Some Gift Deals I Found While Shopping

I know I'm not your saving money blog, but when you do online shopping for 4 kids and 7 nieces and nephews, you have to be aware of the sales out there.  So, for the last 3 weeks or so, I have been doing a lot of sale shopping.  To be honest, I love to share the good deals I got, because I wish people would share them with me.  A lot of them are time sensitive (like 3 days or less), so if you see something you like, snag it!

Plasma Cars (or as Zulily is calling them 'swing cars') are on sale for just $27.99 plus shipping!  They have 12 different colors to choose from!  Sale ends Sunday night 11/24/13 (or while supplies last).

This Guidecraft doll sized kitchen is on sale on Zulily for just $12.99!  With shipping it came to just under $20.00!  I found the same one on Amazon for $100, so yes I snatched this one up!  It comes in light or dark wood and is also on sale till Sunday or while supplies last.

This last Zulily steal is $59.99 plus shipping.  We LOVE these Preschool Prep Co. DVD's.  We already own the first 4 (Letters, Numbers, Shapes, and Colors).  The little ones 'loved' them so much that they have scratches on them *sigh*.  But, we have also checked out some of the others from the library and everyone enjoys them.  Grandma heard that we would like them and picked them up as a gift.  I'm looking forward to it!  But this BIG set is selling for $95.00 on Amazon, so this price is a great deal! This one ends TONIGHT!

American Girl has a small, but nice, selection of stocking stuffer sized books and paper dolls staring at just $2.00!  I picked up this one for Mustang, and it is just $3.00.  

And, another place that I check daily is the Amazon lightening deals.  They do have some cute stuff at good prices.  I often miss them, though!  

I will try to do a few more posts like these in the future, if you all enjoy them.  I am not an Amazon affiliate, and I only get a referral for Zulily if you haven't yet signed up (but, I think everyone has lol).  I'm just doing this to help you out, and to share some good deals I found.

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless, 

Lisa

Christmas Gift Ideas for a 2-4 Year Old Girl

I did something a little different this year when making our Christmas lists.  I usually skim all through Amazon and all the fun things I've added to my Pinterest wish lists throughout the year, and then show them to my kids to see which things they like, too.

This year, I actually let them LOOK at the stack of catalogs that came to our door.  I have to admit, there were some adorable things in them and I enjoyed watching them ooh and aah over the pretty toys.  Then, I made them make lists (yes I turned it into a school assignment, he he).  I had them list the top 10 items they wanted.  No exceptions.  It was even more interesting to watch them choose things and then remove them when they reached 10 and really wanted something even more!

I even sat down with the catalogs with my 2 year old and my 4 year old and made lists with them.  Even my 2 year old had some definite favorites.  All of them came up with a few things I wouldn't have thought to buy them, but I believe that this year they will enjoy their gifts more then ever.  And, NO they are not getting all 10, but it gave me a lot to choose from :).

So, here's the top things that my little girls wanted :).

Now, this is for girls a little older, but it was on the top of Mini Cooper's list.  In fact, she has been saving her own money to buy Caroline.  She is an American Girl and soo pretty!

This adorable set is at Target.com.  You can order just the table and chairs for $38.89 OR you can order the 'tea party set' and FREE doll for the exact same price!!!  I actually plan to get this and separate the order so that Explorer can have a doll like the big girls without me paying the big price.  Mini Cooper was the one who wanted the table so it will be great for both girls!

Apparently tea sets were on her mind, because Mini Cooper fell in love with this little set that is just her size.

I wouldn't have ever even noticed these if it hadn't been for our magazines.  But, BOTH little girls went crazy when they saw these adorable butterfly wings.  They love to dress up, and I love that these wings do not have wires to 'hold' them up (aka poke holes in the wings and then poke eyes out).  I can't wait to see them flying in these :).

Both girls love cars.  They love our dollhouse car and our Barbie car. So, it was no wonder that the girls both requested a car that they could drive their big dollies around in.  This one is from Target, and is a great deal.

Mini Cooper loved this little mushroom fairy house, and I did, too.  But, the reviews are very low, so it won't be under the tree.  

