This would be a good deal to stick in your car for when you’re out and about or to have on hand. Office Depot is offering 50 – 3 Ply Pleated Face Masks for only $14.99 shipped.
Dicks Sporting Goods: Clearance Youth Shoes
It’s back to school shopping time, even if your kids aren’t going back to school. Now is the best time to stock up on school supplies and shoes! DicksSportingGoods.com has some great clearance deals on youth sneakers. Here’s a few worth mentioning:
Segundo Lace Shoes, as low as $8.97 depending on size/color!
Adidas Soccer Cleats – as low as $11.22!!
Saucony Running Shoes – as low as $10.97 depending on color and size!
Head on over to check out the rest of the clearance deals.
Our Homeschool Plans 2020-2021
We are most definitely homeschooling again this year. I had some thoughts before all the craziness happened of sending a couple to school, but we are back to homeschool now. I plan to start some of our school next week and ease back into it. It’s been so hot lately so it’s time to go ahead and get started.
If you care to look back, you can see what we used in the 2015-2016 year here or in the 2016-2017 school year here. 2017-2018 can be found here. 2018-2019 can be found here. Last year 2019-2020 can be found here.
This upcoming school year, I will have an 11th/12th grader, 8th grader, 5th grader, 4th grader and a pre-K/Kindergartener. When I mention half grades, it’s because they are smack dab in the middle of the two. That is the joy of homeschooling. We can speed up or slow down as needed depending on schedules, learning styles, etc. My oldest has an early August birthday so if she were in public school, she could be either the oldest or youngest of her grade, depending on how we moved forward. I think we aim to graduate her in December of 2021 so she will be 18 at graduation.
My youngest has an early September birthday. Many pre-K things are too young for him, but some Kindergarten things are too advanced. He’s right smack in the middle. We are going to proceed forward with him but will back off as needed throughout the year.
Math:
All 3 middle kids are going to use an online program, Teaching Textbooks this year. Honestly, it’s not one of my favorite curriculums, but it’s needed this year since I will have my hands full teaching my youngest to read. This program automatically teaches math skills and grades instantly. I will be supplementing them with a program called Prodigy. They absolutely love this game. They complete math questions in order to gain items and fight evil in the imaginary world.
My youngest will probably start Horizons Math later this year depending on how school is going for him. All of my kids have started off using Horizons Math.
We are also continuing with XtraMath.org for the 4th and 5th graders. I can’t say enough great things about this website! It’s a completely free way to make sure your kids understand all of their math facts. As a mom, I can login and see how they are doing as well and what needs improvement.
For my oldest, we will continue with Math-U-See to finish Algebra 2 and then she will be moving on to Stewardship. That is a consumer math program.
Language Arts:
We are continuing Building Spelling Skills for the middle 3 to work on spelling.
My youngest will continue with Explode the Code.
My youngest will also continue Reading Kingdom about 2-3 times a week. You can get a FREE month here. We tried it out for a review and several of my other kids have completed this program in previous years.
We will be using A Reason For Handwriting (various levels) with the younger three kids as well.
Easy Grammar will be used with most of the kids to cover Grammar topics.
Bible:
As a family, we are going to be working through Who is My Neighbor? from Apologia. My middle 3 will have workbooks to go along with the program. From the website, this textbook focuses on the questions:
- Does Anyone Really Need Me?
- How Can I make a Difference?
- Who is my Neighbor?
- Why did God Make Families?
- What Can I Do for my Country?
- Why Can’t we all just Get Along?
- Who is God’s Family?
- Why Does the Church Need Me?
I felt that this year was a great year to cover loving our neighbors.
Social Studies:
We will continue to pull from Allinonehomeschool.com for the middle three and of course the vast variety of books at the library.
Science:
I will be using Apologia’s Anatomy with the middle three. I really like Apologia’s sciences! We had a lot of fun with their Zoology last year.
Electives and Extracurriculars:
My 8th grader is going to get a jump start on his high school courses by starting Apologia’s Health and Nutrition course. We used this with my oldest and we liked how it flowed.
Other than that we are going to work on some online drawing classes and develop some hobbies this year instead of doing a lot of activities outside the house. It will be a little bit crazy around here now that we will have FIVE students this year!!
Final Thoughts:
If you are new to homeschooling this year, know that it is doable! If cost is prohibitive for your family, consider Allinonehomeschool.com, which is a completely FREE homeschool curriculum! Have a great year!
Meal Plan Monday
Happy Monday everyone! We had a great weekend celebrating my middle daughter’s 11th birthday! Camping, horse riding, swimming, and sundaes as a family. The kids also found the biggest walking stick I’ve ever seen! We’ve all been staying healthy and still staying away from crowds for the most part. Hope you all are doing well. Here’s our menu for the week –
Monday: BBQ, veggies
Tuesday: Spaghetti, green beans
Wednesday: Hot dogs, baked potatoes
Thursday: Nachos
Friday: Poppyseed Chicken
Saturday: Grilled chicken salad
Sunday: Good Grub
Old Navy: 5 Pack of Masks – $12.50!
OldNavy.com is now offering a 5 pack of masks for only $12.50! That seems like a good deal so you can wash one and still have some available. Be sure to also shop around as OldNavy.com is having a big sale with up to 60% off sitewide. Of course it’s also time to buy your yearly Old Navy flag shirts, too. Shipping is free on orders over $50!
