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~

Day 4 Of Five Days of Favorite Freebies (curriculum, worksheet, and "practice" sites)

 

Well, the week is winding down~ Have you been having fun reading all the posts being put out by the TOS Review Crew team? I sure hope so! Remember to click on the banner/button at the end of this post to visit many more blogs. :) And to catch up on my posts on Favorite Freebies, you can visit the following links:

Day 1 Favorite Freebies: Apps (iPad, iPhone/touch)

Day 2 Favorite Freebies: Summertime fun 

Day 3 Favorite Freebies: Books and More Books

Today I'm going to highlight some of my favorite places to pick up free curriculum, and various "practice" sites. 

• Homeschool Share ~ Literature-based unit studies/ lapbooks ~ LOVE my friends who run this site. What an awesome resource they are for the homeschool community! 

• Currclick~ every week there is a new free download~ great way to "test-drive" products from a variety of vendors. 
• Ambleside Online (Charlotte Mason learning~ schedules and booklists)  
• Kahn Academy  math, science and humanities tutorials~ (Not from a Christian worldview 
• e-learninglinks is a huge resource page with all sorts of free resources for homeschoolers. One of my favorite finds there are the Apologia Science resources (Found under the "Science" tab).

 I am also a huge fan of The Handbook of Nature Study Outdoor Hour Challenges. What a great inspiration to get outside!

The  Learning Page ~ Free worksheets with themed graphics for Pre-K through 3rd Grade. These worksheets cover math, language arts, and Science. I have been using these since Eldest (14) was in K or 1st grade~
Here's an example of a page from the science pack on Black Holes.

• Crayola ~ Lesson Plans and Printables 
• Classics for Kids (Music and Lesson Plans K-5~ podcasts as well!)
• Dick Blick  ~Lesson Plans ~ Including videos like this

Dance-Mat Typing ~ a goofy cartoon keyboarding program hosted by the BBC~ This is a fun typing program, and it works pretty well! My kids loved it, although the dancing hippos were a little odd. (Ages 7-11) 

Guest Hollow ~ This page links to their American History 2 page, target grade 2-8. There are other (history, science and math)offerings as well, but this was the one I was most interested in.  

Chem4Kids ~ I love the periodic table on this site~ click on each element to see a rebus of the name~

I know that there are MANY more resources out there, but I thought I'd lighlight some of *my* favorites ~ it's amazing what is on the World Wide Web, and I applaud those who freely share their creativity and work.

Blessings~

Day 3 Of Five Days of Favorite Freebies(books and more books)

 

Hey, Hey, I'm back again! If you missed my first posts in the series, you can find them here:

Day 1 Favorite Freebies: Apps (iPad, iPhone/touch)

Day 2 Favorite Freebies: Summertime fun

Have you read anything new and exciting? Are you always looking for a new book to read, something for your voracious reader, or something for your struggling reader? 

Today I am going to quickly highlight some of my favorite places to find free reading material. Other than the obvious "Visit your local library," most of my resources today will be of the electronic variety. 

I mentioned the local library for actual hard-copy books, but many libraries now offer "Rentals" (for free) of electronic books. My daughter just recently downloaded the apps necessary to borrow books from the library, and has enjoyed reading a few mysteries via the OverDrive Media Console™ app. A bonus with these electronic borrowed books is that they are automatically "returned" to the library once your time is up.... no late fees! :) 

One of my very favorite things these days (I never thought it would be possible a couple of years ago.... either that I would own one, much less like reading from one), is my iPad. I use the Kindle app extensively (love the ability to read at night with the lights out... DH has a different schedule than the rest of us, and this way I'm less likely to disturb his sleep). 

However, even if you don't have a wireless device, there is something you need to know: You don't need a Kindle to read a kindle book! You can download a Kindle app to your desktop or laptop, and away you go(You can also "store" them in the Amazon cloud until you want to read them)! 

Various Kindle books are offered for free for a limited time.  My favorite places to find them are the Pixel of Ink family of blogs/facebook pages (I'm going to include some thumbnails of books that are free as I write, but they may not be free tomorrow...).

