Another tailgate sale - Friday, October 7, 2011

This info comes from the Chester County Homeschoolers Yahoo! Group and I checked with the poster to be sure she didn't mind me reposting it here!

Sell your curriculum or browse and buy used while your kids participate in Board Game Day Friday October 7th, 10am-12pm (rain or shine). Come play a game or bring one if you have a favorite.

Located at the corner of Rte 82 and Fairview Rd, (1080 Manor Rd., Honeybrook, PA right up the road from Springton Elementary School in Glenmoore) the Vagabond Acting Troupe has offered to let us use their large parking lot and pavilion for a used book sale and let the kids play board games inside.

We will hold it on Friday, October 7 from 10 am to 1 pm. (Raindate will be the following Friday)

Cost will be $5.00 per car to sell, free for those coming to just buy, of course.
The $5 per car will go to Vagabond to help bring theatre to even more children.

If you are interested in selling, either join the Chester County Homeschoolers Yahoo! Group and find the thread, or you can contact me here through blogger (right, I guess?) and I can give you the organizer's contact info. She will collect payment there or you can mail her a check -- though at this point giving her the $5 there is probably easiest!

She says so far 5 families are selling...if I wasn't still early on in homeschooling I'd totally be selling! Someday...no need to rush...;-)

PA Family History Day - Saturday, 11/5/11 in Exton, PA

I'm totally going to this!

The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania is hosting an all day Family History Day on Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 8AM till 4PM in Exton, PA.

It does cost $95 for a non-GSP member, like me, but if you are a member it's only $75. Looks like there are three tracks - Ancestry.com, Methodology, & PA - but I don't think you have to commit to a single track, though they do want you (at least online) to indicate which specific lectures you're going to attend for each time slot. Note: they add a fee for paying by PayPal on their site.

I'm planning on signing up for all the lectures in the Methodology track. I have an Ancestry.com subscription and I know the ins & outs of it pretty well (though I'm sure there is plenty I don't know -- but figure if I ever really want to learn more I can learn about it online). And my family's history isn't in PA...so that would be of little interest.

This is so neat! I can't wait.

Worksheet Websites...The First of Many Such Posts

You probably know that there are GOBS of websites where you can create and print worksheets, but today I want to tell you about WorksheetWorks.com. My oldest is only in 1st grade, but so far this has been a tremendous resource for handwriting exercises. Instead of purchasing a copywork book, I can create our own copywork worksheets. I usually print out a Bible verse that he is memorizing, so first it helps solidify the verse in his mind and the handwriting practice is a secondary bonus. But the site is more than just handwriting - they also have worksheets for small motor skills (scissor skills), math, geography...all sorts of things.

Also, I just found out about FreeMathWorksheets.com today. I haven't explored the site much yet, but bookmarked it for later. On the home page they have links to basic math, pre-algebra, and puzzle worksheets. (Sadly no complex differential equations or integration by parts & partial derivatives. Boo.) (I'm joking you know.) (Well, sort of.)

Last, my friend recently told me about this Dynamic Paper website a day after I busted out the compass and ruler to cut out a perfect hexagon for a 1st grade lesson. hahaha I haven't fully explored it, but it looks really cool and whatever you create can be saved as a .pdf file. Nice!

Today's LivingSocial Deal: Half-off at Please Touch Museum

Today's LivingSocial deal is for half-off admission & carousel rides at the Please Touch Museum. The deal is for admission tickets as well as carousel rides and you can either buy 2 tickets/rides for $18 or 4 tickets/rides for $36. The deal voucher will expire January 31, 2012. But you can only buy one voucher (apparently of each? I don't know, you'll have to check that out if you need more than 4!).

I've never been there before but want to go...I am going to have to rework the budget to fit this in. We could never afford $72 for the 4 of us...but $36?? We can eat peanut butter for dinner a few nights I think...;-)

The voucher will only be available for purchase until 11:59PM tonight, 9/20/11. And remember to always read & understand the terms & conditions of any deal before making a purchase!

2011-2012 Friends of Valley Forge Speaker Series

If you know me you know I love Valley Forge National Historical Park. It's my favorite place to be so a couple years ago I joined the Friends of Valley Forge Park. Each year they host a phenomenal Speaker Series. The first Tuesday of each month from October through May (excluding December) a different speaker will give a presentation on some aspect of the American Revolution. Last year Thomas Fleming was one of the speakers...so this is not some cut-rate production!

