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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Discount Books that are NEW!

 I'm So excited about our new books!! I got all these books (8-a couple have like 6 in one book so really it's like getting 18-20 books!) For only $25 shipped to my door! These are nice, brand new or scratch and dent (see pictures for the scratches and dents. Um ya, that would happen in 2 seconds at my house haha)
Here's how I got this awesome deal:
Go here and sign up for an account on bookoutlet with my referral code and you get $5 to spend (I get $5 after u make ur first purchase):http://referral.bookoutlet.com/224131107187073024

After you sign up go to Ebates and sign up for awesome deals and cash back on your online purchases! Right now bookoutlet.com has 10% cash back! They also have referral perks and usually gift cards for first time users. If you have an account already you know it's awesome sauce! They have a thing where you can have a chance to win a trip to Disneyland for refering people.Click my link here: http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?eeid=29935&referrerid=Gm%2FR17hoq6ONg4Duqeee8Q%3D%3D
And just search for bookoutlet.com and click and shop! I even got cash back on gift cards on this site!
So you'll get $5 to spend at bookoutlet.com and free stuff and cash back on ebates. You'll save even more than me! Sweet!
They run good sales and deals all the time and they have adult to baby books to coloring books to sticker books to educational so there's something for everyone!






*I'll post prices soon!*

IF you want FREE Books though, check out hosting a Usborne Book Party!

This post has affiliate links! Thank you!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Homeschooling on a TIGHT Budget!

HOMESCHOOLING on a TIGHT Budget

*A list of FREE printables, great websites, blogs, and books that I love to use for our homeschooling. 
*Programs I've looked into and used

I can only say what I've used for Pre-K to 1st grade at this point. But most of these resources have Pre-K to 12th grade so it shouldn't be too different.

Try not to get too overwhelmed. There are SO many resources out there (thousands!). Look up what your child needs to learn for their grade level in your particular state and THEN go from there! If they are doing more advanced work than "required", awesome! If not then you know what to work on. Make a list of what YOU want them to learn and what is required. Then make a schedule that works for you. I have little ones (under 1, 2, K and 1st) so nap times, and anytime the baby is sleeping or distracted or when we are traveling is my "School time". Daddy doesn't have a normal 9-5 job (We own our own business. Yes, I'm insane.) so that means sometimes he's home early to help and other times he's not home until after they go to bed. So our "schedule" doesn't always work perfectly. I just kind of wing it and just refer back to my schedule when I need to, making sure we are on track. I'm hoping as the kids get older a schedule will work better for us. The Harmony Education Program really helped with all this. (See below)

THE LIST:

Educents.com --This is a referral link. I get Edubucks,$10, for every person I refer that signs up with my link and makes a purchase of $25 or more on their site. You can also earn Edubucks by making purchases and referring friends!) There are also TONS of FREE printables, resources, and apps on there! Just search "Free" and you'll have 100's of pages! You can search by grade level as well. They also have a gift $10 get $10 program. So ya, awesome!

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Confessions of a Homeschooler Blog --She is absolutely amazing and has helped me be more organized and make more sense of the whole homeschooling world! She has SOOOOOooooo much stuff on there! Free printables and whole curriculum sets and advice on what programs she's used, etc. Hands down she is my go to for any homeschooling questions and answers!
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Reading Resources I Love:
(Ones with '*' by them are my updates!)

*Homer Reading App—have to pay for a subscription, but I is soooo amazing and all my kids love it!

*Lexia Core 5–Absolutely love this program! We get it free through our program. It’s a Rosetta Stone Program and has supporting worksheets!

*www.readingbear.org 
Just discovered this online, easy to follow, lots of visuals and videos (so great for the kids and mom!) And completely FREE! So fantastic! It's a great place to start (Pre-k/beginners-3rd grade reading level)

 Usborne's Very First Reading Library and other Phonics books

*www.sightandsoundreading.com
(This is great for free printables and they also have a learning to read app/videos which isn't super awesome, but it seems to work ok) 

*www.sightwords.com
(Also just descovered. Has some great free printable flash cards and lots of other great stuff for teaching your child to read!)

