Mommy Octopus

Jane.com is a great website to find all sorts of items for your home and wardrobe.  They are having a clearance event and there are excellent prices on shirts and more!  Many items also offer free shipping, too!  Definitely worth checking to see what they have.  These shirts are only $9.99!

I recently bought one of these and it has quickly become a favorite, especially since we are outside more this summer.  You can currently grab one of these Distressed Messy Bun Hats in several colors for only $12.99 + free shipping!  These fit teens and adults.

We love playing games at our house, but most of the ones that we have are for the older kids.  It was nice to receive a game that all of us can play!  Even though this game is for ages 5 and up, my 4 year old had a great time playing it with me today.  Gobblet Gobblers is very similar to a game we all know, Tic-Tac-Toe.  The difference is that you can place your larger Gobblet Gobbler on top of a smaller one of your opponents and take over that spot.  With each turn, the game can quickly change as your pieces are “gobbled”.  You also have the option to move one of your pieces to a different spot on the board.  A winner is proclaimed with 3 of the same color Gobblers in a row.

The game includes the playing grid, 12 Gobblers, and colorful instructions.

I love how this game incorporates critical thinking and strategy planning.  Each game only lasts a few minutes, making it perfect for the younger crowd.  Two thumbs up from us!

Gobblet Gobblers is included in the kindergarten curriculum kit from Timberdoodle.  Timberdoodle puts a lot of thought into their curriculum kits and pulls the very best from different curriculum brands for each grade.

 

 

Harry Potter fans, you are going to LOVE the new Harry Potter line from Vera Bradley!! There are fun prints and then also simple designs as well.  Select from Campus Backpacks to Totes to Crossbody Bags.

Shipping is currently free on all orders, too!

Also, don’t forget that Vera Bradley has masks available.  I have one and it’s my favorite out of all the masks I have bought so far! Adult and youth masks for $8 shipped, currently.

 

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.

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.

 

 

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!

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!

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.