Category Archives: gift worthy

TOS Fall Subscription Deal!

Did you ever dream of getting a horse for Christmas? You can get a sneak peek of our Fall issue and see Nancy Carter’s first horse! Oh, and she’s not the only one sharing her childhood pictures. You’ll see photos from the 50’s through the 80’s.

But, you’ll need the Fall issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to go on this walk down memory lane.

Plus, do you like to create holiday memories? The brand new TOS holiday E-Book can be yours, too. It’s all about the fall and winter holidays – mainly Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it’s not even for sale yet. This is your chance to get it first – for FREE ($12.45 value)!

Normally when a person subscribes, their subscription starts with the upcoming issue which can take a while. But, TOS thought about that when they planned their Fall Special.

If you subscribe now with their Fall Special, you’ll get

Almost 50% off the cover price for 2 years The current Fall issue as soon as it is ready

6 Bonus gifts

12 months of Teacher’s Toolbox, which contains a FREE E-Book every month PLUS, the new E-Book, Homespun Holidays for FREE!

This is over $250 worth of product for only $39!!

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Simple Gifts and a Giveaway!

Gift giving can be fun and cheap and I put a cute little gift together just to prove it. This is a nice scrapbooking set. There is a simple 8 page scrapbook, chipboard tag set, paper set, and letter stickers. The papers go together and it is going to be easy to ship. That is it!

To prove how easy it is to ship, I am giving it away as part of Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. Leave me a comment and tell me what one of your favorite things are. Make sure you include your email or have it in your profile. I will close comments Saturday, 11/1, and then the winner will have 3 days to contact me.

Great Homeschool Magazine

You may all remember that back in August I reviewed The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Digital Version. Well, I still love the Digital version but sometimes you do want a paper version of The Old Schoolhouse. But looking back I realized that I didn’t talk much about the actual magazine.

I like this magazine a lot. It is great to have this great resource. It offers advice in teach methods, life management and even product reviews. There are apple contest that reward readers. There is even a Natural Schoolhouse feature. Recently this feature was a sweet peace tying in eternal lessons with new lambs. It is also refreshing to see and hear from moms that are where I am but further along. So why am I mentioning all this now?

I wanted to tell you all about The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Fall Special. You can get two years of the magazine, 6 fabulous physical gifts (no downloads!) worth over $120, plus the current issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that is full of ideas for the new school year, so you start receiving your magazine in a flash!

It really is one of their best deals ever and you don’t want to miss out. In fact, they’ve got a really cute Homeschooling with Heart tote bag (valued at $13.95) for the first 1000 to subscribe. About half of them are gone, but you should still be able to get one if you hurry!
(They will remove the info from the subscription page when the bags are all gone.) The total value is over $212, but you receive it all for only $39 – 50% off of cover price! Plus subscribers get their online monthly Teacher’s Toolbox which focuses on a different topic each month, giving you words of encouragement, hands-on teaching ideas, book recommendations, field trip ideas, and a bonus download item.

So go run get this great deal!

Information, Inspiration and Joy: The Best Kids’ Book

Yeah I know, that is a lot to expect from a book but I think I may have found it. Kid Who Named Pluto: And the Stories of Other Extraordinary Young People in Science is just the ticket! I found this book at the library and picked it up for NerdBug. It was well within his reading level and I browsed it to make sure it was family friendly so I put it in his pile to read and didn’t really think anything else of it. So when he finally got around to reading it he started telling me about it. After hearing a few interesting facts, I decided to read it myself and I am so glad I did.

This book has about 9 different profiles on young people who did great things in science, not all of which are scientists. It covers Isaac Asimov and Philo Farnsworth and many more. It even has a list for further reading! As a science dork it is great. As a mom who wants her children to dream it is great. And as a homeschooler it is phenomenal! It seems that many of the world’s young geniuses were in spite of public schooling and not because of it (a full blog post on this is coming;). This book happens to highlight a few of those specifically.

So for $8 it is a great deal and a great present for any child. Or get it from your library for an even better deal;).

