My favorite sources for free/cheap books...

Like all (at least stereotypically) homeschool moms, I LOVE books.  Some people collect shot glasses or thimbles.  I collect books-specifically children's books. 

Hubby teases me every time I start saying that I need a new bookshelf.  In reality, I don't think I have too many books.  (It's all perspective, though, I guess.)  And I occasionally sort through and get rid of some.  Especially after reading Language Police, I have realized that I want my shelves not just full of books, but full of good quality literature and resources.  That Dora book may be cute and my child may love it, but it does not deserve a permanent place in our school room.  We'll enjoy it for a while and then pass it on.

Anyway, I wanted to share my favorite sources for adding to my collection.  I also love frugality so these are all ways I get them free or super cheap.  Except for curriculum, I will almost never pay full price for a new book:

1) Library
Our local public library allows you to check out 30 books at a time.  Each of the girls and myself have our own cards and often enough, all three cards are full.  Borrowing books from the library is our main source of supplements for history and science.  We also get lots of picture books and leveled readers. 
I especially love that I can search the catalog online and "request" the books I need.  Then they are set aside to wait for me when I can go pick them up.  Saves me so much time and I have access to the entire public library system, not just my local branch!

2) Library Book Sales
Honestly, I have never attended one.  I know they happen often and I have a friend who scored big the last time she went. 
Our library also occasionally sets up a table of random for-sale items right by the front door.  Once I picked up 10 old National Geographics for a buck!

3) Goodwill Outlet
I always gravitate toward the book section anytime that I am in a thrift store.  But my favorite has to be Goodwill Outlet.  All soft-cover books are 25 cents and all hard-covers are 50 cents. 
Once I even picked up a set of 10 phonics readers.  And since they were all together in a box, I was only charged 50 cents for all of them!

4) Public School Textbook Warehouse
We live close to our local public school district offices.  In their textbook warehouse, they have a huge bookshelf full of books that are free for the taking.  These are all books that aren't being used anymore for whatever reason that have been gathered from schools around the district. 
When I went with a friend, no one stopped us from walking in to take a look.  We weren't asked to prove that we were teachers or anything.  I made it out with about 40 chapter books and novels!  I also scored some old Social Studies textbooks (I like them for the pictures), picture books, phonics readers, and anthologies. 
And these aren't just old, beat-up books that belong in the trash.  I grabbed a hard-cover copy of Little House in the Big Woods complete with dust jacket that looked like it had never been touched.  There were also some middle school science texts that were still wrapped in plastic!  Seeing the district wasting so much money makes me sick to my stomach, but my frugal (selfish?) side rejoices that I can benefit!

5) Stuff Swap
I have an amazing friend who has been planning these every few months.  As word spreads, they get bigger and bigger.  How it works is that we all meet at a church building and have about half an hour to organize all the stuff we want to get rid of (clothes, junk, toys, books, baby stuff, etc.) 
Then at the appointed time, everyone gets to go "shopping."  You take whatever you want for free-no limits.  Everything that is left over when everyone is done looking is donated to Deseret Industries. 


So those are my "secrets."  Do you have a favorite place to "shop?"

Schooling through Illness

Thankfully, we don't often get sick around here (the sole exception being the Hubby.)  And even when we do get sick, it usually doesn't seem to be a big deal.  This latest sicky-season has been really annoying, though!  (Again, since Hubby is the glaring exception, I'm not even going to discuss him here.  He has been fighting a cold and stomach flu off and on for a couple weeks!)

Apparently there is a stomach bug, or two, going around.  Tertius threw up the night before Quartus was born.  He was totally symptom free by the next morning, though.  Secundus caught it next the day after I came home from the hospital.  She was fine within 24 hours, though.  Then after church a couple days later Primus and I suddenly started having bowel and stomach issues.  But again, it was short and we were good by the next morning.  Even Quartus seemed to have caught it.  It seemed like he was spitting up everything he drank for about a day.

It's been a week since then and I figured we were done with all that.  So I planned to get back into our routine today.  But apparently this stomach flu is making a second round!  A couple days ago Tertius randomly puked right before bedtime and has had loose stools.  And then Primus started having stomach and bowel issues again last night.  Who's next?!

So, long story short, I decided to push through and do school today anyway.  I was just itching to get back to routine! 

