Our Summer Bucket

We often talk about summer bucket lists this time of year but today I want to talk about our actual summer bucket. I got this idea from a book study that I’m doing with my friend Jenn over at Homeschool Fanatic. The book study is all about being organized and getting your things together for summer was one of those challenges.

I decided but it would be far easier for me to say yes to summer fun if I had everything together and ready. I didn’t want to go out and spend a whole bunch of money but I wanted to be able to make things easy. So, I gathered supplies that we already had and made a trip to the Dollar Tree to finish it out. I’m hoping that we can use these things throughout the summer for some fun family time. With everything all together I won’t have to worry about taking the time to gather things we can simply go outside and enjoy.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

You might choose different things depending on the ages of your children and what they like but these are the things that I found to put into our bucket. My kids range in age from thirteen to one so I chose versatile items that would allow us to all have fun together. In the heat of the summer, I’m always looking for a little bit of water fun but we don’t have a big pool at our house am I big kids are too big for most of the little kiddy pools. I put together some water squirters and water soaker balls that would be easy to use and we’re available at the Dollar Tree. Some folks might choose water balloons instead of soaker balls but we liked that the balls could be used over and over again and would not leave trash on the ground.

20190611_083136

I also went ahead and put sunscreen in our bucket so that would have it ready so we can enjoy our outdoor time safely. Then I added some sidewalk chalk because it’s fun for all ages. Other fun toys could include bubbles, balls, or even outdoor lawn games like ladder ball. You might also add bug spray if those tend to be a problem in your area ( you might also want to try the amazing Spartan mosquito eradicator. )

As I was putting together this post, I realized that there was one more thing that would really help out our bucket: towels! If you have extra towels, it is always nice to have them together with the water fun toys so we don’t forget to bring them outside and have to come back in dripping water all over the floors.

In addition to these summer bucket basics, a few larger items that I purchased to keep from year to year include a Little Tikes slide that I found at a yard sale, this really fun splash pad that my son got for his birthday, and a sprinkler. For my older children, they have these fun hammocks that they can hang up in the backyard to relax or play. Another larger purchase that we have found to be really beneficial is the sun shade they can go over a play set or some other play area in your yard to help keep it a little cooler and the sun off of your little ones.

Now when the children get bored or are begging to do something fun together, I have all I need to to go outside and have a great time together. What items would you put together in your Summer Fun Bucket? Do you find it makes it easier to do fun things if you have all of the supplies ready to go?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Have you signed up for #LifeSkillsNOW? This is such a fun and beneficial program.

Life skills help kids be confident, capable, and ready for anything.
Your kids and teens will build critical thinking and know deep down that they can do hard things.
Productive screen time instead of passive scrolling
The #LifeSkillsNow Screentime Promise: We promise to give your kids the shortest amount of (productive) screentime possible, and then OFF into the real world.
Expose your kids to topics you’ve never thought about (and might not know yourself).
Bridges the gap in traditional education with practical life skills, critical thinking, tech savvy habits, and understanding money

If your feeling a bit overwhelmed with homeschooling and all the decisions and options, check out this boot camp with Kerry Beck that is live next week!

Journey Homeschool Science has some great online summer camps coming up soon! They are a fun way to keep the learning going for the whole family.

P is for Penderwicks!

P is for The Penderwicks! This funny and charming story about four sisters and their father is fun for the whole family. This is the first in a series of five books that chronicle the adventures of these sisters and their friend Jeffery (whom they meet in this first book). The sisters, Rosalind, Jane, Sky, and Batty show a love for each other and while they do not always agree, they are great role models for positive sibling relationships.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

While there is a bit of a romantic crush discussed in the book, it is a mostly clean and wholesome book that had us both laughing and crying. The girls make mistakes, but learn from them and have some really grand adventures on their summer vacation with their father. Their mother died shortly after Batty was born and so the girls have learned to really stick together. They play soccer, watch pet rabbits, get chased by a bull and a host of other silly adventures.

My 11-year-old daughter said, “I like the Penderwicks because they go on adventures, whether they go somewhere or stay home. I also like their dog, Hound.” You might think that because it is just a group of sisters it would be a book for girls, but my 13-year-old son also enjoys listening to all of their adventures.

In addition to The Penderwicks, I have listed below a list of other favorite P books that we have enjoyed or that my readers recommended over on my Facebook page! Have you read any of the The Penderwicks books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter P.

