Finer Things Friday: The Gift of Hot Air

July 3, 2009 > 3 Comments

A week ago Wednesday Joely read a narrative in her vocabulary book about the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. She was fascinated by the story of how the hot air balloons can take off and then come back to the same place to land in Albuquerque. She determined then and there that she wanted to go up in a hot air balloon. She became quite animated and excited about the prospect.

But knowing the odds of that happening anytime soon, I just told Joely how fun that would be to do…someday.

Then the next day I was chatting with a friend on Facebook and she offhandedly asked me if we were going to the local balloon festival that weekend.

What? Balloon festival…as in HOT AIR balloon festival?

Yup, sure enough, that very weekend there was a hot air balloon festival only 30 minutes from our home. And what's more, at the festival you'd also have the chance to go up in a tethered hot air balloon. Absolultely perfect, I thought.

And so we kept the festival a secret from the girls (Jaden had overheard Jeff and me discussing the festival, but he was sworn to secrecy). We told them that the festival was a special treat for Joely, but we didn't tell them what it was about. Jeff just gave the girls three obscure clues about the festival. The festival had something to do with 1) gas, 2) nylon, and 3) wicker.

Needless to say, the girls still had no clue.

When we got to the festival, none of the balloons were up yet, so it wasn't immediately obvious what the festival was about. We walked around a bit until we saw where there was a deflated balloon lying on its side. As we approached, we told Joely to look carefully to see if she could figure out what the festival was about. We neared the balloon, and Joely examined it carefully. Then after a few moments her eyebrows rose, her jaw dropped, her face became animated with joy, and she shrieked, "It's a hot air balloon! It's a hot air balloon! I wanna ride in it!"

What an awesome feeling that was to see her so happy about it!

To make a long story short, we ended up being the very first in line to ride the hot air balloon. Joely, Jaden, Jerah, and I went up in it and Jeff stayed down to take video/photos. Granted the balloon only rose about 40 feet in the air, but we were still up in a hot air balloon, and how many people can say they've done that? It was such a neat experience, doubly so for Joely since she had aspired to do it only two days before.

Later that evening at sundown, all 16 balloons at the festival were inflated. Then they proceeded to do what they call a "balloon glow." At intervals, all the balloons turned on their burners, either in one long pull or in short spurts. With the sun down, it made a spectacular site.

Joely became so excited she started running around our chairs shouting, "This is so much better than I expected! I LOVE this! This is so awesome!" Watching her pure enjoyment of the evening was definitely a Finer Thing!

Thirsty Thursday: Where to Buy Homeschool Curriculum

July 1, 2009 > 5 Comments

I would venture to say that most homeschoolers start buying curriculum for the following school year in the spring or summer. More often than not this is a daunting task, and the cost of the various curricula can be overwhelming.

Over the last few years I've purchased curriculum from a variety of sources. I try to buy used curriculum and books whenever possible, but sometimes it's just not an option and I have to resort to purchasing new. Here are some of my favorite ways to find curriculum at good prices.

