Educents Homeschool Resources Sale

Educents, a trusted leader in homeschool resources deals, is having a sale starting June 20 and ending June 24.  If you click on the picture above, you can visit and see all the great resources Educents offers.

While you're there, you can take a look at my store.  I have several free items perfect for the homeschool environment.

Click on the picture above for a free sample to my morning work series.  It is a growing bundle that will include 30 weeks work of first grade geared work.  It's a great way to start off the learning day.  I've used these in my classroom for the past year, and I saw a huge improvement in writing, phonics, and math skills because of the reinforcement of skills these provided.

Here's another free resource in my store.  It's a really cute card and craft to celebrate Grandparents' Day.  The card is actually a book where the children write about their special relationship with their grandparent(s). 

Take a minute to look through my store for the other free samples of my resources.  I think you'll find resources to meet many of your homeschooling and classroom needs!

Choices, Choices, Choices

Sometimes having too many choices isn't actually the most helpful. We were shopping for a new dress for my 12-year-old daughter yesterday, and she just couldn't make up her mind.  She tried on one dress after another and found so many she liked.  But I had to make her choose just 1.  If there were less choices, that choice might have been a bit easier for her.  Luckily, I was there to give her some recommendations on what fit her best and looked best on her. With help, she was able to finally pick a pretty blue summery dress.

When it comes to picking your homeschool curriculum, you want recommendations from someone who knows. Cathy Duffy is the know-all when it comes to homeschool curriculum. She has reviewed hundreds of homeschool curricula to help educators like me make an educated decision when shopping for homeschool curriculum. So as soon as I see a product has been approved by Cathy Duffy, I am more likely to trust it. Here’s a handful of Cathy-approved educational picks available at Educents.com. I hope these double-recommended educational resources will relieve you from endless hours of shopping around for the best (and most cost-effective) homeschool resources.

Elementary Math & Science

Life of Fred Elementary Math

If you haven't heard of Life of Fred, you're in for a real treat. Dr. Stanley F Schmitt is a math teacher who developed story-based math learning series that has taken homeschooling by storm! Forget rote learning that doesn't resonate: learners follow the Fred and his pals through life and learn math concepts along the way. Kids sometimes don't even know they're learning math until they're told! Each book has a topic, like Apples, Butterflies, and Cats. I recommend supplementing math learning with science of social studies of the same topic!  

Giant Butterly Garden

This ties in with the second Life of Fred book so well! With the set little ones can learn about (and experience!) the miracles of metamorphosis. Available at Educents for $35.99.

Theme for a Day - Johnny Appleseed

Here's a great little theme for a day unit that would go along well with the apples topic.  It includes language arts, math, social studies, and science!  Perfect to use on Johnny Appleseed day to being thematic fun to your homeschool.

Happy shoppping!

October Already?

Wow, I can't believe it's October already!  Today sure feels like fall in our neck of the woods.  After a beautiful week of lows in the high 50s and highs in the mid '70s (perfect weather in my book), a cold front came through while we were at the pumpkin festival, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 10 minutes!  We had sleet!!  And now it's 42 degrees.  BUT on the plus side, I've got chicken soup on the stove and the fireplace going.  For everything there is a season, right?

So, how's your school year going so far?  I'm thrilled to say that I have the sweetest group of first graders this year.  They're not perfect, but they are bright and cute and inquisitive and eager for school, and I love going to work every morning.  The days are flying by with this group.  That makes me happy because believe me, there have been years when the opposite was true!

We've been really focusing on the short vowels this first quarter, and most of my kiddos are doing really well with sounding out and blending words.  I created these awesome short vowels resources to use with them each week, and it really helped.

                                     

We created short vowel interactive notebooks for each short vowel sound using  a lot of these resources.  I tried to make the activities engaging and fun, from making short vowel crowns to playing games in small groups with the kiddos who need extra support with applying the sounds.

I'm pretty excited about these resources, and I think they are a must have if you are teaching short vowel sounds to your students.  For tomorrow only, Sunday, October 5, all day, I am putting the bundle of these products on sale for 10% off.  It would be $15 to buy all five resources separately.  I have bundled them for $12.  But tomorrow only, you will be able to buy the resources for only $10.80, and you can choose one of my two newest resources, Word Sorting Mats set 1 or Word Sorting Mats set 2, to receive completely free!

Click on the picture above and to view my Learning the Short Vowels bundle up close.  You can also sample some of the resources by clicking on the picture below.

If you'd like to see other great deals, visit All Things Apple in Second by clicking on the picture below.