Free Printable Recipe Cards and Stationary

I am delighted to share these two websites.

I don’t cook {very well}, but I love all the choices for personalized FREE recipe cards!  If I decide to compile future favorite recipes, I’ll head straight to this website and print off a few of their adorable templates.  The editable recipe cards cost approximately $7.

Now, this is a site after my own heart.  I adore writing.  I haven’t lost the desire to hand-write notes either.  I don’t like paying exorbitant prices for fancy stationary (although I always catch myself staring at new notepads or expensive letterhead in the stores), so when I discovered www.freeprintablestationary.net, I became giddy.  More to add to my collection!

Enjoy!

Autumn Leaves

I stumbled across this activity online: Collecting Autumn Leaves.  It’s been hard to focus on the changing fall season in the south due to the hot, humid days!  I look forward to cooler days and crisp nights.  We recently took a nature hike, but I’m excited to take another and collect and record the different types of leaves.

The website, kidzone, contains templates for Ash, Birch, Elder, Maple, Oak and Poplar trees as well as a blank template for mystery leaves.  (One of these days, I’ll purchase a binding machine; this activity is perfect for making booklets!) 

Each template has a blank space for either drawing the leaf or applying a leaf rub or pressing.

Rather than printing all of the templates for the three girls, I simply right-clicked on the image and saved to my hard-drive.  Once we’re blessed with another beautiful morning and we get the itch to take school outside, the “Collecting Autumn Leaves” activity will be ready!

Volcano Experiment!

Today, we completed the volcano experiment from the Expedition Earth curriculum by Erica (a.k.a. Confessions of a Homeschooler).  If you’re interested in the supplies list and details for the experiment, I suggest contacting Erica; or better yet purchase her geography curriculum, Expedition Earth!  It costs $15 (all downloadable files) and is chock full of activities for countries around the globe.  Erica also offers an animal supplement, Expedition Earth Animals.

Daddy helped our oldest daughter mix the ingredients for the cone of the volcano.  I loved that the recipe required everyday “pantry” ingredients such as flour, salt, oil and water.  No extra trips to the grocery store!

Admittedly, I bought the wrong-sized plastic soda bottle.  We don’t generally drink soda and I realized too late that a two-liter bottle may be overkill.  Nonetheless, we proceeded with the experiment and colored the water red  for the lava effect!

Here the girls are building the base or cone of the volcano.  We ran out of mixture but it didn’t lessen the excitement.

Adding a key ingredient – baking soda.  Steady hand, Daddy!

The second key ingredient – vinegar!

Then…watch the VOLCANIC ERUPTION!

Free Stuff to Share

I want to pass along a few terrific links – all provide FREE STUFF!

If you’re new to homeschooling, need support or encouragement, or desire alternative, fresh ideas, check out this free digital download courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse.  The digital supplement introduces the basics to homeschooling, offers planning tips and covers topics for all grades - PreK through high school.

Homeschooling 101 Digital Supplement

The next link I discovered on Face Book.  All content is free.  Because curriculum can get expensive for four children, I appreciate the free, easily accessible activities.

FREE HOMESCHOOLING 101

Lastly, I wanted to post two web sites that offer Spanish for free.  Warning!  I haven’t spent a lot of time on these two sites, so I cannot say if either is truly helpful.  However, I’ve priced foreign language curriculum and I breathed a sigh of relief when my oldest didn’t seem very interested in learning yet!

123teachme

learn Spanish today
Enjoy and happy weekend!

Distraction

My little guy is in “a stage”.  He is clingy, whiny and very fussy.  I don’t know if it’s the burgeoning of teeth or the oncoming allergies.  Perhaps he simply doesn’t feel well.  I don’t understand his language so I’m kept guessing and wondering.

Yesterday, I couldn’t get the lunch dishes cleaned.  Never mind that I had let the clutter go once (or twice) due to his incessant crying.  The kitchen counter was littered and my patience was running thin.  What could I do to distract him long enough to complete a single chore?

Quickly, I grabbed a half cup of Cheerios, dumped them into a plastic cup, covered it with the lid and handed my son two straws.  I pushed the first straw into the hole in the lid.  Simple yet entertaining for a 14-month-old.  Phew!

He was amused for a while.  I sped like lightning to get the glasses, cups, plates, bowls, and silverware loaded into the dishwasher before he noticed that I wasn’t paying attention to him.

It’s funny – another mommy blogger recently added photos of her youngest inserting straws into a container lid.  Unfortunately, my cup only had one hole in the top! 

Then my son noticed the sounds coming from inside the cup and he gave up the straw game to search for the prize.

Cheerio targets captured and eaten.  Thankfully, my distraction worked for the few minutes I needed it to.  Next time, I want a lid with more holes!