one of my favorite bloggers has a tutorial on how to make pretend checks! check her out (no pun intended!) the link? click here: make pretend checks! very cool!

(picture: in my cousin's backyard.)

did you hear the good news? the novel, pocketful of pinecones (my all time favorite homeschool book!) has a sequel? sure does! it's called, "lessons at blackberry inn!" read about it here! i know what i want for my september birthday... oh mom???

(I took the picture above, while visiting with my cousin at her beautiful home.)

this past week, found tommie and me in the dentist chair for our six month cleaning. he in one room. me in another. my dental hygienist is an old family friend. who isn't necessarily digging your teeth for plaque, but rather digging for the juice on other people. she is one of those whine-when-you-talk, drag your words, and errs on the side of negativity. she proceeded to ask me about tommie. what grade, blah, blah, blah. then she fired the question.... the big question... HAS HE STUDIED ABOUT ROOT CANALS? with my mouth stretch open, i could only muster up an "ugh, ugh, ugh." she must of taken that to be a "no." then proceeds to tell me that " really???????? gasp! (in her best whiny voice), my daughter learned about root canals in third grade!" I just smiled, shut my eyes and opened my mouth. See, that's the beauty of homeschooling... when the time comes for him to learn about root canals or whatever... he can go to Mr. Google, and pull up thousands of pages on the subject. He doesn't need a book or a workbook page with fill in the blanks or a passing grade to validate his knowledge for "the time being." Personally, I have no clue what a root canal is or how it's done. Nor, do I really care.

i'm excited to use this book as a read-aloud...when we start back to home lessons in a month! it's called, "the homeschool liberation league." about homeschoolers! since, back-peddling away from both the republican and democratic parties.. and deciding to become a libertarian (with a republic view on economics), i think this will further drive home the point of what libertarianism means. have you heard of this book? what did you think of it?

how does a redneck-homeschooler, like our boy... take driver's training? he drives his cousins bump and run car through the field. and around a pond. and up and down the driveway. round an round and round. you can pick one of these gems up for about $300. take a wild guess at what tommie's saving up for? by next summer, he hopes to buy a car of his own. i'm finding, 11 year old boys are difficult to understand.

(picture taken at my cousin's house!)

i found a few freebie's for kids, and thought you might like them...

Georgia Peanut Teacher Kit

Free Backyard Pest Activity Book

Free Space Poster

i have mom-friendly freebies on my smile, wink, nod blog.. find the link on my sidebar and click on over!

spectacular!

a couple of weeks ago, my father-in-law brought me over a creepy caterpillar! within days it went into the chrysalis stage... then we waited. and waited. and today... this black swallowtail emerged! we let it rest on our patio, outside our window and watched the wings dry off and grow stronger and stronger until it had the strength to be on his own. reminds me much of child-rearing, how about you?

here's a great site that was in my favorites! it's for caterpillar identification. click here: caterpillar!