Finding Used Curriculum

• Swapping with friends. The absolute least expensive way to acquire curriculum (and my personal favorite) is to swap with friends. I have a friend whose child is a little older than my middle child, so we've swapped curriculum several times. I've borrowed various science curricula, and she's in turn borrowed language arts, history, and logic curricula. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement that saves us both a lot of money.
• Buying from other homeschoolers in my local homeschool association. This is by far my favorite way to purchase books. I'm a member of a local association that has an online forum and I subscribe to the forum on an individual-post basis so I am notified as quickly as possible when someone posts curriculum for sale. I can also send out requests for curriculum that I'm looking for and I've often found great deals this way.
• Buying from my local homeschool store. I realize not everyone has access to a local homeschool store, but we happen to have a great one within 30 minutes of us. I rarely buy new books through them, but I often find used curriculum at decent prices. I take advantage of every discount opportunity as well. Members of my homeschool association get 10% off every purchase, plus I use a 15% of coupon once a month that comes in our association newsletter.
• Shopping at my local used bookstores. Many larger used bookstores carry homeschool curriculum. And since we use a lot of living books (non-textbooks) we've been able to find a good number of those books at our local Recycled Books or Half Price Books.
• Shopping online at Half.com and Amazon Used Marketplace. I used to purchase a lot of curriculum through eBay, but I have found that I can find books and curriculum for much cheaper on Half.com and Amazon. Especially since eBay won't allow the sale of teacher manuals any longer, I've been much more successful in finding what I was looking for with Half.com and Amazon.
• Buying (with caution) from VegSource. VegSource operates a used curriculum swap, but there aren't any buyer or seller protections like are available from Half.com or Amazon. However, I have heard of many people who use VegSource very successfully. I've actually only purchased curriculum once through VegSource, and that was only after I found out that the seller was a homeschool store in Oregon called Kingfisher Curriculum Cove. I made a big purchase of books through them and I was extremely pleased with the prices and service I received. I now refer a lot of my homeschooling friends to that Oregon store, and whenever I'm in need of curriculum, I always check with them.

Finding New Curriculum

• Using AddAll.com to find the best prices. AddAll.com lets you search for a book by title, author, or ISBN, and then it searches the databases of multiple online retailers (included their new and used inventory). Then it returns the results with the shipping prices so you get a much more accurate look at the real cost of each book. AddAll.com searches eBay, Half.com, Abe Books, Walmart.com, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and numerous other retailers.
• Buying in volume from Amazon.com. This is probably my number one source for new curriculum, but I only shop Amazon when I can purchase $25 or more so I don't have to pay shipping. Plus Amazon has great shipping times so shopping with them also helps satisfy my need for instant gratification.
• Ordering from CBD.com (Christian Book Distributors). I often find discount codes in homeschool magazines for CBD.com, so even though I have to pay shipping, I can often get great deals on books from CBD.com. I've ordered through them several times, and I've occasionally received free shipping coupons with my shipment to use on future orders.

I know there are other great sources for homeschooling curriculum, so I'd love to hear what your favorites are. Leave a comment and share where you find your homeschool curriculum.

Now it's your turn to link up. Do you have a homeschool- or education-related post? What has worked for you in educating your children? What did you do this week to satisfy your kids' thirst for knowledge?

And remember, you don't have to be a homeschooler to link up; all parents take part in educating their kids. Link up below. I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say.

How to Participate:

1. Please include your name and a short description of your Thirsty Thursday post in the Mr. Linky below. For example, Joy @ Five J's {Choosing Curriculum}
2. Please link to your specific post and not to your home page. That will make it easier for people to find your post.
3. Make sure you include a link back here from your post. You can link to my homepage, to this specific post, or to the Thirsty Thursday category itself (http://fivejs.com/category/thirsty-thursday/).
4. Including the Thirsty Thursday banner in your post is not required, but it is requested. You can grab the banner here. I ask that you download the image to your own computer; please do not link directly to the image on my blog.

Free Recorder Fingering Chart

June 25, 2009 > 1 Comment

My six-year-old daughter has been asking to learn to play the recorder this week, so we pulled out my husband's old recorder, dusted it off, and let her practice on it. But when I checked online to find a good fingering chart to print off for her, I only found ones that were either interactive (i.e. not printable), too simple (only the natural notes), too complicated (multiple fingerings for each note), or too many pages.

So, as I've often done before, I decided to make my own.

Some Caveats About the Chart

The chart I designed does not include every fingering possible for each pitch; nor does it include all the notes that can be played on a standard recorder (it covers only the octave and a half from middle C up), but it's all my daughter will need for now.

Additionally, the fingerings I chose may not necessarily be "official" since I used the fingerings that would work best for her little fingers and still produce a good pitch. But if you know me, I like to buck the system a bit, so if the fingering works, why not use it. Right?

Download

You're welcome to download the PDF here for your personal use. You can also click on the image below to view the JPG full size and print from that, but you'll get a better-quality print with the PDF.