Explorer would absolutely NOT let me turn the page when this ride-on bouncy cow showed up on the page.  She still shows it to me when she finds it.  I didn't realize she would care that much about her gift, but she certainly wants this one!  

Mini Cooper LOVED these tiny fairies from Magic Cabin.  They are so cute!

And, they both asked for these lovely cloaks-also from Magic Cabin.  I was very happy to find a discounted version on Zulily :).

We also love anything by eBoo.  Such sweet games with amazing graphics.

Explorer is at the perfect age for many of Melissa and Doug's adorable puzzles.  

And, both girls always love a great new coloring book or sticker book, like the Princess and Fairy book from Melissa and Doug.  

So, as you can see PINK, fairies, princesses, and dolls were pretty much the summary of their lists.  I loved that the list isn't chalk full of things with cartoon characters on them, and they genuinely seemed to think about what they wanted (Mini Cooper, 4, more so then Explorer, 2).  

We are not getting EVERYTHING on the list, but pretty much everything we are getting is here, and I am looking forward to seeing their faces on Christmas!

What is on your little lady's lists?

God Bless,

Lisa

*Disclaimer, the links above are NOT affiliate links.  I do get a small credit to my account if you sign up for Zulily by my link (and purchase something), but otherwise, all links above are simply for your benefit.*

Making Everyday Tasks Special

I am finally starting to feel a bit more normal, thanks to prayer, medicine, and hitting week 12 :).  This means I have slowly started trying to venture out to do really exciting things like...go to the grocery store!  Yipee!  Actually I am quite thankful, as I was just so sick before!  But, I realize that most times we do not think of the grocery store as an exciting outing.

One thing I couldn't do was to take all 4 kids with me to the store, it would have been too much.  So, my wonderful husband watched 3 kids while I took just Mini Cooper with me.  I decided to make it a fun day as much as possible since she hardly ever gets to go with just me.  I took advantage of having just one child with me to do the things that are too overwhelming to do with 4-or too expensive.

So, first up we went to the gas station.  I picked up a drink and so did she.  She chose to get a little squirt bottle of apple juice because it had Dora on the top.  $2.49 for about 6 ounces of juice, lol!  Would I have bought four of them?  Probably not, but one seemed very affordable and she loved it :).

Then, we headed to the bank.  Instead of the drive-through we went INSIDE!!  She was so excited.  She even got a sucker-and got to pick the color herself.  I even let her eat it right away.

Next up, lunch.  It is a 30 minute drive from my house to town, so I was hungry.  I have to be VERY careful not to get hungry or I get sick pretty fast.  I wasn't interested in fast food, so we headed to Panera for some tortellini (something I am craving BIG time this pregnancy).  She loved it!

She got to pick our booth, we talked about the art work in the room, we talked about how she was the only kid in the whole store, and we also talked about what she thought the workers there did when they were there.  She ate macaroni and cheese, yogurt, and chocolate milk.  She ate every last drop-instead of running to play in the play place and only drinking the soda.  We even split cupcakes at the end.  And MAN were those yummy!!

This was the art above our booth.  Mini Cooper decided that the dog did, indeed, get the bread-without breaking a dish-and without getting caught.

We had to run one extra errand while we were in town-shoes for Mustang.  She has her first pom pom performance on Friday and needed new jazz shoes.  I had her try on a friend's pair so I knew the size and was able to go without her.  

The mall has these cheesy little ride-on toys that my kids always beg to ride and we walk right past them, but this time, I let Mini Cooper ride them.  75 cents for a 60 second ride on a pink 3 wheeler.  Once again, she loved it.  We also stopped off at the play-yard for her to run around and me to rest.

Last up, was the grocery store.  The store has these little carts for little shoppers.  They are so cute.  The kids love them, and always want to push them around.  I, however, have learned that shopping with 3 or 4 mini-shoppers creates mass chaos and makes an already long shopping trip twice as long and 10 times longer.  Making sure that they don't run over the little old ladies, or that the speedy shoppers don't run over them. Or that they don't take up the entire isle, or that they don't run into the back of your heals...yes the fun leaves quickly.  So, we don't usually drive the tiny carts, as adorable as they might be.

