Scholastic Warehouse

Great deals abound at the Scholastic Warehouse sales!
Great deals abound at the Scholastic Warehouse sales!

These sales can be more a temptation than a blessing at times, but we have found some great finds at the Scholastic Warehouse sales, and with Christmas around the corner, you just might be in the market for some gifts.

Check out their website for locations and hours. They have a number of them around the greater Chicago area, and chances are you might find one within driving distance for you.

Also, make sure to take advantage of registering online. Then you will receive a coupon good for an additional $10 off your purchase of $50-$100. From experience, it is pretty easy to hit that $50. Not because their items are expensive, but because they have so much to choose from. You will come away with a nice stash of books and goodies for that amount of money.

Happy shopping!

Free Magic School Bus

The buzz around the blog world is a free book from the Magic School Bus series.

Cover of the book The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up

Here is the info from the EPA website:

“The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up”

EPA’s Clean School Bus USA program has partnered with Scholastic to write, illustrate, and publish a new book in the popular “Magic School Bus” children’s series. In this acclaimed educational series of books and videos for children from kindergarten through fourth grade, a teacher named Ms. Frizzle takes her class on several science-oriented field trips, riding in their magical school bus.

In “The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up,” the children and Ms. Frizzle explore the pollution emitted from their own diesel school bus and learn about how to reduce the emissions as they find themselves traveling through a diesel engine. The children learn about idle reduction and ways the community can help reduce the health risks from diesel exhaust. At the end of the book, the “Magic School Bus” gets its own pollution control device, a diesel particulate-matter filter.

Released on October 18th, this special-edition book is intended to be used by libraries, schools, state and local air programs, non-profit education and outreach campaigns, and for other targeted opportunities to increase awareness of the importance of reducing diesel emissions.

The books are free and can be ordered from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications, EPA’s publication warehouse. They may not be sold.

Quantities are limited due to the popularity of the book. Individuals, schools, and libraries may order up to 20 copies. Non-profit organizations working on diesel emissions issues and outreach may order up to 500. Other organizations, including for-profit companies, may order up to 100. Larger requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.


For more information give them a call at: 1-800-490-9198 and request item number EPA420-K-07-001

It may not be as subject appropriate for homeschoolers as the topic addressed is making a school bus more environmentally friendly, but you can still learn about the engine workings and the impact on the environment. And, of course, it’s Magic School Bus, and FREE!

Field Trip!

Pull out your lesson plan books and the white out, because you might need to make some room for this.

Brand new this year to the Chicago area is a program sponsored by Macy’s, various library systems, the Sun-Times, and Lite FM. This program allows library card holders to “check out” a free museum pass each week starting September 1.

Because this hasn’t started yet, I can’t tell exactly how this will work, and even the librarians don’t have all the answers. But, you will definitely want to make visiting your local library a weekly event, and leave lots of room for FREE field trips.

Through the Museum Adventure Pass Program, library card holders can go to their library, choose from the available passes they would like to use that week and receive a print out that expires one week later. After the expiration date (whether they used it or not), they may return for a new pass. The program involves twelve various sites this year including Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

What to do:

– Check the list of libraries to make sure yours participates in the program

– Check the list of cooperating museums for the various passes available (you won’t know until you go to the library for sure what the availability is at that time, but this website will show you what the possibilities might include).

– Visit your participating library to check out a pass (one per library card, and these are not transferable)

– Take a field trip!

– Thank the museum and other program sponsors for making this available to us!

The passes do vary (and all this is spelled out on the website). Some include four admissions, some only two, some offer other specials and discounts (buy one, get one; gift store discounts, etc.) Read them carefully, and make sure you understand what you are getting.

This is brand new to our area, so you might get some funny looks the first time you use the passes. A great chance to practice patience. 🙂 And, you might want to call ahead to confirm their acceptance of the pass.

If you want to see how this has the potential to grow, check out the Detroit area website and the Minnesota websites which have already enjoyed this program and continue to expand the number of museums offering free tickets.

What an incredible opportunity, don’t forget to take advantage of this!

(If you want to make sure that you don’t miss out on all the great resources and tips to enhance your homeschool, please subscribe to the Chicagoland Homeschool Network using the buttons on the right sidebar. And, if you are on Facebook, you can become a fan and receive reminders and notifications there as well).

