dinosaur lapbook) and I thought it was neat. Then, I found out Ami over at Walking by the Way uses it too! So Bare Books and Math U See has been the bulk of our homeschool costs for this next year.

We got ALL this for the $25.00 minimum order! (I was secretly glad to see the minimum, it gave me an excuse to get more then I would have otherwise. )

CJ thinks clothes are a waste of time. :)

Seven (yes SEVEN!) spiral bound 24 page book, three hardbound 28 page books with fun covers, and three little board books for Abby. These should last us all year- and then some. Except I really, really like the board books.... I may need a few more... :)

I was very impressed with the quality of the books. The hardbound books have very hard covers, and thick paper, almost the weight of cardstock. The spiral bound books were advertised as having no cover, but they do have a heavy cardstock-type cover, that extends a little past the edges of the paper for a professional look. The pages in the spiral bound book seem even heavier then the hardbound pages, and the white wire spiral is very nice. The little board books are so nice. They are just like the board books we all buy for our babies, with nice glossy pages and rounded corners. They may not take writing very well (Glossy pages) but they are perfect for gluing pictures, Tot Book things, textured swatches... I can think of so many fun things to do with these for Baby Girl! I definitely want to make a Quiet Book for Church.

Here are the kids pouring over..... lets see, is that a toy catalog? Disney's newest movies?? Oh, of course not! That is the Bare Books catalog! What do they want? Bop wants a Bare Puzzle, CJ would like Bare Game Board.... and they both thought the different printed covers were pretty neat. Now they want to write and illustrate some more stories.

I can see us needing to put in another order soon... Can anyone say CHRISTMAS?

Game Day

Are you bored with your regular school routine? Do you find your kids tired of those phonics and math worksheets by the middle of the week?

We have found a fun solution that breaks up the week and gives a little extra practice in those areas you may sometimes push to the side.

GAME DAY

I try to have a day in the middle of the week, where I replace our regular phonics and math with a game. Bingo, cards, or file-folder games give you a chance to do something different and rewards your kiddo's hard work.

There are several problems with file folder games, that almost made me want to give up on them. Here are some ideas to help keep the FUN in these games.

1. It helps to have a day sceduled for this type of activity. I find myself just forgetting about them and doing the same things over and over.

2. Make sure the games arent too LONG or boring. A worksheet can be more fun then a game with 100 word families to sort, and no color or pictures. ;)

3. If you set up two games and give them to your children every week, they will probably go crazy very soon. You have to make enough games that they have variety, and don't see the same one's over and over and over and...

4. Make sure they can DO them. Part of the idea of these games, is to help your children do things more independently. You may have to work with them on the first go-round, but once they understand what to do, the skill level should be where they can do it themselves. It is frusterating for a child to supposed to be having FUN with something that is too hard.

5. If they don't like it DON'T FORCE IT. Your children know best how they learn best, and if File Folder Games drive them nuts, then let them do something else. You may also just need to find the TYPE of activity that suits them. CJ loves to move, so when we played 'seed dispersal' by pretending that they were the seeds and I was the plant, it really stuck in his head.

Here are my favorite sites for File Folder Games.

Homeschool Share

Of course, any list of my favorite homeschool sites had to have HSS at the very tippy top. ;) They have a lot of games and activities in the "workboxes" section.

File Folder Fun

A GREAT site that has tons of colorful file folder games in all ages and subjects. The best! (IMO) ;) You will want to stock up on color ink when you visit this site.

Teach with Games

Childcare Land

Sparklebox

I love this site. It is fun, bright and colorful. Some of my favorite items are the play dough mats. this site is all free, and has hundreds of resources. Plus I really like the name. Another one for the color ink. ;)

Red, White and Blue Play Dough

We decided it was time to retire our Christmas play dough and make some especially for summertime! The kids had a great time mixing it up, and we took special care to make sure the red was REALLY red, not pink. We love scented play dough, so we added some vanilla and almond extract.

Bop and CJ thought it took forever to cook, but finally they got to enjoy it!

RED...

White...

And Blue...

What a charmer!