*www.readingeggs.com
(We get this free through our school, but I have to say, it has been fantastic! My 5 yr old is learning to read and she doesn't even realize that's what she's doing! She just thinks she's playing games! Also has an app)

*I also love Usborne books (s5085.myubam.com) phonics readers,workbooks,beginner reading sets,etc.
once they get the basics down. They also have a great app/site that goes with their "Starting to read pack" (which Im really loving the activity book and poster and duel readers that come with this set!) Anyway the app/site is free here: teachyourmonstertoread.com

*And you can usually snag some great printable's over at education.com
or teacherspayteachers.com

These phonics books are free and have printable worksheets too:
I LOVE this site! They have free ebook that you can view via pdf or print them out. They also have free printable worksheets to go along with most books. My daughter really likes them. We have used Bob books as well, but for some reason it's like pulling teeth with her on those.

Another great website is
I'm not sure what the pricing is now, but it has done a TON to help Allison. They have gaves,books,lessons,etc to help with reading. She seems to like abcmouse.com better though. Prob. because it has more than just reading stuff. And she gets tickets she can buy things with, it has her own little world with pets and stuff she can take care of too. And it has printable! So it's a better value for your money than reading eggs I think, but reading eggs does focus just on the reading so if that's all they really need it's great!
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BookOutlet.com --This has been one of my favorite sites to find new and used books, coloring books, educational books,kids-adult books,sticker books, and even Usborne books, shhh don't tell....OH WAIT! TELL! TELL EVERYONE! Because guess what!? They have a referral program too! How sweet is that!? Just click on the link above! OH! But DO NOT FORGET, after you've signed up, go HERE and sign up for Ebates and get 10% CASH BACK by shopping at Bookoutlet.com (and TONS of other places! I pretty much don't shop online without first going to ebates and checking for deals and seeing if I can get cash back. Christmas time I especially save a LOT!) Um yes, I think we have a awesome winner here! 
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BUT, EVEN BETTER, If you want to get lots of FREE Books (with little effort) you should Host a Usborne Books & More Facebook Party! You can also get tons of 1/2 price books! Now who doesn't want FREE BOOKS!?
Go HERE to book a party or comment below for more details.
The Harmony Ed program also uses mostly Usborne Books for their Elective Kits! I am way excited to get ours this year! 
And if you use Harmony you should just become a Usborne Consultant because you will want to get more books even after you've spent your allowance ;)

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rainbowresource.com
has great prices and some great curriculum choices. I like the Brain Quest full grade curriculum and their cards to go with them. They also have other books that are "Full Grade Curriculum" which is great! (HERE is anotger one we like) And they won't break the bank. If they are color I just tare them out and put them in the page protectors and if they are black and white I like to make copies and let them color/write on the actual pages.

"Map Skills" by Teaching resources is great. They have lots of other books too.

