15 Jul 2011
by denisethinks
in Bargains and Finds
Tags: Bargains, savings, Supplies
I LOVE great deals! I mean, who doesn’t love saving some money, especially now? 
So, when we went to Target the other day to get a new high chair for the baby, I was super excited to see the great plethora of things they had which we could use for school!! First, in their dollar section when you first walk in, there were all kinds of things. We got stickers, cute ice packs (for picnics), several books (including classics), some fun pencils, some cute little workbooks for the little ones, and even some glow-in-the-dark stars to put up in the kids rooms (OK, not for school, but still fun).
Then, we hit the back to school section. This is bargain place #1 for homeschoolers! When one is trying to build a “classroom” from scratch, the back to school sales are amazing!! We loaded up the cart with crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue, scissors, rulers, and lots and lots of paper. Filler paper for their binders, composition notebooks, spiral notebooks, and construction paper. Yeah, we have plenty to write on now! Woo-hoo! I love it!! 
Now, since there is a limit on the number of notebooks in one purchase, I went back yesterday and got even more, plus more crayons, glue, colored pencils, and markers. Overboard???? No way! In a homeschooling family with 5 kids, you can never have enough crayons and paper!! Now, I won’t have to worry about running out throughout the school year and having to pay top dollar. I love to stock up when things are on sale! And we should definitely be stocked up for the whole school year!! Yay!!
09 Mar 2009
by denisethinks
in Uncategorized
Tags: Bargains, cranky days, Progress
And, yes, it’s only Monday.
Sometimes Mondays just go a bit haywire, don’t they? For whatever reason, it was like pulling teeth today to get the kids to do anything. They’ve been pretty grumpy since we left Grandma’s in Utah. I think all the traveling in the car was just more than they could take, and it’s still effecting them. But, what are ya gonna do? I tried to distract them with other activities today, but it pretty much backfired on me. Oh, well. At least I tried. It wasn’t all bad, though. Logan tested out of another math chapter. Easy-cheesy. It’s soooo good to see him have some confidence with math again! Hooray!! We also went and picked up a punching bag off Craigslist. I really felt like the kids, especially the boys, needed a healthy place to let out anger and frustrations, so a punching bag seemed like a good idea. I almost fell out of my seat when I priced them out at stores. Thankfully, I was able to locate just what I was looking for on Craigslist for a fraction of the price! Hooray for that!
Well, hopefully tomorrow will be more productive than today. Maybe I’ll start the day with something silly, to get the kids in a better mood. I’ll let you know.
27 May 2008
by denisethinks
in Bargains and Finds, Resources
Tags: Bargains, Bible, Book of Mormon, Books, Deseret Industries, History, Resources
I just love the DI! I try to go every couple of weeks or so, just to see if I can find any treasures. I went again today, and like last time, found a ton of Living Scripture workbooks! This time, I got 57! Can you believe that?! I think I’ve got to have nearly all of the New Testament and Hero Classics now! These things are so full of learning resources. What a find! I’m also using these to create Sunday Folders for the kids. I also got for $.50 each, a book about the Gettysburg Address and a book about questions about animals, called I Wonder Why Camels Have Humps. Yeah! I love bargains. I’m definitely going to have to check out the little used book stores in the libraries, like Erin suggested!
15 May 2008
by denisethinks
in Bargains and Finds, Our Progress, Resources, Start Up
Tags: Bargains, Books, Businesses, Friend, Progress
Well, I’m doing much better now. I think I’m over my Yikes moment, for now. I’m sure there will be more in the future. As I’ve read, I’ve come to discover that homeschooling takes some getting used to and some trial and error. I have every confidence that we will be able to make things work out well. I’ve started already, with some small things with the kids, and so far so good. We’ve also got our classroom all ready. That was a lot of work, but it was actually really fun to do. The kids helped a bit with it too, as well as Grandma. I’ll have some pictures of it up in a day or two. And, a special thank you goes out to my friend Erin, who discovered two amazing books that outline and detail grade by grade curriculum and expectations. Hooray!
Also, this week I’ve discovered the rewards of telling people that you are a homeschool teacher. First I went to Learning Is Fun. When the sweet lady asked me if I was on their mailing list, I replied that I wasn’t, but should be since I was going to be homeschooling four kiddos. So, when I told them that, they not only put me on their list, but also gave me some teacher magazines, but also some of the coupons teachers get to hand out to their students to get a prize at Learning Is Fun. Then, when I took our calendar over to OfficeMax to get laminated, I was asked if I was a teacher, and I told them I was a homeschool teacher. Then, they gave me their teacher discount and reward card. So, that’s pretty cool. These stores are now on my newly created list of homeschool friendly businesses.
05 May 2008
by denisethinks
in Bargains and Finds, Resources
Tags: Bargains, Books, Resources
I found this book online, somewhere, called Homeschool Your Child for Free. So, I went and checked it out from the library, and wow, is it a wealth of information. It’s full of lots of great ideas from the author, as well as other parents. The bulk of the book is spent on listing different websites, broken down by category, with descriptions of the sites. This has been exceedingly helpful to me, especially as I look for lesson ideas. She’s got the book separated into sections, including resource sections like curriculum and education essentials, and then into subject sections like language, math, social studies, etc. It was published back in 2000, so some of the websites are no good now, but most are. Also, I just read something from the author where she said she is now working on a new edition of the book. I was planning on going out and buying this book, but I think I’ll wait until the new one comes out.
05 May 2008
by denisethinks
in Bargains and Finds
Tags: Bargains, Bible, Book of Mormon, Deseret Industries, History, Resources
Today I went to DI and found a great treasure for our classroom! There were tons of coloring and activity books from Living Scriptures. Gavin and I sorted through them all for the ones that didn’t have any coloring in them, and managed to get 20! We’ve got books from their Animated Hero Classics, Church History, Book of Mormon, New Testament, and Old Testament. I couldn’t believe it, and for only $.50 each! These will be a great resource for us to use as I teach various subjects, not just history and religion. I plan on copying the pages as we use them, so that we can keep using them for a long time. (And, I checked and the publisher says it’s ok to copy for personal or classroom use.) The kids were pretty excited about these too.
