Well, I’m officially tired … tired of trying to manage multiple blogs that is.  So I’ve created a new one that will be a catch-all blog.  I also moved back to Blogger because I wanted to be able to customize it more.  Anyway, you can read it here, and here’s a screen shot –

Blessings!

~Heather

You can make coloring pages from any photo!  I saw this yesterday on the FIAR boards …

Coloring Pages from Photos – 3 easy steps … now this is for Adobe Photoshop, but they also have instructions fro Paint SHop Pro (which I use) here.

I tried this last night … it’s super-easy and fun!

School starts here in 12 more days ….. … I’ll be posting more soon …

~Heather

Who knows where I can get my hands on this? My daughter checked out the animated series of The Complete Beatrix Potter Collection from the library and has been watching them over and over. The music is great and I would love a copy, but I have searched and searched the internet to no avail. I just love, “Perfect Day” (click on the title to hear this beautiful song!) and I first heard it on Higher Up and Further In.

Perhaps you can help me?

Right now we’re on vacation. And this may sound silly, but I am sort of excited about going home and getting back to the routine of life and beginning my organizing for the next school year. Am I nuts? …… Don’t answer that

National Gallery of Art’s FREE Loan Program!!! From their website:

The National Gallery of Art’s Division of Education provides slide teaching programs, multimedia programs, videocassettes, CD ROMs, and DVDs to millions of viewers each year. These programs are intended to foster awareness of the visual arts and make Gallery collections accessible to a broad audience beyond the Gallery’s walls. They are circulated free of charge to educational institutions, community groups, and individuals throughout the United States.

Direct Loans
This option is intended for anyone’s personal or individual use. Homeschool parents and teachers are among our newest group of borrowers. The process resembles that of a lending library:

Cycle: Request –> Booking –> Shipping –> Presentation –> Return –> Inspection

Requests
Be sure to request programs well in advance of your planned presentation date. It is important that requests are received at least one month prior to anticipated use. Each request is booked for the desired date if possible; otherwise, programs are booked for the borrowers’ alternate date.

Loan materials may be requested online. Search the online catalogue by curriculum topic, subject, artist, or format and add desired programs to your cart. Alternatively, you may fax or mail a printable order form. See how to order for complete details.

You may also request a printed catalogue.

Confirmation
You will receive a confirmation by mail noting our shipping date and your return date for each program scheduled for your use.

Loan Period
All direct loans may be kept for two business weeks (or up to 9 months depending on program type); because programs are mailed well in advance, the actual loan period is frequently longer. We ask that you return program materials promptly.

The borrower pays only for return postage (media mail rate).

Hello! How cool is this???? You only have to pay for return postage, by media mail. I think I can swing that. I’m off to order some things ….

Come over to Heart Condition and check out my post Strawberries, Soil and Sun and read about our great day!

I found this site today – Awesome Stories. Currently they are waiving their $9.99 sign up fee for individuals and students. From their website:

AwesomeStories is a gathering place of primary-source information. Its purpose – since the site was first launched in 1999 – is to help educators and individuals find original sources, located at national archives, libraries, universities, and government
web sites.Your Site membership provides:

• Original stories created specifically for educational purposes and targeted
  research
• Key references and primary sources directly linked in story context
• An end to wasted time reviewing meaningless search-engine results for
  targeted topics
• Newsletters which include ideas for teachers and research topics for students
• A great resource to learn what you would’ve learned in school had you paid
  attention
• New ways to see magnificent art, ancient artifacts, original documents and
  annotated maps
• A great way to use the Internet for educational purposes and not just for email, news, stock reports and on-line purchases
• A great alternative to watching television

Enjoy

I’ve been tagged by Linda Fay at Higher Up and Further In. It’s a book tag and I am to list the books that I am currently reading. Until I wrote this out I don’t think that I realized how many books I could be reading all at the same time!

• Loves Enduring Promise by Janette Oke – just about finished with this one … my husband’s grandmother has the entire “Love Comes Softly” series and I’ve been reading them during my down time – I’ve found them to be a nice way to relax … and I find myself thinking in the characters’ pioneer english too! Iffen yed like ta read tha rest a my list …
• Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne – Just picked this up from the library last night, but my husband snatched it from me … I’ve heard good things about this book and am eager to read it through
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – I’ve decided to read through all the classics, so I am starting my literary project with this one
• Your First Quilt Book (or it should be!) by Carol Doak- Just arrived this week from eBay and I’m enjoying it – looks like a good instruction book for the beginning quilter, me!
• The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola – slowly reading through this again and soaking up her thoughts
• All About Quilting From A to Z – seems like a good reference book on quilting
• Good and Angry by Scott Turansky & Joanne Miller – very practical, when-the-rubber-meets-the-road parenting book that I highly recommend! I heard them at our homeschool conference a couple of weeks ago and they are quite good
• Quilting by Janet Wickell – so, apparently I am wanting to learn to quilt
• Gardening for Dummies – yes, a “for Dummies book”, but that’s how I feel when it comes to gardening

I’m doing as much reading as I can right now about gardening (mainly my public extension service publications) and quilting (I found 2 neat blogs – Happy Things and Angry Chicken). These are my two pursuits right now.

Reading aloud to my dear daughter:

• Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling – she is really enjoying this!
• Felicity’s Surprise (American Girl) – she received the Felicity doll for her birthday and now she is wanting me to read all her books … next year we’ll be studying the American Revolution, to this is a good little into …
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
• Seabird by Holling C Holling

Okay, so now I will tag … Candace, Presley Family (Christi) and Angela

Please pardon the mess while I redecorate ……

DD loves poetry. Right now we are reading Just so Stories by Rudyard Kipling and the end of each tale has a poem about the tale. I thought I might share with you how we are going to do poetry next year.

First, we’ve selected the same poet rotation as Year 2 from Ambleside Online – Walter de la Mere, Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley, and Christina Rossetti.

I have a few children’s anthologies that my mother-in-law has given me (she is an elementary school teacher), but by far my favorite is Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen Ferris. Her indexes are very useful – by first line, by title, by author and she has them grouped by genre (i.e. nature poems, poems about people). I select our poems from here. You can find all of the poets online for free, however. But I do like to have an actual book in my hand if possible.

I will select a poem that I think is suitable for DD and print it out. I’ll post it in our school room and on the refrigerator. And every day we’ll read it.

And that’s that