Well it's getting to be that time of year, the end of another grade. Wow time flies, Gidget's first year of middle school and her first year of homeschool, gone by in the blink of an eye. 
  As usual, I have been reading and researching tirelessly to make next year even better than this year. Since starting homeschooling in November, I feel like I live on my computer. Google has become this girls best friend. I have learned so much these last few months about homeschool curricula. Foremost, that it could get super expensive super fast. I also learned that I'm not alone when it comes to realizing that what curricula sounds like a winner this year is a loser the next. Only meaning that it just isn't as good of a fit as we thought it was.
  Now I didn't go curriculum crazy for my first year, though I wanted to. I did spend way more than is possible for me to spend next year. So the all the reading and researching has been to design a solid inexpensive curriculum for our next school year. Though we will do some schooling over the summer, the 3 R's, Reading, Religion and Arithmetic. (Why is Arithmetic called an "R" when it starts with an "A" ?) 
 I feel super blessed to be homeschooling today. Not more than 10 years ago homeschooling parents didn't have the wonderful resources for their curriculum we do today. One of our biggest resources we have is the "Blog". I have learned a plethra of valuable information from so many wonderful homeschooling moms, and I have also been able to print some wonderful stuff that these moms are willing to share. It is thanks to all these wonderful free printables I am going to be able to homeschool for very little in the Fall.
 I am taking a cue from Debra Reed @ http://notebookingpages.com/ and using Notebooking as a major element in our curriculum. 
 I am finding myself a huge proponent of Notebooking. You can notebook virtually everything. Debrah at notebookingpages.com is adding Notebooking Publisher, which allows you to design your own template to match whatever project or topic you are working on. Another wonderful site for lapbooking is http://www.homeschoolshare.com. They have a blog and a site with downloadable templates for lapbooking. They also have a new program


(copied from homeschool share blog)
A FREE gift for the fantastic Homeschool Share Blog subscribers:

Templates You Can Type On!
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/blog/


Both sites have amazing resources and are very supportive if you have questions or need help. Please check them out, you won't be sorry. FYI, for all of you that use FIAR, homeschoolshare.com has lapbooks to support FIAR curriculum. I love both of the se sites and use them frequently.


Well I need to stop myself, I could go on and on and on about lapbooking and notebooking. I'd really love to hear from you if you use these methods of teaching, and share your projects with us. Hoping this finds you and yours well.


God Bless,
Kimmie