All about "J"

I have been working with my 6 yo daughter learning to read that I haven't take the time to post about our weekly letter focus in a while. Now having a 3 1/2 year old son that is asking questions about letters in the words he sees because of sitting in when I am working with my daughter, I thought it would be good to start sharing again our weekly letter focus.

Before we took our spring break, we focused on the letter "J".

It was fun to have the help in the kitchen while we made some jello jigglers(follow recipe on gelatin box or   follow Amy's recipe) to enjoy for an afternoon snack. It is easy to cut these shapes out with different cookie cutters or just free hand with a plastic knife.  We also has bread and jam one day for an afternoon snack.

One rainy afternoon, my daughter and I got out the beads and worked at making jewelry to wear or have for her dress-up bin.  Jewelry Making Crafts for Kids and  Disney Family Fun Bead Jewelry are a couple of websites that have different patterns of bead jewelry to do with kids.

With Easter candy on store shelves it made it easy to find some jelly beans to use in our fun for the week! We took a virtual tour of a Jelly Belly factory. We read the book "Jelly Beans For Sale" by Bruce MacMillan We did some color sorting by doing this poem.

"Jelly Bean Prayer"

Red is for the blood He gave.

Green is for the grass He made.

Yellow is for the sun so bright.

Orange is for the edge of night.

Black is for the sins we made.

White is for the grace He gave.

Purple is for His hour of sorrow.

Pink is for our new tomorrow.

An egg full of jelly beans, Colorful and Sweet

Is a prayer, a promise, A loved one's treat!!

Charlene Dickensen, 1997

Our Bible lessons were about Jesus and all He did while on this earth, including dying for us and raising from the dead, we also talked about other people in the Bible whose name started with "J" like Jacob, Joseph, Jonah and Joshua.  

We talked about jets, made jungle animals, and colored a picture of Jupiter.

We colored a girl jumping rope and then went outside to jump rope to get the wiggles out!

I know there is a lot more we could have done for the letter "J" but I try to only focus on a certain letter for five days for about a half hour each day. This way they are learning and getting exposure to the letter while having some fun. 

Got any more ideas?? What are some other "J" things I could have covered with my younger ones?  I would love to have more ideas as I am sure that we will be going through the alphabet again next year with my 3 1/2 year old.

~~there is some great resources via the links in this post!~~

Weekly Shopping Trip--Savings $62.53

This week I did not need much from the store, however, I took the time to get a few of the deals along with getting milk in the house.  Hubby had done some computer work for a friend of ours and they paid him in cash, so he gave me some of that cash to do grocery shopping this week. I had $65 cash to use so I decided I would do a weekly shopping with cash experiment.  I was able to get everything that I had on my list and I still had money leftover!

The items are purchased this week were to add to the items that I still have stockpiled in my freezer and pantry.  I only got a couple of packs of chicken breasts this week so that I can make it through this next week without having to go to the store until payday(15th).

Here is what I purchased this week:

Meijer:

• 4 gallons milk $7.08 
• 5 pkgs Warm Delights $2.70 
used 75/1 cpn from 3/28 Smartsource and 2-75/2 cpns from previous pkgs 

• 2 boxes Teddy Grahams $2.00
used $1/2 Meijer Mealbox cpn and $1/2 April only cpn from Nabisco 2009 rebate booklet 

• 2 bags Tostitos tortilla chips $3.58
used $1/2 Meijer Mealbox cpn and 2-$1/1 peelie cpn from bags

• 8 bars clearanced candy  $4.52
marked 50% off

Used $6.00 on next shopping order Catalina coupons from my last trip to Meijer.

Total OOP: $13.88
Total Savings: $29.45
Total without sales & coupons: $43.33

Family Fare: 

• 2-2 liters Pepsi products $1.74(including bottle deposit)
• 32 oz bottle apple cider vinegar $1.75
• 2 bottles Gatorade $1.50
• 2 bottles(64oz) apple juice $1.98
• 2 bottles(64oz) Juicy Juice $5.00
• 1 bottle Hidden Valley Ranch dressing $2.50
• 5.95 lbs boneless/skinless chicken breasts $10.53
• 1 bag Tostitos scoops chips $3.50
• 1 bag Doritos $1.97
• 6 single serve dark choc. peanut M&Ms $2.34(50% off)
• 1 pkg mini Cadbury eggs $1.89 (50% off)
• 2 pkgs Hersheys bagged candy $3.50 (50% off)
• 1 bag plain spring mix M&Ms $1.64 (50% off)

Total OOP: $39.84

Total Savings: $33.08

Total without sales & coupons: $72.92

Grand Total OOP: $53.72, which means I have $11.28 to use until payday, if needed!!

