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Online Lenovo Coupons, Bargains & Deals
Get the best deals with buy.com coupons at Coupon Mountain.
Dentyne: the same great taste, with a whole new look.
It's like Dentyne's packaging went through an Extreme Makeover, and it even included an artist!
Unless you like searching in your bags or between the seats of your vehicle for your gum, you'll appreciate this cup holder style bottle that Dentyne has come out with.
I have always had a liking for Sock Monkeys. They are just the cutest things.
In yesterday's post I told you abou tthe Disney Pillowcase Art kits from Janlynn. They also have super fun Peejay Sock Monkey kits to make your very own stuffed pet.
Activities, Art, Children, Crafts, Homeschool, Toys 
What child is not familiar with the popular Disney characters? Especially the younger ones, who adore having their special space decked out with their favorite movie pals.
When Amber was 5 she went through a Buzz Lightyear phase, and she wanted everything in her room to show that Buzz was "the" best thing in inner and outer space!
Which brings us back to the Disney characters and where your child lays their head. Janlynn has wonderfully fun (and practical) Pillowcase Art kits featuring your kids' favorite Disney movies and characters. Hannah Montana, Disney Princesses and Cars are just a few of the options available.
Imagine a toothbrush so much fun to use that kids would brush your teeth without a single reminder from Mom or Dad.
Dr. Fresh is asking second through fifth graders across the U.S. to dream up just such a toothbrush with “Be A Dental Inventor” – the fourth annual toothbrush design contest celebrating National Children’s Dental Health Month this February 2010. www.drfresh.com.
Ojolie.com contacted me to use and review their E-Card site, which features the hand painted works of Frederikke Tu.
I was especially interested in this, as I generally wait too long to send cards for occasions to my friends and relatives in Canada, and then they usually don’t get acknowledged for their birthdays or other occasions at all (oops).
A few weeks ago I was introduced to a product called Wall Slicks by Modern Wall Graphics. This innovation in home decor is awesome, especially for people who don't want to fuss with paint, holes and/or tape.
Whether you want a high-style, sleek, contemporary or cutesy look, you can find Wall Slicks to fit your needs.
You could do one of two things: Choose one of the many pre-made designs from the site, or have a custom phrase or saying made just for you.
2009 Holiday Gift Guide, Art, Design, Home 
Grab your lightsaber (okay, just your pencil) and get ready to draw!
In a book not so far away, you will master the art of drawing all of your favorite Star Wars The Clone Wars characters.
Klutz's Draw Star Wars The Clone Wars is what you definitely want to get if you've ever wanted to draw your favorite characters from the show.
The book is amazing in the way that it allows you to draw the characters and practice to get them just right.
There are pages where you can try tracing, like this
2009 Holiday Gift Guide, Activities, Art, Books, Contest, Picture, Review, TV, Video, Website Amber loves to draw. Loves, loves, loves it. She's pretty good at it too, and that's not just a biased mom talking, really it's not.
When I was approached to review some of The Complete Idiot's Guide books (see my review of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Slow Cooker Cooking), I right away knew that Amber would flip if I got this one for her. What a great mom I am, heh? So the following is a review from my guest blogger Amber who also has her own blog at Hyper's Corner.
To put it simply, this book is amazing.
I found this book to be extremely insightful on everything you need to know about drawing Manga.
It covers topics ranging from body types to speech bubbles, expressions to weapons, characters to speed lines, and even my personal nemesis: the art of drawing hands.
There are guides on backdrops and shading, close-ups, and drawing critters.
My only complaint is that the step-by-step guides don't have enough steps, so I get lost trying to figure out what to do.
This book is for anyone who thinks they want to draw Manga, and doesn't think they can do it! However, the book is not for all ages, as some of the pictures (while not drawn to be bad) for the women charcter aren't quite right for young kids.
The following picture was drawn by me, with inspiration and teaching from the book. It was sketched in pencil and gone over with black pen.
In mid July I was sent a package from MyBlogSpark in order for my family to try the new limited edition Trix Swirls cereal. Amber was pleased to see all the wonderful art goodies inspired by Trix Swirls that they included along with the cereal.
The cereal didn't last long sitting in the cupboard. Um...honestly...I was the first to dip into the box.
It tastes just as good as it looks, and a small victory for parents is won since it is a good source of calcium and vitamin D. The 2 fruity colors in every puff may make you feel like celebrating, but the 0g of saturated fat and the whole grain guarantee General Mills gives will make you celebrate!
Do you want to try and win a box of Trix Swirls along with the art supplies pictured above? Two of my readers will receive one courtesy of MyBlogSpark and General Mills.