Check out the schedule of speakers here. The programs begin at 7PM and are held in the Washington Memorial Chapel on Rt. 23 in Valley Forge.

The first program is scheduled for Tuesday, October 4 when Glenn F. Williams, Author and Senior Historian and Team Chief of the Commemorative Office, at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Fort McNair, DC will present "The Siege of Yorktown: The Decisive Engagement of the American War for Independence."

Amazingly enough, these presentations are FREE! They do have a donation box at the Chapel ...but there is no admission fee.

I've gone to many of these presentations in the past and have never been disappointed. And just a note -- it can get chilly in the chapel...so take a jacket or sweater if it's a cold night!

Consignment Sale in Oaks, PA - Saturday, 9/24/11

The Valley Forge Mothers of Twins & Triplets Club is having their fall consignment sale this Saturday, September 24 at 9AM at the Green Tree Church of the Brethren, 1078 Egypt Road, Oaks, PA.

I went a couple years ago and the line was way out the door, so if you go early don't be surprised to see that!

I always check PlaygroundBuzz.com for consignment sale dates & coupons, so if you're not near Oaks, you can check out their site to find one near you. They're happening pretty much every weekend from now till the end of October it seems.

Hurricane Hill Farm Corn Maze Half-Off Deal, available now through 9/25/11

There's a deal out today for Hurricane Hill Farm Corn Maze in Coatesville, PA. For $37.50 (instead of $75) you will get 4 tickets to the corn maze (regularly $10 each), 3 extra corn cannon shots (can't find the regular price - just says 'extra charge after 3 shots, so I guess you get 6 all together), and 4 small pumpkins. The deal will be available to purchase until Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 11:59PM.

I've never been there before, but according to their website admission also includes a corn slide, train ride for the little ones, a smaller corn maze, hay bale climb, pedal carts, and hay rides to the pumpkin patch. (Any additional pumpkins beyond the 4 small ones in the deal would cost something.) I read some good reviews of this place online...now I'm debating buying this, when I only came here to post about it. Aigh. Check out their website for photos and more information.

If you buy this deal, remember that it will only be valid through October 31, 2011 and it looks like they are only open on the weekends! Please always be sure to fully read all the terms & conditions before buying any deal.

Longwood Gardens Homeschool Day - Thursday, 9/29/11

Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA has four homeschool days scheduled over the next several months. The first one for this school year, Operation Pollination, is next week, September 29, 2011 at 9AM. (Check-in is at 9AM...the program starts at 10AM).

Cost is $5 per student. The site says they encourage parents to explore the gardens while the students are in the class and then meet up again with their children for lunch at 11:30. Preregistration is required -- to do so call the School & Youth Group Reservations Office at 610-388-5210.

Just a note -- the description of Operation Pollination says "Students discover the connection of living systems as they investigate why flowering plants have co-evolved with their pollinator partners for millions of years. By identifying adaptations of plants and pollinators students will gain an appreciation of this delicate relationship."

Being a Christian, and knowing God created the whole universe and everything in it, I am passing on this one. But I wanted to post about it in case anyone else wants to go - Longwood Gardens is a beautiful place, and their upcoming events don't seem to indicate an evolutionary slant.

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Colossians 1:16-17

More information about this event and the three additional homeschool days can be found here.

I'm personally holding out for the "Go Figure" event on April 10, 2012. Go figure!

Michael's 20% off total purchase - tomorrow, 9/16/11 from 12PM-6PM ONLY

Right, so I just said I'd be posting things for the future...and here I am sharing a ridiculously time-restrictive offer.. haha. Work with me, here!

Michael's has a coupon for 20% off your entire purchase, sale items & all, but it's only good tomorrow, September 16, from 12PM - 6PM. Click over to Mama Cheaps to get the details and the link to the coupon. (I am not HTML-coordinated enough yet to know how to do that, plus I love the Mama Cheaps site and have gotten many tips/coupons/deals from her site.)

She's a local blogger, too, which makes it even sweeter!