But, this trip, I let Mini Cooper have a cart.  This meant she didn't have to RIDE in mine (which is where she usually is), and she got to zoom about.  Yes, I still had to keep her from running everyone over, but with one kid it was much easier :). 

By the end of the trip she was completely beat.  She ACTUALLY was crying because I didn't let her do something else she wanted (I think she told me she deserved necklaces at Claire's), but I knew that just meant she was exhausted and had a great day.  Many times throughout the day she told me I was a great mommy for letting her get a sucker, a cupcake, and a cart.  I really didn't do it for the praise, but I was happy that she was feeling special.

Now, I went out of my way to find little ways to make the trip special for her.  She probably would have been happy with just being the only kid along, or by getting to do just one little thing, but I wanted to do the things I could think of.  There were still things that we didn't do-no new jewelry or headbands, or makeup (yes she asked for all), but still plenty of fun and memories being made.

The way I knew she really had a good time?  She was fast asleep before we even left the grocery store parking lot.

What little things do you do to make everyday tasks special?  Do you need to do them more often?  I hope I have given you a few ideas.  

God Bless!

Lisa

Homeschooling While I Am Sick

The last month has been trying to say the very least.  There are days where I haven't gotten out of bed, 2 days I spent the night in the ER and many days where sitting on the couch was a major accomplishment.

To say that homeschooling has been a challenge is an understatement!!  For the first couple weeks our workboxes actually helped out a lot.  They were already loaded up with things to learn and all Mustang and Charger had to do was pick work and do it.

But, the workboxes are running a bit thin and I've not been able to refill them.  Sooo, I started looking for other options.  My main goal was to find something that Mustang could do, without my help, and actually learn something.

I asked around and was pleased to come up with Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool.  They offer a complete, Christian, curriculum that all Mustang has to do is read and follow the links.  I may need to help her with materials, so hopefully that won't be too demanding of me.

Mini Cooper is spending a lot of time on Starfall.com.  And I am still looking for something for Charger, though he seems to like Starfall, too.

We are also trying to read books when we can and we have found out we can stream Youtube videos through our Xbox and have found some very fun things to watch and keep us entertained.

I am very curious, though, if you have schooled through illness and not being able to prepare, what did you do?  I would love to get some more ideas to make this a good year in spite of my being sick.

God Bless,
Lisa

TOS Review: IXL

Being sick while you are homeschooling is TOUGH!  Because of this, I was really happy to get a chance to review IXL.com.  Having an online resource to assist in teaching my children over the last couple months has been a God-send.  You may have heard of IXL before, in fact we have reviewed IXL in the past.  That's how I knew I wanted to try it again!


IXL offers a unique program that has drills in math and now language arts, too!  In Math, it starts with Pre-K and goes all the way up to Algebra 2.  They plan to add Pre-Calculus soon.  In the Kindergarten area alone, there are over 120 skills to be practiced.

Here is a screen shot of what you see when you are working on a kindergarten math problem.  This is under my parent profile.

The problem reads 'How many dots are there?'  If your child can't read, they can click the green button next to the question and it will read it to them.  They put their answer in the box and then hit submit.  

On the right hand side you can see problems attempted, amount of time they have been practicing for, and then their average score of correct answers compared with the number they tried.  

Here is a look at the awards screen.  You can see that Mini Cooper has won 3 medals, answered 50 questions, practiced for 19 minutes, mastered 3 skills and earned 3 prizes.  She needs to practice 11 minutes, 50 questions, and 2 skills to get another prize.  Her prizes so far have been a book, car, and slide.

Here is a look at the skill page for Mustang.  The ones that have green bars next to them are ones she has tried.  Ones with medals are ones she has mastered.  If you could scroll down the page, you would see that there are many more skills she has been practicing.

The .1 of each skill is the easiest, so I asked her to go through all the .1's and then go on to the .2's.

