Angry Birds Free Download

Saw on Hunt for Freebies this morning. Free Angry Birds download for your computer. You need to download the Intel App and register but it is painless and easy. Angry Birds will be in your apps when that is done. If you like Angry Birds hurry. Only 150,000 free downloads available.

The Post That Isn't Clever

I have started a post several times and just can't come up with anything that is worth writing. I think I have clever things to say but when I re-read them I come to the conclusion they are not so clever after all.

In an attempt to make myself think I haven't just wasted an hour typing and deleting I thought I would post a freebie. This is a link for a free preschool reading program. The free part is only available for the month of January. It is a 2 year program and is normally $249. www.funnix.com

This looks like quite the find for preschoolers. If you know someone please pass it on.

iPAD Giveaway at Frugal Family Fun Blog

Go to Frugal Family Fun Blog to enter to win an iPad and an assortment of children’s books courtesy of Target!

Game Give Away of the Day

Today's free game from Game Give Away of the Day is somewhat educational. Around the World in 80 Days has you reading literature, traveling the world (in 80 days) and patterning (is that a word) as you collect various items needed for your travels.

It is good today only for free download. Check it out!~

Around the World in 80 Days

~Happy Trails...

Mardi Gras Lessons

Today is Shrove Tuesday. A day for fun and mayhem. :) Here are some ideas for ya. Have a happy celebration.

Wicked Pickles Mardi Gras Celebration 2009 - pancake races and flipping, special food, learning and fun

Education World - lesson plan

Lesson Plans - a number of lesson plans to go through

Mardi Gras Celebration - grades 4-5

History of Mardi Gras - grades 3-4

Mardi Gras Day - grades 9-12

Mardi Gras Mask - craft project

Mardi Gras ESL

Knowledge Hound - lessons, recipes, more

Healthy Mardi Gras Recipes

Activity Villiage - crafts and more

Olney Pancake Races - read about this race and then watch the 2007 races

Presidents Day Freebies

Lesson plans, audio, video and more. Have a good one!

Teacher Vision - many links, some free-some not

Great American Presidents - audio download

Mister President - audio download

History Channel Presidents - short online videos

American Presidents - cool interactive website

The Presidents Series - on The History Channel today at 1 Central

Teacher Planet - lesson plans

Brainpop - free Abraham Lincoln online video

Homeschooling the Middle Years - President's Day Lesson Plan

PawPaw Holler Homeschool -Great list of resources-One of my new favorite blogs!

Free Book

Check out Wordplay Cafe. It looks very cool and it is very free. :-)

http://dogfoose.com/wordplay-cafe/


Gerky (where did my siggy go to??)

Perseid Meteor Shower

Tomorrow night and Wednesday night will be great nights to view the Perseid meteor shower. According to The National Association for Amateur Radio,

"On the night of August 11 and well into the next day, Earth will make its annual passage through the bulk of the debris shed by a comet known as Swift-Tuttle. Much of the debris is composed of dust-sized grains, but when these fragments come plunging into our atmosphere they can create a dazzling meteor display. Not only are the meteors fascinating to watch, they also leave short-lived streams of ionized gas in their wake. As hams have known for years, these meteor trails are excellent reflectors of radio waves.

The Swift-Tuttle meteor showers are known as the Perseids because they appear to come from a point in the sky that lies within the constellation Perseus. This year's shower is forecast to be especially active because we're about to pass through a somewhat thicker filament of dust that boiled off Swift-Tuttle in 1862."

Today, Homeschool Freebie of the Day has some resources available for download to explain how, when, where to view the shower.

Go check them out and have fun meteor watching!

Art Book Giveaway

Head over to Art Lessons for Kids and sign up for a chance to win a free e-book! All you need to do is leave a comment on her blog and post a link on yours. Easy as pie. Mmmm...pie. While there, check out some of the cool ideas she has going on. You won't be sorry!

And Speaking of Presidential Libraries...

I forgot to mention in my last post to check out the great site that the JFK Presidential Library and Museum has. The picklets are LOVING this site and I am NOT kidding.

