Ellie is Three

We are still busy here in the middle of birthday seaseon. :) I am taking a little time off this month just to catch up and rest. This week Kaden's birthday was Monday. We were supposed to have a party on that day but he has been a little under the weather. I am hoping he will be ok soon and we will try again next Monday. We are now going to focus on Easter until then.


Today I am going to post pictures from Ellie's birthday. We decided to go to the Renaissance Festival for her birthday. The kids had a lot of fun and it was Ellie's first time there.

Top Ten Tuesday- Homeschool Resources

I am joining in with Many Little Blessings for her Top Ten Tuesday. Why? Because I can and I am random and weird. ;) I love doing these and don't organize them really well so I forget more than not. I should make a list or something. You can check it out and see what others top ten lists are about too. You can even join in if you have a blog.

I thought I would share my top ten homeschool resources and/or sites. These are the places I read all the time. I use the resources they offer and I enjoy them a lot.

In no particular order....


#1. Homeschool Share- This is by far my favorite site. All the unit studies and extra are free, created by other homeschool moms. They are updated as they get new units and it is run by a Christian family that I have gotten to know over the years. Looooove it!


#2. Amanda Bennett Unit Studies- Another great source for unit studies. They are inexpensive, and even then they do lots of deals and sales making them even less expensive. Depending on the unit they are able to cover a week up to a month or longer. I have found that they are so inclusive that you really can stretch them out even longer if there is a subject you really just want to stick with. I have many of these units. Again this one is owned by a Christian woman.


#3. 1+1+1=1- Carisa is a wonderful Christian woman as well. I believe it started as a blog but as she has grown she added a site with more ideas and printables. I used lots of her printables for my little ones. She has awesome ideas on how to organize as well as fun themes for learning. I am going to be making her calendar notebooks for the kids soon.



#4. Preschool Alphabet - This is a blog I found recently. I have been looking for more for the younger two and she has some great alphabet pages and themes.



#5. Google - This is a given right? I search Google for everything! We look for all kinds if information to supplement whatever we are working on.



#6. You Tube - Another no brainer. If we ever want to see anything done or look up how something is done this is where we look. Did I tell you about Meghan wanting to know how taxidermy is done? Well she looked up video's about it. (yuck right?) There are also documentaries on all kinds of things. She has watched history and science video's there.



#7. Pinterest - This one is fairly new right? There are pins on all kinds of subjects including homeschooling. Many of my homeschool friends have homeschool boards there. We can save anything and everything homeschool. You can search and find just about anything you may or may not need. You can get lost in Pinterest. It's awesome!



#8. Khanacademy - I have not had a whole lot of time to look through this one yet but I have been told a lot about it and as Meghan is getting older I believe we will use it more. There are tons of videos on math, science and history and even some test prep if you need that.



#9. AAAspell.com - I have found several spelling list sites actually. These are great. There really is no need to buy a spelling curriculum at all. You can find lists for the grade your kid is in, or you can find where they fit best and just go. There are also lots of site for spelling games and practice.



#10. Facebook - Yes I am going to put Facebook on here. I have so many homeschool groups on there, both local and not. I can plan a field trip, get a recommendation for a history lesson and learn about new homeschool sites all in the same spot. I love that! I also find lots on homeschool blogs and my favorites are the ones that have a Facebook page as well. I can like the page on Facebook and keep up that way rather than using a reader or having all the updated posts go to my email.



I hope you enjoyed my top ten homeschool resources. I always appreciate seeing what others use and love. It really helped when I was first getting started and even now, I always find something I love.

A Quick Note

On Friday we had a field trip to Estrella Wars. It's the Renaissance era, kind of like the Renaissance festival but more historically accurate, they say. Anyway, it was 91 that day and so hot! We only went to a few vendor tents after our tour and then we had to leave. One of the last ones we looked at had all sorts of precious stones and metals. Kaden loves rocks! When we were leaving the lady gave each of the kids a small rock. I guess you can call it a rock. It was smooth and clear looking, they were green, blue, yellow or clear. They looked like decorative marbles you can buy only not round, more oblong. On Saturday Kaden found his and put it in his mouth. I am guessing because it is smooth, and then he accidentally swallowed it. Thankfully he didn't choke. He came to tell us about it a while after he did it. Now we are hoping and praying he doesn't have any issues though. He threw up twice last night which seems to be a fluke but it caused a little concern. We postponed his birthday party just to make sure he isn't spreading a germ around.

He's had a good day though. He slept in and has been relaxing today.