Letter P Books

Peter Pan

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

Paddington (You can also check on this Unit Study.)

Prince and the Pauper

Poky Little Puppy

Princess and the Pea

abcblogging

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

O is for Otis!

Otis is a charming and entertaining tractor. Yes, I said tractor. This adorable book series, written and illustrated by Loren Long, is based on the adventures of an old farm tractor and his farm friends. I don’t know that I ever thought my children could learn so many life lessons from an old tractor but this series is full of great lessons woven into engaging stories.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

In the title book of this series, Otis, the kind old tractor enjoys his life working on the farm and sleeping in the barn near his friend the calf. Then one day Otis is retired when a new tractor is purchased to do the farm work. This is a sad day for Otis and his friend, but in the end when his friend is in trouble it is Otis who saves the day.

My four year old loved that books so much that I had to read it over and over. Once he found out there were more books in the series he asked for them all. We have been collecting them at various holidays or when I have been able to find them at yard sales or used book sales.

20190528_082542

In addition to Otis, we have Otis and the Kittens, Otis and the Tornado, and Otis Gives Thanks. Otis Gives Thanks is a shorter book because it is a board book and great for toddlers. My son loves all of these books and has me read them to him often. I love the moral lessons that they fit seamlessly into the stories. They teach children to value friendship, be kind, be helpful, and work together.

These adorable picture and board books make a great read aloud to toddlers and preschool age children. They would also be fun reading for young elementary aged children. They are the kind of books that I plan to keep even after my children are older, so that I can read them to my future grandchildren.

Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter O. Have you read any of the Otis books?

abcblogging

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Starting August 31st all of Evan Moor’s Daily Practice titles will be on sale 20% off!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Through The Year in Foot Prints: May

I normally like to go ahead and post these at the beginning of the month, but May seems to have come and gone in the blink of an eye. I decided that ‘April Showers, Bring May Flowers’ for this post and we did a flower out of my son’s foot prints. I’m also sharing pictures of a couple of the craft projects that my five-year-old son did as a part of his Toucan Box subscription and a cute seashore chalk pastel lesson that my older two children completed. It may have taken until the end of the month, but they all enjoyed their various art projects.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

For the baby, I simply chose purple as the color of the flower, dipped his foot into the paint and pressed it onto the paper. I then moved the paper slightly and repeated until I had a circle (mostly) of footprints. I used my finger to add a yellow middle and a green stem from finger paint. If you were working with a child that was a little bit older, they could probably do that part themselves. It is amazing to me to see how much his little feet have grown since January.

Supplies:

White Cardstock

Finger Paint

I am trying to think of a fun summer or beach themed idea for June. I’d love to hear your thoughts or ideas in the comments.

Benjamin enjoyed working with shapes and paint by adding in the black foam lines and then painting the various rectangles. The other part to this activity involved sticking the foam circles onto the framed area to make interesting designs. This was one of two kits that were in his Toucan Box this month.

My older children are feeling the summer itch and ready to be spending days at the beach so this fun tide pool lesson was a big hit!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Last week for the Schoolhouse Teachers sale!

May Sale

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Our Summer Plans: 2019 Edition

There is a lot of discussion about summers in the homeschool world. Should I take a long break? School year-round? Keep doing math? Spend all day outside? The choices seem endless and sometimes a little overwhelming.

However, I love that each family can decide what works best, and that can change from summer to summer.

Last week I shared a little about how we were going to focus on resetting our rhythms and routines over the summer to help us get back on track with chores, fitness, and Bible reading.

These are things that I want to become ingrained habits that are a natural part of our day. In addition to working on those rhythms and routines, I had to decide how I wanted to spend our summer days.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

After such a busy year, I really wanted to be sure we had some downtime to relax and rest. I have left lots of ‘white space’ in our calendar to play outside, watch a few movies, make lemonade, and just enjoy our time together. We will have the opportunity to spend some time enjoying time with our family down at the river: swimming, boating, and playing in the sand.

However, I know that my children do best with a little bit of structure. I have decided that we will be enjoying some focused time on a few ‘electives’ this summer, as well as some family reading. In addition, we will be continuing to work on a few new reviews for various products, so keep an eye out for those.

IMG_20190410_164413_770 — Big sister helping little brother with his violin (messy bed and all).

