I just found a great program for this summer. Kids Bowl Free is a program that you can sign up for to allow your kids to receive a coupon for 2 free bowls a day during the summer. The age restrictions, and program dates vary from center to center, and this program is not offered in every state, so check out their website. You can also get a discounted summer family pass for under $25 for up to 4 adults or older children to play during the summer.

Have fun!
So if you love bowling… or even if you’d just like to try it out, this is a great opportunity for you!

This month my family is going on a little trip to The Great Basin National Park for a weekend field trip and star party.  Steve has a nice sized telescope and we’ve been to star parties before, but never at one of the darkest places in the country.  So this should be amazing!  We’re also going to be going to Lehman Caves and to see the Upper Pictograph Cave.  There is really a lot to see and do up there and the National forest website even has some curriculum to go over before the trip.  And the boys thought they were off for the summer!  HA!

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So I think it’s kinda funny that my sons are all happy that it’s Summer Vacation.  They are home all the time, they don’t have to “go to” school, but somehow “Summer” means something extra special for them.  I know that part of it is because they are watching TV and have friends and family who are in “traditional” school and everyone is talking about school being out.  But I wonder if they think that things are going to be THAT different?

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Jack has been using Time4Learning for his school for the last several months and I’m very happy with the curriculum. One of the lessons he’s done this week in Social Studies was to research and write an essay on the religious beliefs of the West Africans prior to 750AD. It took me some time to get him to do the research on exactly that without him going off on a tangent about just Voodoo, but below is his final essay.  I have not done any editing on spelling or wording, mostly because I thought it was cute the way he wrote it all.  Can you tell he’s a story teller?

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5 Minutes For Mom is having a party, THE Ultimate Blog Party!  And we’re all invited!  There are prizes to be had, great new people to meet, and fun things to do.  So either click on the banner above to see all the great blogs that are participating or click on the link that goes directly to 5 Minutes For Mom.

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Yes!  I have been waiting for something like this to happen… I’m sorry it couldn’t be on my website, but I’m happy to pass it along where it’s at!

This is a new blog to me but one I have decided to subscribe to none the less.  I happened upon this cute homeschooling blog by way of another blog that I subscribe too (isn’t the internet fantastic!!!).  And there it was, the giveaway for a full year subscription to Secular Homeschooling Magazine.

Now, if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I’ve written a few articles for SHM and have touted its spectacularism (is that a word?  It is now!).  Luckily one of you great, wonderful readers can win this subscription by heading on over to “The Homeschooled Year” and doing whatever it is you need to do to win (leaving a comment, following her on twitter, subscribing to her feed, etc. ya’ll know the drill!).

I’m thrilled to not only give more PR to SHM but also to this newly discovered blog!

Some of my best memories are playing games with my family, both when I was a child AND now that I have children.  Some of my favorite games to play as a kid where Yahtzee!, Scrabble, Uno, and Trivia Pursuit (although I”m much better at playing Trivia today than I ever was as a kid  LOL!).  I can remember no matter how many games or hands of cards we played, I was always begging for “Just ONE more!!”  Of course if who ever I was begging gave in to my request, they’d get more begging after that game was done!  LOL!  Now, my sons are the ones begging for just one more game.  Which usually makes my mom burst into laughter and tell me it’s my “comuppance”.

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Don’t have an idea how to celebrate Valentine’s day this year?  Don’t want to exclude the kids?  Maybe your homeschooling group is having a Valentine’s Day Celebration?  Here’s the perfect solution!

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Maybe it’s because the word you’re looking for is no longer in the dictionary?

According to Save The Words.org

” Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language. Old words, wise words, hard-working words.  Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie abandoned and forgotten. ” (more…)

I usually like the movies and original series that TNT produces, which is why I was elated when I was asked to review this movie.  I decided to review it here on my homeschooling site because, although it is not about homeschooling directly, it shows the same values that we all hold.  It shows a mom who “homeschooled” her sons while they were going to and failing at the Public schools.  It was because of her non-tradtional way of teaching them and pushing them that made her son Benjamin Carson that great man that he became.

Oscar® Winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kimberly Elise

Star in TNT’s Inspirational GIFTED HANDS: THE BEN CARSON STORY,

A JOHNSON & JOHNSON SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION® Movie

GIFTED HANDS, Based on Pediatric Neurosurgeon’s Moving Memoir,

To Premiere Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT)

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