Homeschool Week at Cherry Crest Farm, Ronks, PA - September 19-23

I already sang the praises of Varner's Farm in Collegeville, PA, so you know where my heart lies...but I would be amiss if I did not also tell you about the upcoming Homeschool Week at Cherry Crest Farm in Lancaster, PA.

Next week, September 19-23, they are going to be having their Homeschool Week. As they describe on their website:

Home School families are invited to visit Cherry Crest Adventure Farm from September 19-23 for Homeschool Week.

Bring your family or homeschool co-op to experience the fun and educational components of our farm at your leisure. Venture into our 5 acre corn maze for an unique adventure. Explore the Farm Animal Center, hold a baby chick in our Farm Education Center and relax on our educational Farm Tour Wagon Ride. A Butter Making Lesson will be available at 12:15. Students will learn how to make their own butter, as well as facts about dairy cows and the production of milk. At 1:15 students can attend a Corn Lesson, where they will learn all about all the products that are made out of corn. Students will make putty out of corn products as part of the lesson. Not all lessons available everyday.

For this week only, home school families will be admitted at the school field trip rate of $8.00 per person. There is no need to pre-register, simply visit our farm between September 19-23 and tell our admissions staff that your family is here for Homeschool Week. Your group is welcome to visit during other times our farm is open, but will be charged the A"Maze"ing Fun Admission of $15.00 for adults & for children (ages 3-11).

Cherry Crest Adventure Farm is open 10am to 5pm weather permitting. Please check our homepage if weather is questionable. In the event of rain, we will announce our closing on our website.

If you have any questions, please call our office at (717) 687-6843 or (866) 546-1799.

The theme of this year's corn maze is "Once Upon a Time...A Corny Tale." We took the teens from church to the flashlight corn maze...apparently in 2004 because I remember the maze was called "Giddy Up." My husband was insistent on finding e v e r y s i n g l e puzzle piece for his map so the girls and I finished up and sat and waited for him & the guys for over an hour or more!! It was insane. Even so...it is a fun place, so if you have time to go with your children definitely check it out!

Also...I know that my posts have been about events that happening right away...but I will soon get to the point of posting things further out. If I was reading my own blog I would be thinking, "boy, I would to have liked to known that a month ago!!" So no worries...I'm planner so if you're a planner we'll soon be on the same page! Please bear with me till then! (Because I have so many readers...hahahaha)

UPDATE: Coupon code for Scholastic -> potentially 10 free e-books

Word on the street is that the code 10THANKS is good for $10 off your order on Scholastic's website, which is already running their dollar deals sale as I mentioned here. That means you could get 10 e-books totally free, which is good news!

But there is also bad news -- the site is totally down right now (2:30PM Wednesday). When I first saw the coupon code I went to the site to try it out but got the "we are having technical issues" page. Now Google Chrome won't even connect to the site. So this may be a good deal...and it may be more frustrating than it's worth.

The dollar sale is through the 20th...I'm not sure how long the coupon code is valid.

I'm going to wait a few hours and try it again. If I get through I'll post an update. :)

Update 9:51PM - I got through tonight between 6 & 6:30PM and was able to order 10 books, and yes, the 10THANKS reduced my cost to zero! Left for church at 6:30 and when I got back to my desk at around 9PM the site was wonky again and I couldn't actually download them. It looks like the site is still not working now, so I'll wait till tomorrow to try again. Bah.

Varner's Tree Farm & Market - Harvest Festival - Saturday, 9/24/2011

I love Varner's Farm on 113 in Collegeville.

They just reopened for the fall harvest season last week so we've already plowed through a gallon of cider and are looking forward to their fall festival on Saturday, 9/24/11 from 12-5PM. According to their website there will be apple butter making, quilters, weavers, puppets, etc. They also have apple picking ($1.19/lb - not much more than the grocery store and well worth it for the freshness factor!) and starting on the 24th (day of the festival) the pumpkin picking begins. For $3 you can take a horse-drawn wagon to the pumpkin patch to pick out that perfect pumpkin.

They also have a corn maze, farm market with butters & jams, potpourri, gifts, and have I mentioned the cider? ;-) You can also visit with their farm animals, which is always fun for my little guys.

There is just so much to do at this farm - we love it so much!