Pixel of Ink:Somewhat hit or miss, but I've found quite a few great books highlighted here... be aware that there is a fair amount of junk, but it doesn't take very long to peruse the lists each day (Pixel of Ink posts about 3 times a day on average). Looking forward to this continuation of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice~ I'm curious about Mr. Collins' wife! :)

Inspired Reads: This is one of my favorites~ Generally speaking the books appearing here have a higher likelihood to be my cup of tea(From publishers like Bethany House and Abingdon Press). BTW, in addition to those books that are self-published, and apparently not edited, there are some first class books being offered at each of these sites, ~ Siri Mitchell's new historical novel, just published in paperback last month showed up here!

Pixel of Ink~ Young Edition: A variety of books show up here, from young adult fantasy(And be prepared to sift through a bunch of vampire novels.... sigh... lots of dross), to middle school chapter  books, to early readers.... This is a great page to subscribe to so you don't miss anything. :)

Power Reads: Non-fiction~ memoirs, biographies, and more. I haven't gotten too many books from here yet, but it's a fairly new focus.

Dining Downloads~ Cookbooks anyone? Same here... I haven't gotten too many books from here just yet, but I do have a few that I need to check out!

Another option is to simply search Amazon for free Kindle books. There are loads of the classics to be found there (Including a bunch of Henty books!). You can overwhelm yourself by just going to the Kindle Store and "sorting" price from low to high, or you can browse by age or category, and THEN sort by price~ Slightly less overwhelming.... ;) 

Moving on, Project Gutenberg and The Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project were my original "Go-to" sites before we had the lovely little electronic devices in our house. The Baldwin Project includes a Ambleside index, which is very nice.  Eldest was very pleased to find a bunch of Laura Lee Hope titles (Think Bobbsey Twins) some time back on the Project Gutenberg site. 

Another site to check out is ManyBooks.net There are almost 2500 "Young Readers" available, including Tom Swift stories, Burgess books, Mark Twain, and so much more!

The American Literature Library features classics from American and around the world.

And if you have an audiophile, You could check out Lit2Go, which is a free online collection of stories and poems in mp3 format. MyAudioSchool offers about 20% of their classic books, old-time radio theater, historical radio and television broadcasts, and more for free. There is some neat stuff in here! :)

Well~ This should keep you going for awhile~ Let me know if this was helpful (When you get a chance....) And don't forget to go visit my TOS Review Crew friends who are participating in this 5 Days of Blogging Hop by clicking the banner below.  

Blessings~

Day 2 Of Five Days of Favorite Freebies (Summertime fun)

 

Thanks for stopping by again! I hope you enjoyed my post yesterday with information on finding free apps. Day 1 Favorite Freebies: Apps (iPad, iPhone/touch)

Today we'll focus on something non-electronic~ Free Summer activities~ 

Things to do at home (OK, some these are more "Frugal" than "Free," but I was inspired  :) )

• Sidewalk Chalk drawings~ 
• Some just for fun
• "sundial" silhouette
• Peter Rabbit!  

• More Sidewalk Chalk~
• This time it's Hopscotch! 
• "The Story of Ping" inspired
• Use wet chalk, or "paint" with water over your drawings to make the smooth areas

• Rock Art~ 
• Have a collection of pebbles?
• Beachcombers in the family? 
• Try making a rock drawing with your finds.

Summer Reading programs

Check with your Local Library~ Almost all libraries run one during the Summer

• Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program (earn a free book)(grades 1-6) (information for this year's program is not up yet)
• TD Bank Summer Reading Program (Earn a $10 deposit)
• MTA/ Red Sox Reading Matters (chance to win tickets!) (K-8) (Do a search for "baseball reading" and your local team to see if you are eligible in your area)
• Scholastic Reading Challenge (PreK-12th!)

Free Bowling

• Kids Bowl Free ( 15 and under 2 free games/day all summer. Shoe rentals extra)  
• AMF Bowling (16 and under 2 games free w/ shoe rental~ check for location) 
•  (Both of these programs include an option to purchase a pass for the grownups in the family as well, for a very reasonable price)

Free Movies

• National Amusements Bookworm Wednesdays Free Movies (Check for participating locations: Combo reading and movies)
• Regal Cinema's Summer Movie Express check back for times and locations

Summer Music Concert Series

Do a search "Free summer concert series 2012" and see if there is anything in your area. You can also add your town or city's name in the search if you don't find anything with the general search terms right away. I always check the surrounding towns to see where the music will be all summer long.