The Old Schoolhouse: Digital Version

I used to get the paper version of The Old Schoolhouse magazine. It would come and I could pour over it for a week or two. The most frustrating thing was figuring out what 1 person I would share an article with. But then budget cuts hit the NerdFamily and unfortunately magazines were sad victims. As budget regulated I realized that I didn’t have time to pour over a magazine between blogging and homeschooling. I have to say that I felt I was missing an enrichment that I was getting before. I don’t belong to an ISP and this was support group.

Well, with the arrival of the digital version all is right(and maybe even better) with my world. First of all it is like 30% cheaper than the paper version. Being a cheapskate and a mother of 4, that is always a good thing. I love that it is portable and searchable. Since I do everything on my laptop now, I love being able to just pop over and read an article when I have a couple of minutes. You can even download it so you can read a piece when you aren’t online.

Now I have a strange confession, I love the fact you can click a button and forward an article. So when you have that new homeschooling friend who needs to read that encouraging piece or that naysayer who needs a little “information” that is firmer than your word;), just email it.

The reader is really smooth. I have to say that I was braced for a pdf format so the nifty little reader was a breathe of fresh air. You can adjust your sizes to fit your screen or the font size you need, your choice! Another cool thing is about the links. Everything is already web enabled so there isn’t any more of the trying to remember to make a note of the web address and getting to it later.

Obviously I love it so go check it out!

Cool Crafty Rocket

The Bear Necessities has made the coolest knit rocket ship. This would make a great gift for a one year old, if you happen to be crafty (hint, hint for any of you knitters who would like to get the NerdPud something for her impending birthday;). This grew out of Lucy’s desire to make something for her son’s room and now the blogosphere can benefit. Just go over to her blog, The Bear Necessities, and follow the pattern she has put up. I really need to learn how to knit!

Technorati Tags: Knitting, Crafting, Rocket Ships

Who put the B in the Ballyhoo?

The kids and I read this interesting book this week. NerdBug picked this out at the library a couple of weeks ago and I wasn’t real sure. It wasn’t questionable but I was didn’t think it would hold all 3 kids attention. Boy, was I wrong! They all loved it. It is a colorful book filled with actual posters from the circus. It follows the alphabet with different adjectives describing the different acts. I was prepared to edit on the fly because we all know that the circus can be a bit questionable but, I didn’t need to. It was all quite tasteful and interesting. The kids were so intrigued they have talked about the cool and weird things they saw. I would recommend this book for all ages. The 2, 4 and 6 year olds all give it a thumbs up!

Gravity is a Mystery

I was picking up some books at the library a couple of weeks ago and Gravity Is a Mystery grabbed my attention. This isn’t a planned area of study for the NerdBug but hey, I love science and it looked fun. Now I am in love;). This book has the perfect balance of child friendly wording, illustrations and touching on actual full concepts. For example it gave the actual formula for Universal Gravitation, the actual explanation of the formula and then had a child like explanation. The more advanced explanation is separate from the “book” so you can avoid it if you would like. The illustrations are colorful and helpful to concept understanding. What is really cool is that Branley has written a variety of other books. So he may become the NerdFamily’s favorite author!

Fray

I have one word for Joss Whedon….Tease! He goes and creates this great comic book and it is just an 8 chapter stand alone. Well, they made a Firefly movie based on the ground swell so maybe we can get him to write more of this great comic book.

So what is so great about this graphic novel? It is well written and extremely well developed for only 8 chapters. Moline and Owens created breath taking art that truly brings to life Melaka Fray, our newest vampire slayer. Now, while I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer you needn’t have previous slayer knowledge. According to the forward, that is why the plot is set so far in the future. Whedon does a great job of explaining what the slayer is without insulting existing Buffy fans and also not creating a separate, contradictory concept. I am a novice to the comic book world and I adored it. Whereas NerdDad is an old hand at comic books and he felt it was surprisingly good. This would be a great gift for a Joss Whedon fan!

PS This is not for young kids. If you wouldn’t let your kids watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, don’t let them read this.