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If you are overwhelmed by the cost of ink to print things off:
Get HP Instant Ink!
It saves me SO MUCH on ink and I don’t have to think about ordering more ink anymore! It auto sends me more ink (free) and plans start at just $2.99 a month! No more ink refill mess!
**Go HERE first and read more about it! BUT make sure you use my code for the friend referral code! Here is my code:
sTtFD
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Target--
When I went to Target about a month ago they had some AWESOME homeschool materials in the "$5 and under section". Workbooks, flashcards, mini dry erase cards,etc. And all only $1 each! Not sure if they still have them out, but it's totally worth looking into!
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The Dollar Tree -- They have a website but you can only order in bulk. I guess if you need stuff in bulk it's pretty awesome! We have a local store so it's fantastic. Some aren't as lucky though. I have gotten educational workbooks, prizes for incentives, tickets, play money, containers to organize things, flashcards, things for our bulletin board, school supplies, craft supplies, etc. there. Be sure and compare pricing at Walmart before ordering though. Some things can be cheaper at Walmart. See my post HERE about my laminated quiet book. I got a lot of things from the Dollar Tree and Walmart for it. 
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Walmart.com--Or just our local Walmart. They have TONS of resources that won't break the bank. Such as school supplies, a Laminator (See Post HERE on how laminating your printable worksheets can save TONS!), clear page protectors (which you can use instead of laminating),etc.
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The Homeschool Mom is also a great blog especially those of you homeschooling in Idaho.
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TeachersPayTeachers.com--you can buy things but there are also tons of free ones.
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Harmony Education---If you live in Idaho, Utah, Hawaii or Minnesota this is pretty much the best program! And guess what!? Not only is it FREE but you also get an educational allowance to purchase school supplies and you have a wide variety of curriculum to choose from (which they purchase for you). You can choose to do all your schooling online or do flex worksheets. I did Flex worksheets with my Kindergartener and she blew through them in the first few months. I was able to focus on more things or broaden upon what the worksheets where teaching, etc. It was VERY nice! We also got readingeggs.com to help with her reading. They have mentors to answer any questions you might have.
The downfall is you still have state tests and it is through a local school district which means you may not be in a school district that offers it. They are currently looking at finding a different school district to take us that are outside the West Ada Meridian) school district so there's a chance I may not be able to do it again in the fall. Which would suck. The other downfall is because it's a state thing you can't choose any religious based curriculum. But I found that I could easily incorporate scripture study, and religion into our school work. I was a distant learner from a private, LDS based school out of Utah all through High School so I already had some books and knowledge to do this.(Liahona Academy is the name of it. It's quite expensive but it was the BEST homeshcooling experience one could ever ask for! Mainly because I didn't feel homeschooled because they filmed their classes and we had Super Trips and Youth Conferences to get together!)
There are also other options like Charter or Montessori schools and there's a Heritage Academy in Rexburg that looks great. But there again, they were either impossible to get into or they are expensive. And I want to teach my kids myself if at all possible.   
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*Update*
I came across several other sites over the last week that you might really like! 
This lady has a great method of learning! It's exactly what I want to do for my kids! Just 3-4 times a week she does a few simple lesson then expounds upon things with everyday lessons and methods of learning like cooking,building,etc. And she uses videos,books and activities to teach history and other subjects to really bring them alive.
Check out her FREE curriculum over at
Plain and Not So Plain

Here are a list of 10+ free sites at
 Passion for Savings
as well a some on
Free Homeschooling Deals

And here are others I found:
Mobymax.com
My kids get bored with this but it's great for testing what they k own and at what level. You can sign up as a Homeschooler.

IXL.com
IXL has everything but you can only do practice things so much per day without a membership. It's not as interactive, but again, good for practice and testing their knowledge.

Here are some great phonics worksheets as well HERE over at Super Teacher Worksheets.

I was also talking to my wonderful umm what is your cousins wife called to you? Adopted cousin (haha)? Cousin by marriage? Anyway, she's awesome! She gave me some advice about teaching my kiddos to read. She starts with site words then works on letter sounds then goes from there. I plan to do that with my others since I totally did it backwards with my oldest and it's really confused her!

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Videos and Shows--
I like to use Youtube.com to help my kids visualize or learn more about a certain subject. If they have a question about a certain animal, how something works, or want to learn about another country I usually hit YouTube.com first!
They also have a lot of popular educational shows on there that are on netflix and such if you don't have the luxury of having netflix,hulu,amazon,etc.

Some things to search for on youtube: 
Sid the Science Kid--on netflix but there's videos on youtube as well
HooplaKidzLab --science experiments
HooplaKidz -- this is the reg. channel. It has great alphabet and number videos. My kids love them!
Signing Time-- It's on Netflix but just search "Signing Time" and it should come up with the sign language videos. These are great for teaching your children sign language. My girls love it!

If you want to learn about a certain animal the Animal Planet channel is great. It's easier just to search for specific things like if you want to learn about blue whales search "All about blue whales for kids" I always add the "for kids" at the end so it doesn't come up with things that are over their head. 

For Traveling Stuff my favorite Channel is Travelwithkids

Music--If you want to learn a instrument there are hundreds of channels for learning instruments. All for free! 

Crafts, DIY's, and just about anything you can think of you can find on youtube for free! You just have to search for it! I even found a video that explained "the birds and the bees" to my 6 year old that was to the point but not weird or over her head. Ya, it made that talk a LOT easier for sure! Then if she had any other questions it was a lot easier to expound upon. 