Grand Total Savings: $62.53

Grand Total without sales & coupons: $116.25


This post is linked to:

• Coupon Super Savers at Coupon Saving Game!
• Savers Bungelow at Saving a Bundle!
• Week-Ending Finales at The Frugal Free Loader!
• Super Savings Saturday at MoneySavingMom!
• The Cha-Ching Challenge at Cha-Ching on a Shoestring!
• Shopping Round Up at The Grocery Cart Challenge!

WFMW: Top Five Greatest Tips!

I could not decide on just one greatest tip for Works for Me Wednesday, so I gathered up my top five tips to share again. Here is the top five tips starting with number five and working up to the number one greatest tip that I have posted about here:

Number Five Tip: Dirty laundry is a fact of life! I gave some different tips on removing stains from your laundry from removing crayons that have been dried on the clothes to grease stains to getting those yellow spots from deodorant out of the pits of shirts.  Using these methods will help you to have clean and stain free clothes and works for me!

Number Four Tip: Using storage containers with dividers for sorting little Lego pieces or hair rubber bands, clips, and barrettes works for me.  I have found these storage containers to be very helpful and easy to use.  They really have helped these items to be organized and easy to find. Also with having little ones around, they do not get a hold of the smaller Lego pieces to put in their mouth.

Number Three Tip: Homeschooling for free or nearly free can be done and works for me! There is tons of resources available online for free to use with your child and not have to worry about purchasing a "pre-packaged curriculum" or curriculum books.  I am finding that as my children get up into the high school years there are still freebies available for them as well!

Number Two Tip: Backpacks filled with items to keep boredom away on trips works for me!  I have a backpack for each of my kids. We use them whether we take a day trip to my parents or go on a multi-day vacation.

Number One Tip:  Answering questions on making muffins out of quick bread recipes rather than loaves and freezing them works for me! It is fairly easy to make muffins because they cook faster than loaves. The muffins also cool faster so sticking them in freezer bags and stacking them in freezer.  I also found that having muffins over loaves makes them easier to pull out for a fast breakfast or to put in a lunch box for a snack.

This post is linked to:

• Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

Homeschooling FREEBIES: High School Science & Online Conference

Sharing some more homeschooling freebies that I have come across in the last week!

First, a high school Zoology class at The Internet Science Room....Zoology Class.
It is a full online course along with class assignments, quizzes, linked definitions, tests, resources and more.

Secondly, there is an online conference through the Smithsonian Institute, called "Problem Solving with Smithsonian Experts".  It is a four day/two part conference on April 13-14 and then on April 28-29, 2010. The conference sessions span the arts, history, science, and culture, and are organized around four key themes. The four themes are "Understanding the American Experience", "Valuing World Cultures", "Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe", and "Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Universe". All sessions take place live online — you participate and interact directly from your computer in real time with the experts, check the site for the times each day. Each session will be recorded and posted after it takes place for on-demand access. Register for free today!

I would love to highlight other homeschooling freebies!! Do you know of any freebies that are homeschool related or would be good to use in homeschooling?? Please leave me a comment or send me an email(you will find my email by view my complete profile).

Singing Sunday--Arise My Love

We sang this song in church this morning. Oh what a powerful song!! It is so amazing to me that our Lord is ALIVE!! He didn't stay dead! I serve a living God! He conquered the grave, death and sin so that I could live and live life to the full. I love you, Lord! I pray that I will live for You and have a passion to serve You every day of my life! Thank you, Lord for dying for me! Thank you for rising again and living to prepare a place for me to join you some day soon!

Arise My Love
Artist - Newsong
Words and Music by Eddie Carswell

Not a word was heard
at the tomb that day.
Just shuffling of soldiers feet
as they guarded the grave.
One day, two days,
three days had past.
Could it be that Jesus
breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father
had forsaken him?
Turned his back on his son
dispising our sin.
All hell seemed to whisper
'Just forget Him, He's dead.'
Then the Father looked down
to his son and he said..

Arise, My love.
Arise, My love.
The grave no longer
has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise...Arise...my love.

The Earth trembled
and the tomb began to shake,
and like lightening
from Heaven the stone was rolled away.
And as dead man
the guards they all stood there in fright
As the power of love
displayed its might
Then suddenly a melody
filled the air
Riding wings of wind,
it was everywhere
The words all creation
had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of victory,
so loud and clear.

Arise, my love.
Arise, my love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you.
No more death's sting
no more suffering
Arise...arise....

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell; has been defeated.
The grave could not hold the king.

Arise, My love.
Arise, My love.
The grave no longer
has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise....Arise....Arise