For the parent, there are many nice reports to view how your student is progressing through the program.  You can look at their individual profiles, but it is nice to see them in a report-this is just one of 4 views you can see.  You can also allow for emails so that you are updated right away when your child hits an achievement.

Brand new this year are language arts lessons.  I was a little hesitant to have Mustang try them, but she did much better then I thought.  We still have a lot to learn!  Language arts lessons are available for 2-4th grades, with more to be added in the future.

So what did we think of IXL?

Overall we really enjoyed it-and are continuing to.  It has been very nice to have the kids spend 30 minutes or so every couple days practicing without my help (extra nice when you are feeling awful!).  And, they seem to enjoy this work as it's a bit different from the other options that they have.

Mini Cooper really didn't like it at all.  She didn't enjoy having to press the button to hear her question, and it just wasn't fast paced enough to keep her attention, so while it has pre-K skills, I wouldn't recommend it for the little ones.  Charger is 5 and does very well with it-but he CAN read the questions.  It might be different if he could not.  Mustang and Charger are the ones who have really used the program since they both enjoyed it.

Now, one thing to keep in mind is that this is not a learning web-page.  What I mean by that is, that while there are excellent little tutorials if you get a question incorrect, this page is to quiz your child on what they already know. So, I can't use this to teach my kids instead of teaching them myself.  I can only use this to be sure they are understanding, practicing, and mastering their skills.

The price is very affordable!  It starts at just $9.95/month with just $2.00 for each additional child (homeschool family pricing).  They also offer yearly pricing of just $79/year ($20 each additional child).

Overall, we loved it.  But, be sure to check out the crew blog to see what other families thought of IXL.com, too.  Just checkout the crew blog.

If You Were Me Culture Box Books from Carole P. Roman {TOS Review}

When we were asked if we would like to review this set of books, I jumped at the chance!  We received the four books you see in the photo.  These are the first four in a series of books by Carole P Roman entitled 'If You Were Me and Live In...'  The four titles are for France, South Korea, Norway, and Mexico.

The layout of these books is really sweet. There is a young boy and girl in each book that introduce you to their country.  After showing you the country outline and telling you what continent it is on, we get a few fun facts about each of the countries, a long with a colorful illustration.

Here we are eating in Mexico.

Sightseeing in France :).  I normally wouldn't post a sideways photo, but it is upright on my computer and won't load right.  But, it was the favorite part of the books for 2 of my children and I hate to leave it out.  

Checking out the Northern Lights in Norway.

Celebrating a new year in South Korea.

Each book gives us a little peek into traditional culture, food, language, special holidays, and everyday life.  It is the same information given in each book just about a different country, so they are excellent for comparing and contrasting between the countries.

I intend to put each of these books in the correct continent box, but for this review we read all four books at one time.  Afterwards, I asked my children to draw a picture of their favorite country and why.

Here they are all around the world :).

Mustang is flying her flag at the Eiffel Tower.

Mini Cooper is staying at the snow motel and watching the Northern Lights.  I don't think she realizes how cold it is there, lol!

Charger is at the Eiffel Tower...that looks a lot like a ski lift, lol!!  He said it's a specialized elevator (always over thinking the mechanical side, that's his calling).

We REALLY enjoyed the If You Were Me books.  They are not too long, each has about 28 pages, and they are just the right size for little hands.  The illustrations are bright, colorful, and keep the children's attention.  There is just enough information to be interesting without being overwhelming.  But, overall, we actually learned something!

If You Were Me Books are written and illustrated by Carole P Roman with Away With Me Media.  They sell for $8.99 paperback and $.99 Kindle edition.  The Norway books are $11.99 paperback and $1.99 Kindle Edition.  I believe that Ms. Roman intends to publish more and we are eagerly awaiting them!

These books are PERFECT for Montessori Culture studies and I would highly recommend them for that. The publisher recommends ages pre-K through age 8, and I can certainly say that all my children ages 2-8 liked them.  I probably wouldn't have purchased them for my 8 year old, but she did enjoy reading them as part of the group. You can see what others had to say by checking out the crew blog.