But since Primus was moping about all morning and making frequent runs to the bathroom, we couldn't do school totally as normal.  We started our day the same with prayer, scripture memorization, Daily Language Review, and journal time.  But then we watched three educational videos I picked up from the library.  The rest of the afternoon was spent doing puzzles while I read aloud 5 chapters of Little House in the Big Woods. 

Sometimes you've gotta improvise and go with the flow!

Introducing: Baby Quartus!

Our homeschool has been blessed with a new student.  Baby Quartus is cute as can be.  His siblings will meet him tomorrow and I'm sure his sisters will love him.  I can't wait to see Tertius' reaction.  He has been obsessed with touching my belly to "huggle baby Quartus."  So I wonder how long it will take him to understand that Quartus is now on the outside.

As far as school goes, we were "supposed" to take 2 weeks off for Christmas break.  Instead, we used 6 of those days for school. So now that the baby is here, we (read: I) can take a little bit of time to relax and bond (read: nap) before jumping back into work.

Only at our house...

Tonight the kids lined up on the couch for family movie night with their new popcorn buckets that they got from Santa. 

The movie we picked was A&E's "The Crossing."  It's a film about George Washington and the battle of Trenton.  It was totally over their heads and we got started late, so they all fell asleep before it was over.  Hubby kept stopping the film to explain some things and hopefully they will appreciate it more when they get older :)

Christmas Food Crafts

(These are kind of late for any readers to duplicate them this year.  Sorry!)

Christmas Tree: 

Slather a sugar cone with green frosting and then decorate with candy.  To make frosting the cone easier, stick your hand inside the cone and use the other hand the do the frosting.  Some candy that we used: gumdrops, M&M's, coconut (snow), gummy worms (string of lights), sprinkles, and gummy rings.

Snowman:
Use a bit of frosting to glue a Rolo onto a mini powdered sugar donut for the snowman's hat.  The "coal" eyes and mouth are sunburst candies that are simply pressed into the donut.  (Sunbursts are chocolate and candy coated sunflower seeds.  They are pointed at one end, which made it easier to stick them in.)  To make the carrot nose, cut a piece of a gummy orange slice and stick it in the middle of the donut.

Guest Speaker: Pirate Captain

Today we had our much anticipated guest speaker, Mean Dean the Barbarian (also known as Grandpa.)

It was great!  Grandpa taught them how to do a sheet bend knot (to tie the sail to a rope) and how to do a double half hitch knot (to tie the rope to the ship.)  I'll have to quiz them later to see if they remember how to do the knots on their own.  Probably not, but it will be interesting to watch them try.

He also went over compasses, bearings, and using a compass and map together.  He even had them make a compass using a needle, magnet, and bowl of water.  It was awesome!

Schooling During the Christmas Season

One week left until Christmas!

Today we took it easy, as far as academics goes. 

Making ornaments, filling bags of Snowman Poop and Reindeer Poop, and learning how to wrap presents counts as school work, right?

Legos and Math

This morning started with Primus requesting to do a couple math pages after breakfast.  What kind of weird kid does that?  lol

After that, she spent a good chunk of the day building a Lego pirate ship with Daddy.  While they were building it, he taught her all about the anatomy of the ship and some of the history of the Golden Age of Pirates.  They both really enjoyed the lesson. 

It seems like we've been using Legos a lot lately in our schoolwork.  They are a great teaching tool!  Hubby has been teased for being a grown man that plays with Legos.  But it is times like this that make me glad he has them!

How do you know Shirley?

Tonight my friend threw me a very low-key "diaper sprinkle" (baby shower.)  At the beginning she had everyone go around the room and state their name and how they know me. 

Since it was so relaxed and at my home, my kids were there also.  So my friend included my kids in the introductions.  Secundus of course said she knows me because "she's my mommy."  When we asked her where she met me, we were trying to get her to say, "the hospital."  But she just didn't get it. 

The best was when it came around to my oldest's turn.  She said, "My name is [Primus] and Shirley's my first grade teacher." 

I was so proud!

Educational Songs

We were able to check out Schoolhouse Rock a while ago from the library and it was awesome!  The disc contained all of the old songs from the 70's.  I would love to own it. 

 

I was going to find some of my favorites on youtube and link here.  But it appears that some versions have been blocked due to copyright issues.  I was able to find other (low quality) versions on youtube, posted by other users, but I didn't feel comfortable posting the links here. 