State and National Parks

Get the kids involved in the National Parks near you~ There are many that do not charge admission, so check the specific park to see what their policies are.

Local Libraries often offer free or discounted admission to state parks, museums, and other attractions, so be sure to check that option out as well.

Miscellaneous Activities

• Creative Kids at Home
• Target Arts and Culture (Free and reduced admission~ check for locations)  
• Discover Insects (Fact and activity sheets)

I hope this gives you some good ideas to get out and have some free fun this summer! Now, if you have a minute or two, go visit my friends, by clicking on the graphic below~ you might find something you are interested in! (If you have a minute, I know that comments are appreciated by all)

Blessings~

Day 1 of 5 days of Favorite Freebies~ apps (iPad, iPhone/Touch)

 

My first "Favorite Freebie" topic this week is one of our most recent favorites~ Free apps for the iPad or iPod touch/phone. Once the big bucks are paid out for the hardware, it is time to start loading it up with apps(although, if you only have 8G, you will find that the apps quickly fill up that space!). While many apps are inexpensive, I know that those pennies keep adding up, so I'm happy to share with you how I find free apps for our devices.

The first thing to know is that there are many places to find worthwhile apps that are free for a limited time, so if you see one you are interested in you should download it right away, as it will probably be full price tomorrow....

On to the finding of those apps. There are a few free apps that offer free apps (I feel like I'm being redundant here, but bear with me!)

FreeAppADay offers 5 free apps/ day. There is more dross than gold to be found here, but every now and again you'll find a gem. :) 

FreeAppMagic offers 3 apps/day. Sometimes there is a requirement to check out another app in order to see the third app, but I've never had to actually purchase or download anything I wasn't interested in.This has been a great place to find neat photography, art and word game apps.

There are blogs dedicated to highlighting those apps that are currently free or discounted. If you are on facebook, it's handy to "like" their pages, so that you get regular notifications. Some of these blogs (And often the developers themselves) offer giveaways and "Code Tosses." 

Code Tosses are interesting events. Generally they take place on facebook or twitter. The blog or developer will announce in advance when they will have a code toss (Sometimes it's "in ten minutes," and at other times you have days of advance notice). Regardless of when it is, here are the steps you need to be successful in catching a tossed code. 

1. Be at the specific page a few minutes ahead of time (you might even want to refresh the page a few times).
2. Be sure you are logged in to your itunes account on another page.
3. Find the "Redeem a code" link and click on that so that you are ready.
4. When you see the list of codes posted, quickly copy one of them and paste it into the box on the "Redeem your code" page that you have open in itunes.

If you were fast enough, you will get a notice that you were successful and that the app is downloading. 

I have gotten a few great apps this way, but I only do this if I have the time to spend, and don't mind  if I miss out. There are some folks with extremely quick fingers out there! :D 

OK now, on to the sites:

AppsforHomeschooling is one I check daily. Jennifer highlights free and discounted educational apps, and she also runs frequent giveaways and "Code tosses".

Iheartthisapp is another of my favorites~ there are a number of categories~ adult, children, and educational. You have to check carefully for the free apps amongst the discounted apps, but I have found some great gems here.

Momswithapps is  "a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families." They sponsor AppFriday , a weekly online event that highlights new, promotionally priced and free apps each Friday. The promotions generally last until 8 PM, PST, unless extended by the developer. This one is worth setting a weekly reminder for! 

I know there are many more sites out there that are similar in scope, but these are my favorites, and since there is a limit to the amount of time I should be spending online, I tend to stick with them.

Last but not least, it is worth taking a little time to peruse the app store. I have found this to be easiest on the iPad~ 

Type in a search request  (I just did "history" for the fun of it) There were 2409 returns. Yikes! However, on the iPad, I can refine that search easily: 

• First, I'll click "See All", then start refining. 
• Choosing the category of Education brings back 1098 returns
• Next I'll click a Customer rating of 3+ stars, which gives me 259
• A price of "Free" shows 96 options~ 
• at this point I might refine the customer rating to 4 stars which gives me 53 apps to check out.
• Depending on the amount of time I have, I'll probably go through the 96 options to see if something strikes my fancy.

This has been a productive way for me to find some great full version apps, as well as some "lite" versions which give me an opportunity to check the app out to see if the full version is something I might be interested in. Mileage has varied on how comprehensive the lite versions are, but some of them are adequate for my purposes, and the full versions are not necessary.

