Free Movies!

Okay so Sunday is our family day that means that all the electronic pretty much get turned off on that day. On occasion we will have one on like the Wii but we're all playing it together. It's the one day out of the week that our oldest isn't allowed to find somewhere to stick her nose in a book. Or our youngest bury herself in the container of Legos (we've got a ton of them). Hubby (if he's home) and I aren't allowed to zone out on the computer. Sometimes like this week end we had to do what I call a split shift, lol. We did half of it on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. Saturday night we read more of our book "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate Dicamillo. We had hoped to finish reading it by Sunday. In our community nearly every Sunday there is a free movie night in our Community Center. Check around in the newspaper, your local church, local libraries, community centers, Chamber of Commerce, and of coarse the internet. With summer coming up you'll be able to find more ususally. Many free movies are done in the summer. You may need to bring your own chair or blanket to sit on. And you'll probably need to pack your own snacks and drinks. But who wouldn't rather pay forty cents for a big bag of popcorn than the normal $5.00 that you do at a theater.

So on Sunday we went and saw the movie, "The Tale of Despereaux" and don't expect it to follow the book. It was a cute movie but I felt they changed it. Now I have to admit that we didn't finish the book before the movie like I had hoped. But there are major changes from the book (the parts we've read and we're over half-way threw the book) from the start. If a character doesn't speak much and you turn around and turn him into a chatter-box that is a major change in the character. When you add new abilities to that same character then you no longer have that same character. See the movie if you get a chance, the kids will love it and it is a cute movie. Just don't hold your breath for it to do justice to the original work!

Okay well now I need to head out for the time being but tonight I'm going to try and get the pictures from our Square Foot Garden on. Hubby was finally able to show me how to get the pictures of the camera.

Donut Contest!

I thought that I would pass on something that I found today. I thought it was fun to do. Dunkin' Donuts is having a contest where you get to create a donut. You can enter up to three times but you do have to at least be 13 or older. You'll create a donut by choosing: the shape, the dough, the filling, the frosting, and a topping. Not all choices are available every time, it depends on your choices. You will then fill in the application form. (Make sure you understand all the official rules) Once that is done you will be able to name your donut and in 100 words or less tell what your inspiration was. There will be a dozen finalists who will receive $1,200, a years worth of donuts, and a trip for two to the bake off in Braintree, MA. The grand prize is $12,000 and your creation sold in stores as a limited edition! It's free to enter and you can play with creating donuts without entering too!

Have fun with it!

Our school.

Last October we ended up pulling the kids out of school and deciding to teach them ourselves. Since then we've tried undoing some of the things we had problems with. So far it's going well. The hardest part I think was that one day they were in public school and the next they weren't. I didn't really have time to pick out a curriculum that would work for us. We were worried about meeting the state requirements and making sure that everything was legal. Of coarse it goes without saying that we (mostly my hubby, lol) wondered if I had lost my mind. Surprisingly we found the stress had lowered considerably. NowI think I've found what we're going to use as our curriculum permanently (at least till we've found if it's going to work for us or not). It was passed to me and now I'm passing it on to you. "The Well-Trained Mind" by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer is the book that was recommended as reading to me. In it the classical education or trivium is explained and how they used it. They have a number of other books that can help but it's not needed. In the book they show you how they've done things that work for them. I'm going to be using a lot of their recommendations. As with anything my advice is use what works for you and leave the rest. There is so much information out there that your head can spin. Try something if it sounds like something you like, if it works great, if not be willing to put it aside and move on.

I added some sites that we use at different times with our homeschooling. I use all of them as supplements to what I use. They are all free for me to use. I will continue to add things. The Discovery Streaming may not be free for you in your state. And here soon it may not be for home schools in SC either. They are considering if it is a viable service for schools. I encourage anyone who enjoys using it to write in and let them know how you use it and that you do use it. If you have children in the school systems find out if your child's teacher, or school uses it and write in about that too. With times being what they are budgets are being looked over again for pennies. This is one service that I really think helps in many ways and I hope that it stays around.