Info on a free book on homeschooling

Received this interesting tidbit thanks to homeschool.com:

Laurel Springs School is giving away FREE copies of “Homeschooling and Loving It.” Normally, this popular book sells for $15.95.

Here’s the Coupon Code: LSS
Go To: http://store.laurelsprings.com/
Limit 5 copies per person. While supplies last.

Be sure to watch the short video on the ordering page, telling all about the book. I used the “Homeschooling & Loving It” method with my own children and my son has just gone off to the college of his choice. It works. I don’t know how long the copies will last so be sure to get your copy right away.

Legoland Discovery Center discounts

 

A representative from Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg contacted me recently about letting you all in on a great deal. More than likely you have heard about this exciting facility, and maybe you have visited. However, maybe you haven’t. Maybe the admission prices made you reconsider, especially when you start adding up all of the members of your family. Maybe you didn’t know what to expect when you arrived.

If that sounds anything like you, or if you have any Lego lovers in your home, then you will want to check out this offer they have put together especially with the homeschool family in mind:

At the LEGOLAND Discovery Center we aim to make learning fun! Journey through an informative LEGO world of color, interaction and creativity for a visit your children are sure to remember!

NEW FOR 2009 – HOMESCHOOL DAYS

Special rates will be available for Chicagoland Homeschool Network families on each of the following Wednesdays during the 2009/2010 school year:

  • August 26 through November 18, 2009 (each Wednesday)
  • January 5 through March 17, 2010 (each Wednesday)
  • $7.00 per Child plus a FREE workshop
  • 1 FREE adult for every 5 children booked
  • $7.00 per additional adult

TALL TOWERS WORKSHOP

Students get a chance to build towers and test them on an earthquake table.
Grades 1-3,Science/Math

Educational Objectives
This 30-minute workshop helps your children:

  • Learn about structures such as houses and towers.
  • Learn how to increase the stability of tall structures through hands-on experiments in a workshop.
  • Relate hands-on activities to the experience of the attractions in the LEGOLAND® Discovery Center.

Workshops must be booked at least 1 week in advance. To reserve your workshop, please call 847-592-9708 or email Kristin.Guibas@merlinentertainments.biz.
Go  here to download your Chicagoland Homeschool discount coupon (if the link doesn’t work for you, you can cut and paste into your browser):

http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/upload/centres/chicago/us/Homeschool%20-%20Chicagolandhomeschoolnetwork%20coupon.pdf

Download and print off your coupon and bring it with you when you visit.

If you end up loving it, you can become a member (just $32 a year per person if purchased online) and enjoy it even more frequently, but either way you will more than likely come away with some great memories. Please feel free to spread the word about this fun learning opportunity.

It gets even better . . .

To help spread the word about these specially designed homeschool days, Legoland Discovery Center is giving away a free pass for one family (2 adults and up to four children) to enjoy their facility.

If you would like to enter this drawing you must leave a comment on this post. Everyone gets one free entry just by leaving a comment below. You can earn additional entries by spreading the word. If you facebook, blog, or tweet about the homeschool days at Legoland Discovery Center and this contest you can earn another entry, just come back and comment again each time, telling where you spread the word.

Contest closes on September 15 at 10:00 pm and the winner will be announced at that time.

TOS Crew Review — Grapevine Studies

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“Look, Mom. I just finished my third copy of the Old Testament stick figures.”

I guess we can say this one’s a keeper. Paige voluntarily drew three sets of the Old Testament stick figures from Adam to the 400 years of silence. All of my kids enjoyed Grapevine Studies‘ hands on approach to Bible study in which they actually get to draw the story.

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The first two weeks we sped through the entire Old Testament, highlighting all the major stories in a stick figure time line. Since then we have gone back to the beginning for a more detailed look at the events that started the world on its downward spiral of sin while those individuals kept their eyes seeking desperately forward to the promised Messiah.

Even for the non-artisan this is an excellent curriculum. It allows for creativity of expression, but also can simply provide a framework for reinforcing the story. They can just draw what they are shown, or they can run with it. You can draw the pictures yourself as you teach, or you can hold up the book for them to duplicate or gather inspiration.