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood--
I love this show! It teaches so many good principles! It teaches about going potty, sharing, taking turns, trying new things, getting along, what to do when you're afraid and adds the abc's and 123's on top of everything in such a cute way! And so much more! Check youtube.com

Barney and Friends-- A classic. My young ones also enjoy this show. It teaches lots of good things as well. A lot in song form so that your kids remember things in a fun way!

I hope this all helped! If you have any questions please comment or message me! 

Here's some other resources I've used to buy supplies:
and many other sites for supplies!

My best advice is to decide what works best for you and your family, pray about it, and do your research on the type of schooling you want for your child. There are TONS of different ways to homeschool and you have to decide what is best for you and your children. Every child learns differently and may respond to different types of schooling. Some are more disciplined and thrive with just worksheets and reading books. Others need more interactive, hands on approaches. I have a little of both so we do a little of everything. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Laminated Quiet Book

Laminated and MAGNETIC 
Quiet Books
I made 3 quiet books. 
One is for my oldest daughter (for school)
The 2nd is for my 4 year old (for school)
and the 3rd is the travel, church, "fun" one.



I printed this off HERE. She is a genius! She has a Pre-K, Kinder, etc. Daily Learning Notebook Pages. So great for homeschooling or just to have fun things for your Pre-K to do that is educational too.


This letter game I found HERE. I chose to do the blank one so I could do letters I knew my daughter needed to work on and such. But she has other ones that are already filled in and colorful too!
This printable is from Confessions of a Homeschooler as well! The link is for all her printables! 


Things I used to create my quiet books:

1. Scotch Laminating Machine
(like $25 at Walmart. Mine was around $50 but I chose to get the little nice one. HERE's the link to mine.) or other laminating machine. I have really liked mine a lot!
2. Laminating Sheets (Amazon was the cheapest. I used 3 mil with no problems)

3. Magnetic Primer (Walmart $20-$30 a can. A little goes a long way!)--did you know you can also use it on your walls and paint any color over it!? Um ya, genius!
4. Worksheets, coloring pages, stickers, post cards, paper dolls, school work books, sharing time books, file folder games, and anything elose you might find that you can use for your quiet book!
I'll put links to the ones I found and used and where I found things.
Here are also some links to my own personal printables which can be used to create your quiet book (for personal use only of course!)


5. A 3 ring punch--essential for making your Laminated pages easy to put into your binder. I already had one so I didn't need to get a new one.

6. A 3 ring binder (or several if you go crazy like me. Whatever size you'd like.) They aren't much at walmart especially in the fall when school supplies are out. But I have also gotten some at garage sales and thrift stores as well.

7. Clear page protectors-- They are only $5 for 50 count at Walmart (if you choose not to laminate or don't have a laminator)

6. Dry erase crayons
(I got mine on clearance and on Amazon--This is a really good price usually they are around $6 a box.. You can also get them in bulk at various school supply places and on orientialtrading.com)

7. Dry erase markers (if you use page protectors instead of laminating. I get the kind from the Dollar Tree that are both magnetic and have the lids with the eraser on them.)
These are like I get at the Dollar Tree in a 3 or 4 pack.

8. A printer (if you don't go somewhere to get things printed or choose to just use work books)

9. Magnet strips or I used the thinner magnet sheets that you stick on the back of pictures, but I think the strips work better because the magnet is stronger and still stick to the back. I like to look for these things at Garage Sales and Thrift Stores too.

10. Scissors

11. Binder pouches
To hold all the small pieces, markers, crayons,etc. (I picked up a bunch for super cheap, like $0.50 each for the thinner ones and $1.99 each for the nicer thicker, zipper ones, at Walmart in the fall when they have all the school supplies out)


OK, now on to the fun part!
I started out playing with my new Laminator. I printed off some chore chart cards to put on the fridge for my older girls. My friend made a bunch and shared the link to others she used too. I'll have to find the link so you can print them too.
I print and cut out the pieces then Laminated them and put magnets on the back. So easy!

I then started on my quiet book pieces. 
This is the cupcake counting one and the road signs one. I wanted somewhat educational ones that were still fun! 
The hardest part is cutting everything out.