Music Lessons

My three oldest children have been learning instruments this year and I plan to have them commit some of their time this summer to furthering their musical goals. My daughter just moved up a level in her Practice Monkeys violin class and feels that she has a lot to learn to be successful in this level. Some extra practice time this summer should help her feel more confident and continue moving her forward.

My five-year-old son is also working in the first level of violin and will hopefully be able to move to level two before the summer is over. My oldest son wants to play the guitar and has begun to learn but has not felt that he has the time to devote a lot to practicing. I am hopeful that this extra time will allow him to gain confidence.

This also fits well into my rhythm and routine theme for summer because I believe that if he is practicing daily and making progress, it will be easier for him to fit that in when we start our regular school schedule in the fall.

You Are An Artist Art Camp!

We are excited to be spending some time at ‘art camp’ this summer. It is the perfect camp because we don’t have to leave home! It is included in the price of our regular art program, it has lots of option for various interests and ages, and I can fit in around our schedule.

My plan is to get up in the mornings and work on our routines (chores, Bible time, and fitness), have breakfast, and then complete an art lesson.

Next, we will have a snack, and then the kids can spend some free time outside playing before we tackle our other projects and review work. Nana with You Are an Artist has so many wonderful art lessons for them to choose from each day can be new and exciting.

Summer Reading

I do not want to lose the momentum that we have with reading and books. I am grateful that my children naturally spend time reading, and I do not have to assign free reading, but I want us to spend some time reading books together this summer. Some of these books I will read aloud, and some of them I plan to purchase using my audible subscription. First, I want to read The Secret Garden. I found this great free family book club guide from The Read Aloud Revival to go along with the Secret Garden, and I’m excited to get started.

Next, we have been talking about reading Wonder and just have not gotten around to it. I plan to read it together and then have a family movie night to watch the movie. Finally, a couple weeks ago, I shared about how much we love the Mr. Lemoncello books.

When I went online to share the link with everyone, I found out that a new book had just been released: Mr. Lemoncello’s All-Star Breakout Game. This should be a great light summer read that will make us laugh. I also have a few other books that we may find the opportunity to read, and, of course, I’ll be reading lots of picture books with my younger children.

Independent Learning

Finally, I plan to have each of my three older children pick a topic or skill of interest to work on independently this summer. I really want to cultivate the skill and love of lifelong learning in them. I want them to experience the joy and satisfaction that comes from deciding they want to learn about something and figuring it out.

I believe that my daughter is going to learn more about photography with her new camera. We have some resources that she can use in our SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership as well as some free online resources. My 13-year-old son is wanting to take beekeeping classes to further his skill in that area. I’m not sure about the five-year-old yet, but I’m sure we will come up with something fun for him to work on.

All in all, we are excited about summer. I am hoping that this flexible plan of fun with a little structured enrichment will keep things on a smooth track. We can further some skills, get some rest, and make some memories. I would love to hear more about your summer plans.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Last week for the Schoolhouse Teachers sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5-Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

N is for A Nest for Celeste

A couple of years ago I saw, A Nest for Celeste recommended for our study of history. It sounded really interesting, so I purchased it to use with my children. When it came in I sat down to look through it a bit before I gave it to my son to read and ended up reading the entire book. It was a fun and engaging book that combines art, history, science, and fiction.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Written and illustrated by Henry Cole, this book tells a bit about the life of James Audubon through the eyes of his young apprentice Joseph and Joseph’s friend Celeste the mouse. If you are looking for a biography of James Audubon this is not the book for you, however, if you are looking for a book that can introduce James Audubon while getting kids excited about birds and nature this may be a great choice. The illustrations are done in beautiful detailed black and white pencil sketches.

20190522_112337

The story tells of Joseph’s adventures as he travels with James Audubon and helps him to collect and draw specimens for his research. There is some sadness in the book as animals are killed in order to be saved for drawing but it is well written and appropriate for most children. Many of the events in the book are based on real events recorded in James Audubon’s journals. Joseph was also a real person and apprentice; though Celeste, of course, is fictional.

This book is a great independent read for upper elementary school students and possibly even middle school. It is also a good family read aloud for younger children. And don’t tell my children because I have not bought it yet, but as I was putting this post together I found this sequel, Another Quest For Celeste. I will be adding it to my wish list!

