DISCLAIMER: I was provided with a complimentary subscription to ArtSquish, in exchange for my honest opinion. When I decided to homeschool, I didn't really know exactly what I was getting myself into. I joined a few homeschool groups on Facebook, I did some online research (by "some research", I mean I spent hours and hours online looking through info and resources) and I finally decided there was really no way of knowing if I could do it, until I just jumped in and tried. It's not that I really have anything against public schools per se, I just think Micah will thrive better in this setting and so far, he has. He just turned five in August and can already read most any word you put in front of him. He is an amazing speller and loves to learn about science-y stuff. He's not too keen on writing, yet and that's OK. I know in time it will become something that he will grasp, but until then, we are focusing on doing a lot of fun, artsy things, to build his fine motor skills and to let him get used to the feel of implements in his hand. When I was doing my research, I found tons of curriculum choices and for the most part, they were all pretty similar. They all had the basics, Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, but most of them lacked any Art lessons.
I am not what one would consider a very artsy person. I love and can appreciate all kinds of art, but when it comes to making my own... stick men give me problems, so I knew I would have to "outsource", if I wanted to include art in our homeschool. Lucky for me (and Micah), I was introduced to ArtSquish.
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with complimentary tickets and lodging in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.
When I was planning our recent trip to The Smokies, I knew it had to be extra special, as this would probably be the last vacation we would take as a complete family, since we would be dropping Kaylee off in Knoxville, for her freshman year of college at the end of our trip.
I knew we wanted to stay in a relaxed atmosphere, a place with lots of amenities and something fun for the little one. I Googled, I scoured all the review sites, I compared and I finally found a place that had everything we wanted, the room to spread out that we needed and was within close proximity to all the fun stuff in the Smokies. Say "Hello" to the RiverStone Resort, in Pigeon Forge, TN.
I gave you a little bit of background info on RiverStone, but I had to share some of the pictures I took while we were there, to show the full extent of how nice this place really is. Imagine waking up to this beautiful, expansive golf course, every morning and sipping coffee, while sitting on your private patio.
DISCLOSURE: The VTech product, gift card, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by VTech. However, all opinions are my own. Kids always want to be just like Mom and Dad and with the onslaught of smartwatches and wearable trackers, I knew it was only a matter of time, before there would be a kids' version available and why not, a smartwatch is fun, no matter how old you are. This fun little piece of "equipment" is the newest product from VTech, the Kidizoom Smartwatch.
DISCLAIMER: I was provided with a printer and a complimentary subscription to HP's Instant Ink service to facilitate this post, however all opinions & pictures are my own. Have you ever gotten a new "gadget", brought it home, hooked it up, used it for one single day and then realized... "How in the world did I get through the last 30something years without this?!" That was my exact thought when I recently received a new HP Envy 5530 laptop printer with HP Instant Ink service, to check out. I know, I act like I've never had a printer before, which is almost true. I've had two printers in my adult lifetime, the last one ran out of ink about 5 years ago and instead of buying new ink, I just stored it away in the closet. Yeah, I know they sell ink at the store, but I never remembered to buy it and by the time I did, I really forgot I had a printer anyway. So, you can imagine my excitement when I got this fancy schmancy new one from HP. I was like a kid in a candy store. I couldn't decide what I wanted to print first. Do You Really Have the Best Auto Insurance Rate Possible? #Compare2Win With AutoInsurance.com #shop5/6/2014 DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community. Collective Bias has provided me with compensation for my time and effort to evaluate this website. Participation in this program is voluntary. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. It started off as a normal day, like any other. I woke up to a sink full of dishes from the night before, the little one was begging for a jelly sandwich (we are perpetually out of peanut butter, so he settled for a J minus the PB&) and I had at least 27 things on my to do list, it was a typical morning, all was well, then it happened. I got that call that no one wants to get.
It was my husband. he was talking really fast, asking me to grab a pen & paper, to write down a name and number. "Why? What's going on, are you OK?!", I asked him. "Yes, I'm OK, but the car was just pelted by a gravel truck and it's pretty bad. I need you to call the trucking company and let them know." I grab a notebook and copied down the info he rattles off to me, including the name of the company and the truck's unit number. After hanging up the phone, I waited a few minutes, before calling the gravel company, trying to decide how I would explain to my husband how the big, fat, stinky, greasy guy at the gravel place refused to pay for our damages, challenging me to "Prove it!", while laughing maniacally & twirling his mustache, ala Snidely Whiplash. DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of Toopy & Binoo to facilitate this post, however all opinions are my own. Being a "blog from home" Mom can be a daunting job. With all the normal daily stuff I have to do... cooking, washing clothes, doing dishes, cleaning up minor catastrophes and about a million other things, I also have my blog work to keep up with as well. To say there aren't enough hours in the day, is an understatement, so I have learned to be very creative with how I use my time and I am not ashamed to admit, I let Micah watch TV while I try to get some work done, be it washing clothes, or writing blog posts, the TV is my friend.
Now, before you start writing me hate mail, telling me how bad TV is for kids' development and how it rots their brains and causes them to grow up to become serial killers, cool your jets, it's a minimal amount of TV time and it's not like I let him watch "Breaking Bad", I mean, come on, everybody knows it's been off the air for months. I kid. So, if not "Breaking Bad", then what do I let him watch?! Well, as much as I tried to persuade him to like the old school classics I loved as a child, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, etc, it just didn't happen. He is more into the new stuff like Caillou (kill me now), Doc McStuffins (tolerable), Lego anything (not bad) and his new favorite, Toopy & Binoo. What the heck is a "Toopy & Binoo", you ask?! |
Follow Me on Pinterest
|