And then cutting them out AGAIN

Here's the bottom part of the page. 
Note that you could just put magnets or velcro on the pages and backs and call it good, but I recommend the magnetice paint! So if you want to use magnetic paint you have to paint the backs of the pages BEFORE you laminate them. Ya, I didn't discover the magnetic paint until later so I actually painted it on top on some of these earlier ones. It works great, but it looks nicer when you can't see it at all.


I picked up a bunch of binder pouches at walmart around school supply time in the fall. Both are great!



Here you can see I did these correctly and put the magnetic paint on the back of the pages!


This shows the magnet on the back.
Pouches in use



I found these cool travel printables HERE
And license plate one HERE.


CAR BINGO PRINTABLE HERE
I put mine in my pouches. Sorry no pic!

I picked up this search and find book at the Dollar Tree and took it apart.
HERE's where I found this idea. She has some printables too!

I got this armor of God one from my mother in law. It's actually like a fabric type thing. But I just colored, Laminated the pieces and put magnets paint on the back. I put this one in a page protectors instead of laminating because it was thicker. You could do this to all your pages and just stick each pages pieces in the page protectors so they are all together. But my girls tend to use them in the car and tip the book a lot soon ya.
This was a cute page I found. I printed off another page that I just cut the animals out of and I'll put the animals on top. Anyway
This was a page I forgot to do the magnet paint on until after I laminated it. I just painted on the lamination and they can use it as a scene or just to put random pieces on.
See, here's another I forgot. I got creative and just did the paint on the numbers and as dots. Hehe

This is the back of one of my scenes. I did magnetic paint on one page then put a blank piece of paper on the back and Laminated them together so there would be a blank page they could draw anything they'd like or play with magnetic pieces as they wanted.
Here's one of my scenes. It's a Google Image I found. I search for my little pony scenes or something like that. I also use it for there hello kitty pieces.
My daughter made a scene.
Just FYI, don't use dry erase markers on the laminated pages. It does not come off very well at all! The dry erase crayons work awesome on everything though!
HERE's the link to this printable I-Spy Game!
I just searched for Travel Game Printables on Pinterest and got a TON of printables and ideas for my travel binder!

My castle scene (else and Annas castle I believe)
I just searched Google for some images

At our library they have these fun kits that usually have file fold games in them with pages you can copy  and make your own. I also found some online and at DI. They are awesome for this project!

These I printed off online.
HERE's another cute ice cream number matching one!

This shows that i used the magnet paint right on the laminated pages.

Ice cream color matching game HERE
I also used the other summer matching games!

There's a word bingo generator I used for this one! www.sightwords.com

I printed the left one off lds.org (coloring book) and the letter M one from www.abcmouse.com (which is awesome btw!!)
I believe I found this one either at walmart or the Dollar Tree but you can use any stickers!
I also used these Frozen postcard trading card things for the scenes. JoAnne's on clearance.

I got this giant sticker book on Ebay. My daughter loves it and it has activities plus like 6 pages of bonus stickers! You could easily tear pages out and laminate the stickers,etc. But they are double sided pages so ya.
I also just took apart some Dollar Tree school workbooks and put them in page protectors for my kindergarten girls school book. Dry erase markers and dry erase crayons work great on these pages!

And this was one I found in a old sharing time book I found at DI. (Thrift store)
It has gumballs with scripture book names on them so they can choose a gumball each day for scripture time.it says to give them a piece of gum and when the flavor is gone you are done reading. Pretty cute.

So there you have it! My very easy, no sew quiet books revealed!
If you have any questions please let me know! And I would LOVE to see your quiet books!!

There are no affiliate links in this post. I am not being compensated for any links in this post. Please do not sell or use any printable in this post for commercial gain or use. These are for personal use ONLY.
THANK YOU!

WEBSITES I USED IN THIS POST AND OTHERS YOU CAN USE TO FIND SOME AWESOME PRINTABLES FOR YOUR QUIET BOOK!

www.education.com

www.teacherspayteachers.com
(the have lots of free stuff as well as paid stuff!)

www.filefolderfun.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com