In addition to A Nest for Celeste, I want to recommend that you check out the scripture based picture book Nothing that I reviewed a couple weeks ago. It is a beautiful book that is perfect for preschool and early elementary students.

Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter N. Have you read A Nest for Celeste or Nothing?

abcblogging

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

May Sale

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

M is for Mandie

When I was a young girl I fell in love with the Mandie series by Lois Gladys Leppard. In a time before Amazon and other online retailers, my mom would take me to our local Christian bookstore and I would purchase one or two new books. I would begin reading them as soon as we got into the car and often finished at least one of them before I went to sleep that evening. They were engaging, entertaining, and full of adventure.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Fast forward a ‘few’ years and my eleven year old daughter is now also enjoying these books. I even found out that there were movies made about the first few books and we have enjoyed watching them together. We even found out that the movies were filmed in our home state and we had been to the ‘mansion’ in the movie that now serves as a visitor’s center for a park.

mandie mansion

These books tell of the many adventures of Mandie and her friends Cecilia and Joe. Mandie is helped by her Uncle Ned; who is a Native American friend of her father. After her father dies, she goes to live with her uncle and continues to find mysteries to solve. Adventures seem to await her with every turn of events. Mandie goes through some difficult circumstances during the course of the book, but she learns to trust in God to help her through adversity.

While the main character is a girl, these books are truly fun for girls and boys. They are clean wholesome fiction that will excite and engage readers. I would recommend the Mandie series for upper elementary and middle grades readers.

Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter M. Have you read any of the Mandie series?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

May Sale

Fit2B just announced they are having a Mother’s Day sale! Use code mothersday25off for 25% off! We use this for both my personal fitness and some of our PE for the kids (all included in one membership). A great way to get you safely moving and incorporate fitness into a busy day.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

The Tummy Team is having a 35% off sale! This makes for some very reasonably priced online rehab programs or esessions. I am excited to be getting a course to help me get back to being in my best health! I have loved the other courses that I have taken from them and they are so helpful and supportive. I know this one is not directly homeschool related but it affects so many moms that I wanted to share.

L is for Lemoncello and Lifegiving

Today I want to share a children’s book and a mom book for the letter L. I thought that I was going to tell you about a series of three children’s books that my children thoroughly enjoyed; only when I went online to find the link for you I realized that as of this week it is actually a four book series! The Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series is a funny series that encourages reading and having fun with books and libraries. We have not yet read book four since I just found out about it, but I think we will use one of our audible credits so that we can listen to it on our next long car ride.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

My friend Jennifer, who blogs over at Homeschool Fanatic introduced me to this book series a couple of years ago and the children fell in love with it. The books tell about the eccentric Mr. Lemoncello and the games and adventures that he orchestrates, including saving a library and hosting crazy library games in which children compete for prizes by finding answers using the library’s resources. These chapter books are great read alouds for elementary through middle school or independent reads for late elementary or middle grades. They are light and funny but have a great message. So grab a few glasses of lemonade, and enjoy these books with your children.

When I think of books that begin with L and moms, my mind immediately goes to the Lifegiving Home and the Lifegiving Table. These wonderful encouraging books by Sally Clarkson are perfect for encouraging women to create a home environment that is life giving for their families and for those that we invite into our homes. I have found that these books both encouraged me and challenged me to create an environment that shares God’s love with all of those whom enter my home or sit at my table. There are practical ideas and lofty ideals all wrapped up in an easy and enjoyable read. If you have not yet had a chance to check these out, I encourage you to purchase a copy and read them this summer. You can find out more about these books by reading some of the blog posts I did as I worked through them as a book study.

Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter L. Have you read any of the Lemoncello series or the books by Sally Clarkson?

abcblogging

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

May Sale

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

How to Get More Out of Your Nature Walks

One of my goals with our nature walks is that my children learn to enjoy nature; however, I also want them to learn from their walks. Some days they seem to want to run down the trails as fast as possible, and they miss everything around them. I do not want to make our walks a chore, but I want to help them be more observant about their surroundings.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links; see below for more information. *

Simple Hiking Activities

We can do some simple activities while we hike to help them. One great activity for all ages is the ‘pick three things’ activity. I simply ask them to find three things along the way that they find interesting. They can either collect those things or take pictures, depending on what they find. Then when we finish the hike, everyone gets to share what they saw. We also enjoy trying to find something from each color of the rainbow. This one is easier in spring and summer but can be done anytime.