This site is awesome with a capital A! In honor of the 40 year anniversary of the Moon Landing, We Choose the Moon is a wonderful, interactive site that tracks the happenings of Apollo 11 as it happened 40 years ago.

I love that the picklets can get a good dose of history in a fun manner like this. Check it out! It has the 6 thumbs up picklets sign of approval!

©2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Don't Forget!

This weekend (July 18-19) the National Park Service is offering free admitance to some of the National Parks. Over 100 parks are included. Here is a state by state list of the participating parks. (Only one park is listed for Iowa...glad I checked!) For information on the free weekends go here.

I love going to the National Parks. The NPS offers lesson plans online for teachers plus games and Jr. Ranger programs for students. (Iowa doesn't offer the Jr. Ranger program )-:)

I found that the Herbert Hoover Museum and Library (in Iowa) has a pretty good Laura Ingalls Wilder lesson page that is fitting right in to my unit with Sweet. And how cool is it that the Hoover Museum is having Laura Ingalls Wilder day in September? Very cool for us I do say!

We will be passing this up this weekend but if you have a National Park near you, put the honey-do list on hold, pack a picnic, buckle up the kids, fill up the car and head there FAST for a fantastic day of fun, history and, of course, great family time!

And if you can't make it this weekend there is another one scheduled in August. Be sure to mark it on your calenders. :-)

©2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Rosetta Stone

***
Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!
***

Oh boy, I hope I win this. Latin is something I have always wanted to learn myself and the benefits to teaching the picklets Latin are too numerous to count!

Week in Review

It has been almost a week since I posted, but there really hasn't been a lot going on.

Mother's Day was absolutely, relaxingly wonderful. I was served a breakfast of dunkin' eggs, toast, juice and coffee in bed with a side of red Starbursts, two packs of gum and a freshly picked violet from the yard. After I ate I was given a Willow Tree figurine. I LOVE Willow Tree! This one was a "school marm". That's me!

I stayed in bed watching Married With Children, checked my email, watched some more TV, made a plate of microwave nachos about noon and took a nap in the afternoon. Cool and I went "curb shopping", one of our favorite activities, about 6:00 and stopped at the gas station to buy a malt. It was nasty and I won't make that mistake again. We picked up a card table and 4 folding chairs. We didn't have one and really could use it. We watched more TV and were in bed by 9:00. I did absolutely NOTHING and LOVED it.

Monday we had a meeting at Sokol. Sweet had some time on the mat before the other classes started and worked on her round-off, back handspring, back flip. She is landing on her feet though her flip isn't going as high in the air as it should.

Tuesday we went on our annual Mother's Day Mushroom Hunt, cause it was too cold for mushrooms on Sunday. I found out that mom and dad were camping in the park we planned on going to so decided to have a picnic with them. Cool got off work early and we headed up to the park. The clouds kept rolling in but it didn't discourage us. We got to the park about 5:00, got half way around the lake when the lightning, thunder and rain started. We had to call my dad to pick us up on the other side of the lake. We ended up taking the burgers home and cooking them on the stove top since the rain put out the fire and filled up the fire ring.

We saw goslings, deer in the woods, many tracks and actually found mushrooms! Of course Of course I didn't have my camera with me. It never fails...if I don't have my camera there is a ton to shoot.

Wednesday I worked all day. We had the last meeting of the school year with our supervising teacher. She gave the kids Popsicles in which they were eternally grateful. Sweet cracked her lip open earlier in the day so it felt good on her lip.

The picklets have been working in workbooks for our scholastic experience for the week. I did start each of the kids using Mindsprinting for math. I love it as it gives an assessment test and places them in the proper level. It isn't a compete curriculum, but with some supplementing it is pretty good. The best part is that it is free! Today I am hoping to make a Diet Coke Geyser after our morning activities. Only time will tell and I will post more on that later.

I wish I could say we have been more interesting but I just have no umph in preparing fun things to do.

© 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming!

"...One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm...."

Tomorrow (4/18/2009) marks the 234th anniversary of Paul Revere's infamous ride. Visit Homeschool Freebie of the Day to find

• Listen My Children (MP3 audio),
• Listen My Children Listening Guide (PDF ebooklet)
• Paul Revere's Ride (MP3 audio)
• PDF art study depicting Paul Revere

all available to download for free. I LOVE FREE!