Here is one of Faith’s (7yo)pages.
She wrote the letters in a color pattern,
which was time consuming, but it was uniquely her as a result.
What I loved:

– Getting the overall picture of God’s working through the Old Testament (we are still really at the beginning, but I can see my kids really putting together the red thread that ties all these well loved stories together)

– The simplicity of stick figuring. I am not a great artist and many of my kids take after me in that regard. This is something anyone can do. My five year old sometimes comes up with a better rendition than I have put together. Everyone gets to do their own thing as long as they accurately represent Scripture

– I love that we do this all together. From my four year old (who doodles along on his white board), to my 12 year old (who zips through the basic drawings and moves on to pondering the deeper messages of the Scripture passages), they all learn at their level, yet we go through it together. The Level 1 book was easily adaptable for all of them to benefit from. Getting a higher level book and expecting less of the younger students would most likely work as well. And, they do also have mutli-level studies available.

– The application is not book driven. The writer intentionally does this so as not to limit the products to any specific doctrinal background. We loved it. Our conversation each day took a personal path. We dug through Scripture, discussed what these events had to do with our daily lives, and benefited from the thinking patterns of each individual in the family. God speaks so clearly through His Word, that this provides us the order to follow and the framework for learning, and we take it from there.

What I tweaked:

– The memory verses. I like that they have a weekly memory verse, and that ones from earlier weeks are reviewed periodically to keep them from getting unmemorized. I wrote the verses out on note cards and we reviewed multiple verses each day. This way even when we have multiple verses to review we should get through most of them every week (or two), always keeping them fresh.

– The cards that are drawn up to summarize the lesson are helpful to bring it all together. I allowed my younger ones to draw the summary points (with stick figures) rather than write the many words out. We also did not use the actual page from the book, but rather used a simple 3×5 card for these review cards.

Challenges I faced:

– Dealing with the different speeds at which the kids worked and their level of interest in creating detailed drawings. To allow for this we went through the drawings together and discussed the verses and applications. Then if they needed extra time, they could use our read aloud time (which immediately follows Bible time) to finish up their drawings for the day.

Would I buy it?

Probably. When we first started, I thought probably not. As much as we were enjoying it, I personally have a strong Biblical knowledge base and I didn’t think a program like this would add much to what I could do on my own. However, it gives us a great framework and direction for our Bible times this school year. The kids are personally involved in recording the story so they really connect with it.I enjoy how easy it is to use, and yet how adaptable it is as well.

Would I recommend others to buy it?

Definitely. Memory work, multiple learning styles, easy to use format, reasonable price, all in one package. They have a New Testament survey as well which I might consider purchasing for next year.

If you do decide this is something that you would like for your homeschool, right now you can get it for an even better price.Grapevine has allowed you to enjoy 30% off their products for the next 30 days. Use this code: crews to receive your discount.You can choose between ebooks and regular books, whole Testament studies or special topics. The whole Testament overviews can take a full year to work through, but there are shorter studies available as well (Esther, Birth of Jesus, etc.)

The products that I actually used included the Old Testament Overview Level 1 student ebook ($25.95 for use in family), and the Level 1/2 Teacher book ($45.95 for the book or $22.95 for the ebook).

If you would like to read other reviews on Grapevine Studies, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Scholastic Warehouse sale

More sales . . .

I have personally enjoyed shopping this sale to stock up on free reading books, craft sets, and even stocking stuffers. Much of the warehouse is available at 50% off or more, they often have items for $1, and you can print out a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase when you register in advance. I don’t usually have a hard time finding $50 worth of items to fill my cart with.

Scholastic Please add BookFairs@emailer.scholastic.com to your address book.

Scholastic Book Fairs 'Back to School' Warehouse Sale!
Stock Up for the New School Year at Our Clearance Sale!
Deep discounts on selected titles
100’s of items below $5
Build home, school, and classroom libraries at a fraction of the price
50 to 80% OFF!

Sign Up Now to Receive a Valuable Coupon!
Go online to pre-register (enter source code: EMAIL) for a sale and get your Fast-Cart Pass. You’ll skip the sign-in lines and receive a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $60-$100 or $15 off a purchase greater than $100!
Exclusively for educators and Book Fair chairpeople / volunteers. Sale applies ONLY to preselected items marked down for clearance.

Visit Scholastic.com Book Fairs | Find a Warehouse Sale | Contact Us

Office Max Teacher Appreciation event

We rely on Office Max for lots of little, and occasionally big, items throughout our homeschool year.