Just a note, they are closed on Sundays. Check out their hours & pricing here and have fun!

It's Back! Scholastic Dollar Deals! Now through 9/20/11.

Sa-weet!

Scholastic is running their every-so-often Dollar Deals sale!

This means that most (if not all) of their .pdf e-books cost only $1 each. One dollar! I took advantage of this sale and bought 18 e-books back in February, eleven of which were books for each month (June & July are combined) that contain little crafts, stories, a "what happened today in history" fact...lots of neat stuff. These particular books are clearly geared toward classroom teaching, however, because they also include things like hall passes, forms to send home to parents, etc. Even so, the amount of things I find useful are well worth the $1 price tag.

I guess if you have a big house the hall pass might be in order...but I digress.

I also bought a book called Follow the Directions and have found it helpful in the last few weeks. Since my children are still elementary/preschool age I didn't look much past those level books...but they do have higher level material as well.

The sale runs through next Tuesday, 9/20/11. Be forewarned, the site can run super slow. It's running really slow right now, so you might want to try browsing during the day when the site traffic may be lighter.

Hawk Identification for Beginners - Saturday, 9/17/2011

This Saturday, 9/17/11 from 2PM - 4PM, folks at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove will be sharing tips bird watchers use to identify hawks. The event is free of charge.

Information about this and more upcoming events can be found on the Valley Forge Audubon Society's website.

Chester County Homeschoolers Tailgate Sale - Thursday, 9/15/11

Early on in our homeschooling journey I discovered the Chester County Homeschoolers. This group of homeschooling families stays connected via a Yahoo! group and each year they have an informal tailgate sale in the parking lot of the Ice Line in West Chester, PA. This year the sale will be Thursday, September 15 from 10AM - 1PM.

Not only does the group share information within the Yahoo! group, but Claudia Joye publishes a comprehensive monthly (September through June) newsletter. When I say comprehensive...I mean that the September newsletter was 19 pages! This is not just a little flyer! You can subscribe to the newsletter via email for $8 or for a printed copy for $15. I subscribe and have found a lot of helpful information, especially as a new homeschooler. Ms. Joye handles the subscriptions and her contact information can be found on the Chester County Homeschooler's site here.

I went to the tailgate sale last year and picked up some things, but honestly with my oldest just in kindergarten most of the things people were selling were for well beyond where we were. We are set curriculum-wise this year, but now that we have some semblance of a plan for the next couple of years I'm hoping to find the books we will need. :)

Pottsgrove Manor Homeschool Day - Friday, 9/16/11

This Friday, September 16 from 10AM to 2PM, Pottsgrove Manor is hosting a Homeschool Day.  According to their facebook page the event is geared toward elementary-aged children, but all ages are welcome.  Children will learn about colonial life & times and they are advertising many hands-on activities.  Cost is $5 per child and they suggest that families pre-register their children by calling 610-326-4014.

More information about the historic Pottstown Manor site as well as a downloadable .pdf Homeschool Day flyer can be found on their website here.

Here we go!

I wonder if anyone will ever check this blog?

I am not a professional blogger.  Truth be told, I've set up at least 5 blogs that I abandoned within the first month.  I think this one is different, because this one serves a real purpose.

We are a homeschooling family in SE PA.  Last year our oldest started kindergarten, so we were new to the whole scene.  Talk about overwhelming!  Curriculum choices, homeschooling styles, used book sales, websites, printables, events, forums, blogs...AGH!  There was so much all at once.  Now that we are in our second year of homeschooling and I've learned to manage the information overload, I've found many, many useful tools (many of which are free) and it seems like I'm always finding other things or events that would suit the needs of homeschooling families pretty well.  I really think this is a prime-time to be a homeschooler - many tools are available free online, you just need to know where to look.  That's how I want to help.

So my main goal for this blog is to be able to disseminate this information to my friends without bombarding them with potentially unwanted emails.  I don't want to be branded a spammer!  I think this will help me avoid that predicament.  If others who don't know me find this info useful as well, then bonus.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list of every activity ever scheduled for homeschoolers, or every site that provides useful tools.  I don't intend it to be that.  I really just intend it to be my "hey - did you hear about XYZ?"

So now that you know where I'm coming from....let me find some good stuff to post!