 

So instead, enjoy this hilarious semi-"educational" song by Veggie Tales.  So, it's mostly ridiculous.  But I have seriously used this song to help my kids remember that chimpanzees and gorillas aren't monkeys.

 

 

Here's another fun one that I find myself quoting often- School House Polka:

 

History Crafts- Middle Kingdom of Egypt

I love learning history with my kids!  Like I've said before, I never thought I liked history.  But it all depends on how you learn it! 

I love learning it with Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World."  It moves pretty fast and doesn't get terribly in depth (though it does include a resource list so you can learn more on your own.)  So it is perfect for my girls (and me) to learn a good overview of ancient cultures and establish a good base for future studies.  I am impressed everyday with how much Primus is able to remember from our readings.  It makes her father proud to know that she seems to have a brain for this kind of thing.

Here are the crafts we did to supplement our readings of the Middle and New Kingdoms of Egypt.  I love the ideas that are included in the Story of the World.  I usually end up tweaking them a little to work for us, though.

We made gold arm bands like the Egyptian upper class might have worn, using gold from Nubia.  Such an easy, quick, cute craft!  Just a strip of toilet paper tube, cut open so it will fit around your arm.  Then we glued on gold glitter.

Next, we made chariots for our My Little Ponies like the Hyksos. The girls played with these all afternoon. Of course their little Polly Pockets and princess dolls rode in the chariots!  We used part of a Stove Top stuffing box, cardboard wheals, and popsicle sticks.

Finally, we made fake beards so we could pretend to be Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh.  It's half a paper towel tube with tissue paper glued on for decoration.  Then attach to your head with elastic.

Boy Scouts and Pirates have something in common...

Primus has been excited about doing a unit on pirates ever since last summer.  This morning I finally pulled out my resources to start making a lesson plan.  I suggested to Primus that maybe we should ask Grandpa to teach one day.  I told her that he knew how to tie knots and use a compass. 

Her eyes got really wide as she excitedly asked, "Did he go to Pirate High School??"

I gave her a funny look and responded, "No.  He's a Boy Scout."

Maybe I should have let her believe that he was a pirate.  It wouldn't be so hard for her to believe that Grandpa is a few hundred years old, right?  Either way, we are very excited to have a guest teacher next month!

Carnival of Homeschooling

The new Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Notes From A Homeschooled Mom. 

Finding the Blessings

While we were enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws' house, somone was breaking into our new home. 

When we arrived home Thursday night and made the discovery, we experienced a very scary few minutes.   Instead of bore you with the details of the evening (which took up 5 separate posts on my family blog), I wanted to share what we have learned and why we are in such great spirits.

We are truly so blessed. Even in this horrible experience, we are being very optimistic and seeing it as a blessing.

Things could have been so much worse in so many ways.   For example, they didn't take very much.  Also, we weren't home at the time. 
We are so blessed to live in the wonderful neighborhood that we do.
We are so blessed that the police were able to respond so quickly.
We are so blessed that our landlords (my in-laws) live nearby and were able to come immediately and help us out.
The girls have been saying things like, "It's good they didn't take our pillows! It's good they didn't take our stuffed animals!" I love their attitude! The things of true value to them weren't effected at all.
The most important pieces of jewelry I own are always with me: my wedding and engagement rings.

Before sending the kids to bed on Thursday night, we did our family scripture study and prayer, as usual. On this night we focused on 1 Nephi chapter 17.

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.
3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.
5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.

Even though Nephi and his family were experiencing affliction and tribulation in the wilderness, they were still blessed in amazing ways. The Lord was mindful of them and protected them. If we keep His commandments and not murmur, then we will be blessed. And in the end, when they had proven that they would submit to the Lord and trust him, they were rewarded for their faithfulness. After the trials of the wilderness and having to subsist on raw meat, they were lead to the land Bountiful, which was full of fruit and wild honey.

Kids are more capable than we (I) sometimes think...

I am constantly amazed by the things that kids are capable of, if we only give them the chance. 

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had a whole pot full of hard-boiled eggs that needed to be shelled.  I asked Secundus to help and taught her how to do it. Of course Tertius wanted to get in on it, too.  So I handed him one that had cracked while it was boiling so I wasn't worried about him ruining it because it was already ugly. 

They both did great!  Both of them went on to shell several eggs for me and Tertius only ruined one!  In fact, I think some of the ones that Secundus shelled looked prettier than the ones I did.