Now, just to give you an idea~ here are some of the apps that we have been able to get for free using one or more of the above mentioned links/methods(Please note that the vast majority of these are not currently free, I'm just including this list to show the calibre of apps that *can* be gotten for free if at the right place at the right time):

Nostalgio   Nifty photography app that I often use for school project collages

Biblesaurus Memory verse game

Alphabet Freeze Tag

Bust a Sound (Phonics game)

Adding Apples (Currently Free.. love this one, and the others by this developer!)

Rocket Math (one of my favorite "lite" apps!)

Tea Party (Miss Spider.... Currently free!)

The Oregon Trail

My Brushes (Neat paint program)

Arches National Park Geology Tour

Around the World in 80 Days Game

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to find some great free apps for your device.

Be sure to visit my friends by clicking the banner below~ There are some great topics being talked about this week!

Blessings~

5 Days of__?__ Blogging with the TOS Review Crew

Hey, friends~

Wanted to give you a heads-up about a fun blog-hop happening this week. Over 60 of my fellow TOS Review Crew-mates will be posting on a variety of topics from Monday-Friday this week for 5 days of blogging.

I will be writing about 5 Days of Favorite Freebies~ (There will be an eclectic mix of freebie topics~ be sure to check back each day!).

Here is a sampling of some of the other topics you will be able to find Crew members posting on next week....

• Adoption
• Bringing Books To Life
• Chaotic Homeschooling
• Discipling Your Kids 
• Educating Around the World
• Fighting Your Fears
• Graduating a Homeschooler
• and many, many more!

Click on the banner above to get to the posts each day, and please, do leave a comment or two on the posts you find helpful~ that is a huge encouragement to the authors! :) 

Blessings~

Homeschool Library Builder

As a 4th year reviewer on the TOS Crew Reviews, I have previously reviewed the HomeSchool Library Builder(HSLB) website a couple of times. I'll give you a quick synopsis, but I do suggest visiting my first review (linked below) to get a more thorough rundown on my opinion, and some insight on how the site works.

HSLB is kind of like a "new and used" book store on the web, but rather than gouging prices, the lovely homeschool moms that run HSLB just try to offer good, reasonable, common sense service. You can search by curriculum and age, as well as other criteria for books to flesh out your homeschool library shelves.

Because my basic opinions (GOOD!) of HSLB haven't changed, I would like to point you to my review from November '08 and ask you to check them out! (good books, low prices, great service, and a free membership "points" program are some of the features that I expounded upon....)

If you sign up for their monthly newsletter (You can read the May newsletter here) you will hear all about any specials they are running, as well as previews of their "Spotlight on the Seasons" (free teacher resources and activities for the month). They regularly offer a "Big Bin" sale (Many books placed in $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 bins~ excellent bargains to be had!), and run various % off sales.

For the month of May the entire store is on sale for 25% off! For an example of the sort of deal you may find~ I just browsed through and found this book, which interests me ~ it is a hard-cover, "list-price" $16.99. HSLB is offering it for $5.99, but with the 25% off May sale, the price is reduced to $4.49. Not too shabby! :)

A little side note: if you see something you want (As I mentioned in my '08 post), you should consider purchasing right away. As a PSA (Public Service Announcement), I would like to include some of the "Fine print" which will make purchasing from HSLB go more smoothly. :) 

• Unless you LOG IN to the website the items in your cart will NOT be saved!  
• "Saved" does not mean "Safe." After a time of inactivity the items in your cart will be made
  available to other customers. 
• THE "SAFEST" way to ensure you get the items you want is to PURCHASE them before
  you leave the site. Just write in the comment box that you are still shopping. You will then have 7 days to finish your shopping. They will combine the orders and adjust any shipping costs. If they have not heard from you within 7 days your shipment will automatically be shipped.

I can also say that I have personally purchased  from HSLB and been quite happy with the entire transaction~ Satisfied customer! :)
I hope that this information is helpful to your homeschool budget. I like the HSLB motto:

"Fill your bookshelves without emptying your wallet" 

For more opinions and insights on the Homeschool Library Builder website, please visit the TOS Crew Review Blog, and check out the linky.

Blessings~

Disclaimer: I am reviewing this website as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I did not receive any compensation, but was offered an additional one-time discount in the event I order from the website. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."