To enter: In the spirit of Trix Swirls leave a comment telling me what two favorite things do your children like to swirl together? (Required)
For extra entries: (leave a comment for each eligible entry)
1. Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway, I've made it easy simply click on the retweet button in the corner of this post. (This can be done daily)
2. Subscribe to my feed by reader or e-mail.
3. Follow my blog publicly.
4. Add my button to your blog.
5. Blog about this giveaway linking back to this post.
This giveaway is open to US Residents ages 18+, and will end on August 1, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst.
For our homeschool art class we are using Spear's Art Studio curriculum. I love these art lessons and if you are interested in reading a review you can see one here.
A couple of weeks ago we did a lesson based on the works of Georgia O'Keefe. Then Amber did a picture of her own similar in style. The lesson was entitled Larger Than Life.
We still haven't figured out where her drawing talent came from as both Hubby and I are art challenged!
(added 7/10/09) I am entering this drawing in a contest at Toddler Craft. Go and see the rest of the entries they are fun!
Amber, Art, Homeschool, Picture, Wordless Wednesday 
Tapestry of Grace is a balanced approach curriculum which includes reading, writing, research, hands on projects and more!
Through the TOS Crew, I was able to try out a unit of my choice, in their new digital edition format! So I chose the Year One, Unit 2.
Let me start by saying that this is an incredibly in depth curriculum. It covers from Creation through to 2001 over 4 years. The way it is presented you can use it with all your children at one time also. History, literature, vocabulary, writing, and art appreciation are all included. Really you would need only add your own math, science and optional electives to it. They also provide separate bonus bundles for even more educational value.
It is hard not to be overwhelmed with this when you first look at it. Don't be discouraged! There is so much information and it takes a bit to get a feel for how to use it. That being said, The Loom portion of their website, is an amazing resource. Because we could not find any of the books at our library for the Indus Valley section we used resources entirely from The Loom.
The TOS Crew got to be the "guinea pigs" for the new digital edition format. The customer services support was good. I did have to e-mail twice for an answer, however in their defense they were extremely busy getting the kinks worked out for the many units they sent to the crew. To their credit, when I received my answer, my problem was solved. Tapestry of Grace has now streamlined their download of the Digital Edition, and it is even easier than when the crew downloaded it.
I personally found the digital version difficult to navigate. It is all done up in a .pdf format, but for some reason I found that there was a lot of repetition to what I was looking at. First a student version then a teacher version, and without printing, I was constantly going back and forth, not knowing which one to use. If I were to purchase the curriculum, printing it would defeat the purpose of having a digital over print edition, so I myself, would not go that route. While I'm very technical, and have no problems finding my way around computers or other technology, for schooling I still prefer paper and ink books to teach from.
Printed versions are available for $225.00 per year (as supplies are available), and the digital editions cost $170.00 per year.
It is hard to say whether Tapestry of Grace is cost effective. If you have more than one child perhaps it might be. Purchasing the books that are suggested to compliment the curriculum would be pricey, and since our (what I consider) well stocked library system, didn't have any (seriously, not one of them) of the recommended books in the Indus Valley section of the unit, I was out of luck. You could substitute books, but with teaching only one child that would have been a time consuming process for me, and I was personally unwilling to commit that kind of time to find appropriate substitutes. Another thought to consider, is due to the nature of how easy it would be to copy and violate terms, the digital edition is not re-sellable. So if you would purchase that over the actual print copy, it would be an investment that you could not recoup the cost on.
For me, (and I realize others may see it differently), Tapestry of Grace, is a lot of work for the teacher. It takes a lot of planning. If you are using books from the library, you need to do quite a bit of pre-planning to make sure they're available when you need them, find substitutes if they are not.
I actually have mixed feelings about Tapestry of Grace. On the one hand I think it is a fabulous curriculum, great quality and covers all of the history, geography, and language arts core that you would need to teach your children, and all from a Christian World View. That is invaluable. On the other hand, as a homeschool parent of one, really it is not a curriculum I would choose to use. Parents who don't mind the prep intensive work or care whether or not it can be resold (in the case of the digital edition), may really want to investigate this further.
A free three week trial is available at their website. You may also want to read more reviews at the TOS Crew Blog.
Activities, Art, Blog, Books, Homeschool, Review, The Old Schoolhouse, Website 
Every time Genius shows me a completed drawing that she's done, it affirms to me that God does indeed make everyone unique. Her talent and desire for art cannot be genetic, as neither Hubby nor myself can draw much more than stick people. I think I've mentioned before that besides construction paper and glue, art intimidates me!
As part of the TOS Crew, I (well actually Genius I guess), was sent a copy of the Senior High Book 1: The Elements of Art and Composition by Artistic Pursuits.
