Lilla Rose Sale!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to take a minute and let everybody know about a great sale one of my favorite companies is having tomorrow--December 26, 2013.

Lilla Rose is a company that sells absolutely beautiful hair clips, bobby pins, headbands, etc.  But the important thing to me is not ONLY that I LOVE how pretty their things are--for my daughter and myself, the real clincher is that the Lilla Rose hair items hold our hair without hurting or pulling our hair!

I first discovered the Lilla Rose company this past October, after looking in stores for months for new hair items that were pretty and coming up with nothing.  After placing my first order, I waited to see how much I would REALLY like the clips I had ordered.  Well, it took me one day--actually, I would say within the first five minutes of trying one of the Lilla Rose clips in my hair I knew I liked it, but by the end of that first day I also knew they held my very fine textured hair super well.  I loved the clips SO much, that before long I signed up to be an independant Lilla Rose consultant--I told you I loved them! :)  And while I have extra fine hair, the clips come in different sizes to hold ALL types of hair, so no matter if you have short fine hair or long thick curly hair, there is a size that will work great in your hair too!  On the web site is a fantastic sizing video that helps so much in knowing what size clip will work in your hair.  When I was placing my first order, I watched this video first and was able to pick immediately the correct clip size for my hair.

Anyway, tomorrow--December 26, 2013, they are having a 24 hour only sale.  (All times are Pacific Time.) Details are 15% off new styles, 10% off everything else, and FREE shipping on orders over $26. Also, no backorders will be permitted during this sale. To me, just the free shipping alone makes it a great sale!  So if you are like me, and wanting something that will hold your hair well, be comfortable, AND be absolutely lovely, I would highly encourage you to check out my Lilla Rose web site!  The link to my site is:  www.lillarose.biz/SusansSpot.

If you like the Lilla Rose items you see, I would really appreciate it if you would share my web site link with your friends.  And remember, the sale is for on the 26th only--so if you are reading this on the evening of the 25th, go to my site and look around but the sale prices will not show until December 26.

The above picture is just one I took real quick tonight of my own personal Lilla Rose clips.  It is not a professional picture by any means, and in "real life" these clips are much prettier than they appear--but I did want to give you some idea of what these hair clips look like.  So if this is something interesting to you, go look at the web site and have fun!

~Susan

Adventist Heritage Tour: From the Cradle to the Grave

Hi Everyone!

Above is the main video, of my son Austin visiting the birthplace of Uriah and Annie Smith, two of Seventh-Day Adventism's youthful pioneers. They go on to visit the grave of Annie, and hear some fascinating stories from Elder Jim Nix of the White Estate. Below is some extra footage from the Annie Smith grave.

Shot on location in New Hampshire!



Hope you have enjoyed these videos!  I STILL wish I could have gone along with him on his trip, but have to admit this IS the next best thing!

Happy Sabbath Everyone!

~Susan

Hands-on Math: It's for Everyone!

Hands-on math.  Just the term itself instantly makes one think of kindergarten students playing with blocks as they add one block with another block.  And this is good--kindergarten level students SHOULD be using blocks (and rocks, matchbox cars, plastic toys, etc.) to help them learn how to add.  But far too often parents and teachers fall into the trap of putting away the "messy" math manipulatives way too quickly, exchanging them instead for neatly bound math workbooks with hundreds of spaces for our students to fill in.  Upon finishing all the problems, we feel like they have "done the grade."

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Keep reading!  This entire article is featured as a guest post over at http://sdahomeschools.com/hands-on-math-its-for-everyone/ today!  Learn why we should keep hands-on math in our home schools, and gather some ideas of how to do it.  Share YOUR great ideas for hands-on math projects in the comments! :)

~Susan

Adventist Heritage Tour: Old Sturbridge Village

For those of you who would like to have the opportunity to tour Old Sturbridge Village, come along with Austin as he shares this next stop on his Adventist Heritage Tour!

Enjoy!

~Susan

A Blizzard of Kindness

 Hi Everyone!

Thought I might share a quick idea today that we are currently doing in our homeschool.  As many homeschoolers did, the month of November found us putting leaves up on a "Thankful Tree."  I had a brown construction paper tree trunk, and cut many different colored fall leaves which we attached to the trunk with pins on our felt board.  Anyone in the family could up a leaf up, though it was mostly my daughter and I.

This activity worked great, and my daughter had a blast not only placing leaves on our "tree," but also creating a huge pile of leaves underneath the tree.  I liked that it was encouraging her to count her blessings--instead of the all to easy complaining.

SO--I really hated to take it down, but it was time.  After a while ideas sort of lose their effectiveness anyway, and it is time for something new.  While pondering what in the world I could do to carry this idea forward, I thought of making a winter time snowman, and letting my daughter put up snowflakes.  But just to keep things fresh, I decided to put a little change to things.  Instead of writing what we are thankful for on each snowflake, we are instead putting up a snowflake when we have done something for someone else that was an act of kindness.

I was hoping this would ensure that we were not just simply writing down the same "thankful" things over and over without giving it much thought.
The conditions for being able to put up a snowflake are this:  1)  if it's your regular job, such as making your own bed, that doesn't count  2) if you are asked to do it, it doesn't count--but lots of things "count" if you see that the job needs doing and do it on your own before being asked.  :)

We have only been doing this a day or two, but so far I am loving it!  I decided to have my daughter write briefly on each snowflake what the kind act was--she HAS to be brief, because there isn't much room on them, especially the small ones!  Therefore, phrases are definitely "in," not complete sentences.  This morning I entered the kitchen to find the counters cleared, the dishwasher emptied, and the dirty dishes loaded into the dishwasher!  Yes! :)  She probably would have been asked to do those jobs after breakfast time anyway, but it is a whole lot more fun for her if she is being able to "make it snow" on top of our snowman, and I like that it is helping her to look around and think about what she can do to help in any given situation.  And to help keep it fun, I am also looking around to see what I can do that is not in my "regular" jobs.  Sometimes for a mom, that isn't easy to find, because we "regularly" do pretty much everything!  But I did loan my daughter my scarf last night, so when we returned home up went a snowflake for me with the words "loaned scarf" written on it!

Nitty gritty--My felt board is a piece of plywood purchased at Lowes and cut a tiny bit smaller there at the store.  I covered it with felt from JoAnn's Fabrics, and simply glued the felt on with Alene's tacky glue.  It is not mounted, but simply sits and leans against the wall in our classroom corner of our living room.  Usually I attach things to the board using straight pins, though large posters and such I hang from the top using binder clips.  My snowman we actually painted on a huge piece of manila paper that I had laying around leftover from a stack I bought years ago to homeschool big brother.  When the paint dried, I cut the snowman out and made the rest of the snowman accessories out of construction paper and glued or pined them on.  The snowflakes themselves I cut out using an Ellison machine at our local college Teachers Material Center.  I realize most people do not have access to an Ellison machine, so I would recommend looking at a Dollar Tree store or some other place for a snowflake shape if you want to try this--or better yet, a teacher store such as Schoolbox.  And if all else fails, set your kids up with paper and scissors and have them cut you a stack of them!

Hope this has helped spark some ideas for you!  Feel free to leave me ideas of what YOU are doing in your homeschools in the comments.  January will be coming, and I am going to have to think of something new to do for then!

~Susan