Day 5 Of Five Days of Favorite Freebies (Music and giveaways, inspiration)

 

Happy Friday to you! Wow~ what a fun and crazy week!

Did you have a favorite blog post from our 60+ bloggers participating in the blog hop? I have a reason for asking, but more about that later~ :) 

Now on to *my* post for the day~ 

We've talked about finding free electronic applications, unplugged freebies and activities, ebooks, and  curriculum/worksheets/downloadables. Because today is FrIdAy, and Friday's are FUN, I thought I would offer some places to find some free music. This is a big deal to me because here in most of New England we don't have the benefit of a decent local Christian Music radio station. Pretty much the only way to know what is new is via the internet.

Music

NewRelease Tuesday is the place I check most often. It is a great website with videos, interviews, and yes, those free downloads I mentioned. I have been introduced to some new artists here (I heard Francesca Battistelli for the first  time on New Release Tuesday), as well as being a good place to find out about favorite artists' new releases. Sometimes they offer an new release entire album to  listen to (not download), which is pretty cool in my book. :) In order to download from NRT you must register on their site or "like" them on facebook. This week there are songs from Shane & Shane  and Darlene Zschech on the free list. :) 

Side-note: There are songs to suit most tastes offered here~ some of which don't coincide with my own taste. I like that I can preview them by clicking on the MP3 link, which opens the song in a new window, rather than right clicking and saving. I am pretty selective about what I download. :) 

(Hey, I just noticed that you can earn points for free merchandise or something, although their "point store" is currently closed~ so if you choose to sign up through my link, I get some points and so do you. Even more Freebie stuff on the horizon??) 

FreeCCM.com   I have to admit that I just spent more time than I should have listening to some of the songs being offered for free from this site this week (Sara Groves has an interesting video posted here that I listened to as well....). Some aspects of this site aren't totally updated (The giveaway isn't current), but by and large, there is some great music to be had here. :)

HearItFirst  is a media rich website, with videos, news, and free contests. In order to access the free music downloads you have to subscribe to their newsletter which contains the download links. You can explore for a bit.

Giveaways

I'm guessing that many of you have noticed the huge number of giveaways offered on the web these days. The vendors consider it a form of advertising, and you have the chance to win something cool for nothing more than a bit of your time.  I'm going to post a couple of sites that offer giveaways on a regular basis, and then... wait for it.... I have a giveaway of my own to offer to you today! :)



Homeschool Giveaways and Freebies has new offerings every week, mostly homeschool related, but sometimes there are other offerings (like the Kitchen Aid Mixer I found listed there! I don't have one... I'd sure like one, especially in sunny yellow!). Currently I see a "Simplified Dinners" ebook giveaway, and a $3000 books and curriculum giveaway sponsored by Media Angels.



 Hip Homeschool Moms offers weekly reviews and giveaways of product on their site, and they also host linkys for individual bloggers to list their homeschool-friendly giveaways. I generally post my giveaways on this site. It's a fun place to check things out.

Inspiration

I have a couple of extra freebies to mention that didn't entirely fit any of my previous categories, and they are offered by our very own Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

First~ this one really did fit in with the apps, but it is it's own category. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is now available for free as an electronic magazine. You can read it from your computer or you can download the itunes or adroid apps and read it on your device.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine also offers free monthly expos, which are online webinars with special speakers. This month's is in 4 days, on May 22 and features  Heidi St. John, Todd Wilson, and Deborah Wuehler. 

Alrighty then, I hope that this week has given you some inspiration and ideas for this year as well as planning into the next, and I hope that the resources I shared will help you make your homeschool budgeting a little easier this year.  now, on to my giveaway~ I have a brand new copy of Critical Thinking's Crypto Mindbenders Quotations which I reviewed last month. I was sent an extra copy and am delighted to be able to give it away! Check out the Rafflecopter form for instructions on entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Blessings~