Learning A-Z

Learning A-Z is having their annual open house May 4-8. During this open house they will offer some of their resources to download for free!

All Week RAZ-kids.com will be available
May 4: Reading A-Z
May 5: Science A-Z
May 6: Writing A-Z
May 7: Vocabulary A-Z
May 8: Reading-tutors.com

Head over to the open house to register. These sites get really busy the later in the day you go so try to visit them early.

(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

WIN FREE CROCS!

I have had several pairs of Crocs, the Payless Shoe variety that is. I have never owned a real pair so man was I excited when I saw that two people will win a pair of Crocs, valued up to $50, over at Simple Mom. Entering is simple...pop over to her blog and read how. Here's hoping you win right along with ME!

Earth

Have you seen the commercials for Earth yet? If not, take a look at this.

It looks like an awesome movie. The picklets want to go see it opening day. it might be possible if we win this:

Pledge to make every day Earth Day
Sign up for Ideal Bite, and we’ll enter you to win a family four-pack of tickets to the World Premiere of the first Disneynature film, EARTH, in Los Angeles, CA on April 18, 20091. The winner will also get2:
Round-trip, coach class airfare for four (4) from a major airport near the winner's home to Los Angeles, CA
Two (2) nights of hotel accommodations in Los Angeles, CA (single room, quad occupancy)

Does that rock or what??

Free Stuff

While searching the web aimlessly this morning I found some pretty neat stuff. I thought I would share.

Free Art Coloring Pages: This site is really neat. You can find classical art coloring pages. From da Vinci to Van Gogh and artsits inbetween. If you are studying an artist or just want to expose the kidlings to classical art check this site to see if they have a coloring sheet to corespond. Also check the side bar. There are links to coloring sheets for mandalas that look really cool.

Rhyme Zone: This site is great especially since it is National Poetry Month. Type in the word you need a rhyme for and hit the "go get it" button and a list of rhyming words will come up.

Abiator's Interactive Zone: Wow! From math to language arts to learning styles to unit studies. This is a pretty rad site. Click a link and explore all there is. Some of the inner links are not working but most of the links do. You won't be sorry for checking it out. :-)

Amy's Electronic Classroom: Amy has math helps for grades 3-8. There are some fun looking activities on here. We are going to mathimatical poetry today.

Have fun!

Boomtown Giveaway

Check out The Bookworms Booklist for a chance to win an autographed copy of Boomtown PLUS an autographed map! SaWeeeet! Check the book out below!



According to the Boomtown Bookstore:

Boomtown by Nowen N. Particular
Hardcover, 320 pages, including illustrations, diagrams and maps.
Ages 9-14. Great for boys! (Girls and grown-ups love it, too!)

Exploding Elves, Rocket Reindeer, Baseball Bazookas, POPcorn, Hot Cakes, Hen Grenades, and flying barber chairs. What do they have in common? Boomtown...where everyone’s favorite thing to do is blow stuff up!

Boomtown is the home of Chang’s Famous Fireworks Factory, where some of the world’s most amazing fireworks are made - and the center of a mystery that only Sheriff Burton Ernie can solve. Or can he?

Unexplained robberies continue as the Button family and the odd citizens of Boomtown celebrate the annual 4th of July parade, the Spring Fever Festival, and witness the weirdest Slug football game every played. There’s the Hopontop Traveling Circus, the Boomtown Museum with its crazy inventions, and the bicycle Slushathon, not to mention the “curse” that threatens to shorten the life of Arthur Button - unless his son, Jonny, can save him.
The good folks of Boomtown are always there to help a neighbor in need - but they’re also a bunch of firecrackers - unpredictable and a little bit dangerous. So you might want to stand back! The fuse is lit! Things are about to explode!

Secular Homeschooling Magazine Giveaway

Homeschooledyear is having a contest to win a 1 year subscription to Secular Homeschooling. This magazine rocks! I haven't subscribed simply because Cool has informed me if I subscribe to another magazine he will pull his hair out. I like my man's hair so I refrained. But he didn't say nuttin' about winning a subscription. MWAAAAAAAAA!