This book gives students in-depth experience with the elements of art and composition. The book will lay a solid foundation for first time high school art students and challenge experienced students as well with emphasis on personal expression and application of the creative process. Students explore the elements of art and composition through European art.
Each lesson Genius has worked on, following the book on her own, has been wonderful. She looks forward to when she gets to do art during her school day so she can complete and continue on with new projects in this book.
This would be a really good investment for any family that would need an art course to fulfill for high school. This particular book, is in my opinion a bargain at $42.95. Since each book is designed for a full year, completing the course would give your student one credit. Their website even gives you all the information you need for a high school transcript.
Artistic Pursuits offers curriculum all the way from Preschool to two different levels of Senior High. If you would like to read more reviews about this specific book, as well as other levels that they offer, visit the TOS Crew blog page.
Art, Blog, Books, Homeschool, Review, The Old Schoolhouse, Website I've shared in so many posts already how Genius just loves to draw. Both on paper and on the computer.
Doug Hatch of Core Learning so generously sent us Corefx Three Level and the Crayola Art Studio to enjoy and draw with!
Corefx Three Level is a graphic design program that has three levels to learn and play on. Crayola Art Studio was released in November and it has the first two levels from Corefx plus some additional art images supplied by Crayola. Crayola Art Studio is great for young children who art starting to work with digital art.
Level One is pretty basic with little children in mind. It has a crayon, marker and brush for manipulating colors to draw with.
Level Two is more advanced than the first level. Though not difficult to understand. It has a wider variety of textures to use and clip art to add more options to create.
Level Three is what Genius declares is "a winner". She stated that Corefxhas a lot of feature that for her make it better than Photoshop.
Different textures and types of brushes you can use.
You can create a picture using pixel by pixel (or manipulate an already created picture).
It has a straight line tool (very important for drawing).
It is much more user friendly and very easy to use and understand, than other graphic design software.
For me as a mom, I think it is a great program because it is very versatile to use with many ages because of the three levels. It is also a more affordable option than most graphic software available, the cost of it is $59.95. It has been awarded a number of accolades as well, which to me shows that others also think it is a quality product.
Here is a picture that Genius created using CoreFX.
She used the following tools to create this image:
Core Learning provides more than Corefx and Crayola Art Studio though. They offer Math, Health, Language, and Critical Thinking software as well.
Head over to Core Learning to learn about all their products. There are 3 day download demos available for both the Crayola Art Studio and Corefx, as well as screenshots of some of their other software. All of the products sold have a detailed description of what they entail, and make sure to check out their
Current Specials page in order to get the best deal possible!
Genius has three ideas for career opportunities that she would like to explore for her future.
The first one is engineering. She is interested in getting a degree to be able to use that to design roller coasters, and if that fun job doesn't pan out, maybe just bridges (lol!). She will be attending a one day seminar at the state college in March to get a better idea of what an engineer actually does. That should be fun!
The second is to be adept at computer networking. That hardly surprised me. Hubby has had three computers networked and running since she was old enough to walk and talk (meaning she has had her own, since the day she was able to use it). Watching Daddy disassemble, insert memory/hard drives/dvd drives etc, and reassemble the computer is a daily activity around here.
The third one is to become a graphic designer. Again this didn't shock us. If she isn't drawing with paper and pencils, she's drawing on the computer. Last year I bought myself Photoshop Elements to do digital scrapbooking with, and Genius promptly absconded with the discs to load them on her computer so she could draw with it.
She designed the above book cover, for a language arts assignment, after we read the book Frindle. She was tasked with drawing an alternate cover that would explain the book. If you've ever read it, I think she did a great job, how about you?
In any case, I'm too cheap to look for any other programs for her to fiddle with at the moment. They can be very expensive, and some aren't user friendly. We've checked out some of the downloadable free ware programs, but again, either they're not easy to learn or don't have the options she's looking for.
Core Learning (who incidentally was a part of the TOS Crew Marketing Campaign, but I never received a product from them to review), has a program called Corefx Level 3, that looks perfect for what Genius aspires to do with her graphic designing.
A fellow TOS Crewer, has a giveaway on her blog for this software, courtesy of Core Learning, the deadline to enter is Friday, January 9th at Midnight CST. If you are interested in winning, head on over to Freely Educate!
For as long as I can recall, Genius has been coloring, drawing, sculpting, cartooning, and most recently graphic designing, whenever she has a spare moment. The thought of teaching art, beyond the construction paper and paste though, made me slightly nauseous, and so since it is not a requirement in our state until high school, I put it aside.
However, that all changed when the package from Spears Art Studio Inc arrived. If you are looking for a curriculum to teach your children art from a Biblical World View, you need look no further. This one’s gold.
Art, Genius, Homeschool, Photograph, Picture, Review, The Old Schoolhouse, Website 