Review: Laser Chess
We received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are our own. 
We had the great pleasure of reviewing another great product for Timberdoodle. This product hit a home run with our family! Laser Chess from Thinkfun is another fun strategy game in the Thinkfun line. We own several of their games and I think this is a new favorite.
Laser Chess was actually really easy to learn, and is geared toward ages 8 and up. My husband and my 8th grader had the most fun with this game. The goal is to set your mirrors on the board to send your laser to hit the opponent’s king. Throughout the game, your opponent can also use their laser and remove your mirrors, leaving you with fewer to deflect your laser.
We even took Laser Chess with us to the cousin’s house and the boys played it there as well. We found this game much more fun to play in the evening when it was a little darker. When it’s darker you can see the laser better. Below you can see my son pressing his laser to see where it ends up. If he hits certain pieces of his opponent’s team, those pieces are then removed.
We definitely recommend this game to others. For more information, please visit Laser Chess on Timberdoodle. Timberdoodle also puts together curriculum kits for homeschoolers and Laser Chess is included in their Seventh Grade Curriculum Kit.
Shop Amazon’s Subscription Boxes
Did you know that Amazon offers Subscription Boxes? There is something that will fit everyone!
With more than 250 subscription boxes to choose from, Amazon Subscription Boxes has a perfect box of monthly, curated goodness for you (or as a treat for someone else). Amazon Subscription Boxes offers a wide range of options, including beauty boxes, snack boxes, lifestyle boxes, toy boxes for the kids and even monthly boxes for the pets. Don’t forget the pets! All of the boxes include free shipping, and a lot of them include discounts on the first box.
Head on over to see what all is offered for your needs.
Plushible: $2.50 Shipped for Kids and Adult Masks!
Plushible.com is offering face masks for children and adults for only $2.50 SHIPPED each (normally $5) when you use code 50MASK at checkout! These masks have such fun prints including unicorns! They are dual layer and breathable and geared toward kids ages 7 and up. Machine washable, too!
3 Piece Instant Tent Set – Only $17.99!
Great for the emergency kit, you can snag a 3 piece Instant Tent Set for only $17.99, down from $54.95! I’m going to grab one for my 13 year old son for his birthday. Great item for when he’s hiking with his friends and his scout troop. Order 2 or more and shipping is FREE!
In this box:
Roll Up Portable Blanket
Inflatable Camping Pillow
Portable A-Frame Tent
Review: MaxScholar
Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
The past few weeks, all 5 of my children from ages 16 down to 4 have been working on a reading program that is brand new to us. MaxScholar offers a reading intervention program with their MaxScholar Orton-Gillingham Software. Each child had different things to work on and had different perspectives of the program. We received a 6 month subscription for each child to check it out.
MaxScholar is a multi-sensory phonics and reading program designed to improve reading skills, language, and performance scores. It’s adaptable to different learning settings and can be used both in school and at home. Programs can be accessed from any device so it can be used on the go. The program is designed for children to work independently and at their own pace.
My older kids are given the option to work on MaxReading, MaxWords, MaxMusic, MaxVocab, MaxPlaces, and MaxBios. I decided since it was summer to set a time limit and they could choose from any of the subjects to work on before they went on to play a computer game. I like that the reading is often something worth learning and not just silly stories. For example, my soon to be 8th grader was learning about Rosa Parks. Here’s a small sampling from what he was reading.
After he reads, he then has to highlight important parts of the story, check his answers, work on an outline, writing exercises, and then answer questions. After that he can play games on the program.
My 11th grader did well with the program since it’s all stuff she has learned before. She liked working on the MaxMusic the best. In that section she can choose an artist or Disney lyrics. The program has you choose the verbs in the music and then work on a memory game. She also liked the MaxVocab to work on letter sounds and spellings in words.
My 4th grader liked the games the best and reading all the different stories, but she didn’t like the work aspect. She greatly preferred answering the questions over the highlighting.
My 5th grader liked the interesting stories. MaxMusic was her favorite part because she liked playing the MaxGuitar. She enjoyed reading the songs and then filling in the blanks afterward about what she read.
My 4 year old took the placement test and was started at level 0. He does know his letters and his sounds, but missed a couple of the questions, so it started him at the very beginning. He has the option of MaxPhonics or MaxReading. He actually isn’t very fond of the MaxPhonics program because if you miss anything at all, you have to start the whole lesson over again until it’s done correctly. We would have liked to see it just review the missed items with him and not have to do the whole thing over.
The part he kept getting stuck on would show several photos and ask for all the ones starting with a certain letter. He would get some of them and forget to check all the pictures and end up missing some. This was enough though that he would have to redo the entire lesson. I ended up going back and fixing it so he could move on without getting frustrated on repeating.
For MaxReading, we both like that the program will read the stories to him. As far as the work on MaxReading, it required us to highlight main topics and such. This he wasn’t able to do on his own, but we would work on them together. I think it’s a good program for the younger age, but I probably won’t have him continue since it causes him frustration. We will probably try it again when he’s a bit older.
Overall, we have been pleased with the program. The kids will be continuing with the program, but I think I will be making some changes and requiring them to complete lessons before hopping on to the games or MaxMusic. We are thankful for the opportunity to check out such a great program.
For More Information:
For more information, please visit the MaxScholar website. You can also find out more on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can also click the banner below to read more reviews on this program from other homeschooling families.
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