As the seasons change we love to go on hunts for various seasonal signs. So early in the spring we will go on a hike looking for signs of spring. We look for the first flowers blooming, leaves on the trees, birds building nests, and other springtime signs. We can do the same thing at the beginning of each season.

Deer Track

Ant Hill

Looking for animal’s signs is probably the children’s favorite hiking activity. This can be as simple as finding tracks on the path, seeing birds nests, or holes/burrows in the ground. As the children got older we also looked for things like scratches on the trees, scat, and plants that had been partially eaten.

20190319_163019

Helpful Tools for Nature Study

We also have edible wild food cards and a collection of nature guides. We can choose one of these before we hike and focus on finding various varieties from with-in that guide. So, if I take the trees book, we can see how many different trees we can identify. We also have a wildflower guide, mammal guide, and even a fungus guide. (Though harvesting fungus is another ball game for which I am not yet trained.)

For my older children, they will sometimes bring their nature journals and colored pencils or chalk pastels and choose something to draw. I have found that doing nature-based art lessons beforehand helped them feel better prepared to draw what they saw. I am always very careful to not expect perfection but to have them just enjoy the process of drawing what they see.

One final simple way to keep children engaged and learning on a nature hike is to give them a magnifying glass. This does not have to be an expensive tool; sometimes, you can find them at the dollar tree. I have found that children, especially young children, can often spend hours looking at ants, bugs, leaves, and more with the magnifying glass that they would simply overlook if they were hiking without it.

Make it an Adventure!

All of these activities keep things fun while helping them learn. They feel more like an adventure than a ‘school assignment’ but they become so much more aware of their surroundings and develop a love of nature. Does your family enjoy hiking? How do you engage your children on hikes? I always love new ideas and I would love for you to share in the comments.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links, and it does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is having a sale.

Starting August 31st all of Evan Moor’s Daily Practice titles will be on sale 20% off!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

FREE Historical Fiction from Write Shop!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

J is for Jules Verne…

I decided to switch it up a little bit this week. Instead of focusing on a specific children’s book I wanted to talk a little bit about an author. Our family just finished listening to the audio book, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. We have also listened to his novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Those are two of his most well known novels, but he wrote over sixty books.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

His writing is lengthy, a bit wordy like the British Victorian tradition, and might be a bit difficult for younger readers to follow, but he has some wonderful stories that are perfect for middle school and high school students. They are full of adventure and often a bit of science fiction. There are many abridged versions but, I think the full-length versions are best to really get the benefits of the depth of language (despite being translated from the original French) and character development.

I remembered 20,000 Leagues under the Sea from when I was a child, but I had never read or listened to Around the World in 80 Days. I found it to have a bit of a slow start but once the story really got going it was a great story. It told of a man who had made a bet that he could travel the whole globe in 80 days. This was of course in a time before airplanes made it easy to travel the world in a day. The book told of his adventures and setbacks as he made his way from country to country using boats, trains, carriages and other interesting conveyances. The children really enjoyed it and were quick to remind me to turn it on each time we got in the car.

Have you read any of Jules Verne’s work? Do you have a favorite? I would love to hear your thoughts about this author or any of his works. Don’t forget to check out the other J posts this week and come back next week for the letter K.

PS. If you really wanted to children’s book that begins with the letter J, check out James and the Giant Peach. Someone reminded me of that book this week and it was one my children really enjoyed. We had the chance to read it aloud and then watch the musical based on the story. Do note that there is one use of a word that is commonly considered to be inappropriate.

abcblogging

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale! If you want to give it a try, your first month is only $1 or you can get an entire year for $111. My daughter is getting ready to use a photography class from our subscription to help her learn more about her new (to her) camera.

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Letter P Books

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Supplies:

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Last week for the Schoolhouse Teachers sale!

Music Lessons

You Are An Artist Art Camp!

Summer Reading

Independent Learning

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Last week for the Schoolhouse Teachers sale!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Simple Hiking Activities

Helpful Tools for Nature Study

Make it an Adventure!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

Deals and Freebies

Are you ready for some spring cleaning? Need to do a little decluttering?

What is your scariest place to declutter?

There is a great FREE Decluttering Challenge going on right now. If you are looking for some help or encouragement join this FREE declutter challenge.