Here is an event I have enjoyed in recent years (important note: check your local store for dates. Some have held these already, and others may not be on this same day, call ahead to make check your local details) :

OfficeMax
Office Supplies Paper Technology Ink and Toner Furniture
IN-STORE EVENT - AUGUST 9 TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY
Receive a FREE Reusable Shopping Bag and get 15% off everything you can fit inside*
Find a Store
PLUS, Receive a Coupon to EARN 15% in MaxPerks® Bonus Rewards on any printer purchase. Present your MaxPerks ID card and the coupon in-store to earn 15% in Bonus Rewards. Coupon Valid August 9 thru August 15.

*Valid August 9, 2009. Offer available to MaxPerks® Rewards for Teachers members or new teacher member sign-ups only.
All merchandise must fit inside this bag to qualify for the 15% discount. 15% discount applies to all regular, sale and clearance priced items, before taxes. 15% discount offer not valid on purchases of computers, monitors, printers, gift certificates, OfficeMax brand gift cards, general-use prepaid cards, phone cards, MaxAssurance® or assembly. Merchandise must be in original packaging. Discount applies to in-stock items only. Discount may only be used once. Special orders are not eligible for the 15% discount. Not valid with any other coupon offer, Associate discount card(s) and/or Retail ConnectSM Card pricing. No price adjustments from previous ads will be made. One bag per customer. Valid in-store only. No rainchecks will be given for this 15% discount. Void if copied, sold, transferred, taxed or where prohibited. Not valid on prior purchases or for credit card payments. No cash or credit back. Cash value .001¢. © 2009 OMX, Inc.
In the event the store runs out of the reusable bags, a substitute bag will be provided for use with the 15% discount. See store associate for complete details and exclusions.

♦Offer valid for MaxPerks® Rewards for Teachers members or new teacher member sign-ups only. 15% Bonus Reward valid on any printer purchase. Bonus Reward offer is available from August 9, 2009 to August 15, 2009. Items, and related Bonus Rewards, are available while supplies last. Member’s MaxPerks ID card and coupon must be presented at time of purchase; no Bonus Reward adjustments will be made after purchase. Bonus Reward offer valid in-store only. For percentage based Bonus Reward, percentage of Bonus Rewards issued is based upon price actually paid by Member, as advertised price can be reduced by any applicable coupon or discount. Bonus Rewards will be issued in the next statement cycle. Bonus Rewards for these offers, along with any other Bonus Rewards a Member may have earned during the same period, will be issued in the form of a reward card redeemable toward future purchases. Reward card expires 90 days from date of issuance except for reward cards for FL Members, which expire 1 year from date of issuance.

Private in-store event is for personal use only. Excludes gift cards. We reserve the right to limit quantities. Commercial credit cannot be used for payment. No other coupons will be honored at this event. Delivery items included. Not responsible for printing or typographical errors. All amounts represented in this email are subject to change. OfficeMax®, officemax.com, OfficeMax Express®, OfficeMax ImPress® and FurnitureMax® are registered trademarks of OMX, Inc.

Notebooking pages sale

Walmart is not the only place for back to school specials. The homeschool community is also bursting at the seams with special deals for people looking to stock up on items needed for the year ahead. For just another couple days you can enjoy an incredible discount at NotebookingPages.com.

Here is the deal through Friday, August 7th, 2009:

Gearing up for next year? Have a big wish list? With so many homeschooling curriculums, resources, and books available, it’s tough to pick and choose the best for your family and it’s even more difficult to make it all fit your budget. We cut the busywork out of our days years ago with notebooking and put an end to the major spending as well.

Finish your year without regrets!
At the end of the school year, instead of looking at unfinished workbooks and curriculums with regret and guilt, we pull out our notebooks and look back with joy and satisfaction on all we learned. It’s amazing to watch the kids read back over their notebooks – such pride and enthusiasm for what they captured from their studies.

Now is a great time to get started!
Perhaps you are a seasoned notebooking family or maybe you’ve been waiting to finish your current course of study before giving notebooking a try.  Whatever the study, whatever the topic . . .now is a super time to start (or stock up) with one (or ALL!) of our sets because . . .

EVERYTHING in the store is 50% off!

**Use the discount code below during checkout to receive your savings**

Use 50% discount code = b2school09 during checkout!

Click Here to Visit Store

Right now she has an unreal sale — for just $50 you can get all the pages she has created (the list is huge! States, Latin, history, character, etc.)

Even if you don’t decide to take advantage of the deals she has to offer right now, you can check out her many free resources that she has made available. I have used a number of these over the years with my kids. Well done, and ready to use.