I Am So Happy It is Fall

Well....sort of.

I mean, the calendar says that it is fall.  My teenage girls have pulled out their boots and scarves.

However, our air conditioning is still on.  I am still wearing sandals and my cute Jamberry pedicures everywhere I go.

But, I did actually make a pot of chili and bake an apple pie yesterday.

So, yes...it is officially fall.

Once "real fall" finally gets here and I can turn off the a/c and open windows....and maybe, just maybe...... even put on a pair of socks, and wear my hair down, I will be even happier.

Fall does last longer down here in the South.  Unlike Minnesota where the leaves change, you get a day or two of beauty and then wham....all the leaves fall....and it is done.  Then, it snows.  Ha!

Down here, fall actually lasts through February/March....and then spring is here.  So, ha again!

So, yes, I am happy.  I am hoping that the cooler weather will motivate me to get some things done that it has just been too warm to otherwise talk myself into.  We shall see.  I am still struggling with stupid thyroid stuff and related things.  I now have something called Hypocalcemia (which is basically low calcium levels) and whatever the name is for low Potassium (I don't feel like looking it up for you).

I am sick of being tired. I am sick of being bigger than I should be.  I am sick of having a foggier than normal brain.

But, on the positive side, I have had the privilege of getting to take care of some wonderful babies lately....so, life is  awesome!  There is nothing like the snuggles and happy grins you get out of little people.  I mean.....look at these faces!

Get off your device A-girl.....there is something way more interesting and cute right next to you!

And, Rainman tells me I should be able to turn off the a/c and open the windows soon.....so, yes, I am  happy it is fall.  I am off to make some apple crisp now.

Super Teacher Worksheets - Review

We got the chance for another "super" product to review!  Super Teacher Worksheets  is just what is says.....worksheets....that make you feel like a super teacher.   Ha!



Seriously.  This was a fantastic product for us.  Fantastic, I said.

So, in a nutshell, you become a member of this website for $19.95 a year - for an individual membership.  Oh and by the way, it is a calendar year, so 365 days of access. So, I will do the math for you - it ends up being like 5 cents a day!  Once you have become a member you have access to over 10,000 worksheet pages.

Magical, I tell you.

This is one of those products that is fantastic for homeschoolers and public schoolers alike.  And, really, really good for the parents of those kids.



Through this membership, you have access to worksheets from Pre-K up to grade 5 right now.  Looks like they are adding in a few things for the older kids, but, for now it is primarily for the early elementary ages.

So, I used this for V-girl (Grade 1), S-Girl, (Grade 3), and A-man (Grade 5).

I would say that I didn't primarily use these for extra school work, at home, although I did do that too.  But, what I did the most of is them for activity sheets when we were out and about at doctor's appointments and things like that.

For example, A-girl takes golf lessons (shooting for that ever elusive golf scholarship).  The place that she takes lessons gives us 50% off of ala carte menu items.  We'd had a particularly hectic and busy week, so Rainman and I decided that the kids and I all deserved a treat and would go eat lunch when A-girl went for her lessons.

So, that morning, I logged onto my Super Teacher Worksheet page and skimmed through my options.  There were word finds, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, math pages that were coloring pages that revealed a secret picture, state information pages and holiday special pages.  (Seriously, that is just a small sampling of your options).



Anyway, I logged on and picked a few things for each of the kids.  I actually think I found a few for L-girl to try too (who is in 8th grade).

I am sure when the restaurant staff saw the 6 of us troop in, in the middle of the day, on a school day, they were nervous.  It is a nice, golf course restaurant with glass glasses already waiting on the table.  But, they didn't need to be.  We sat down, we figured out what we were going to order off the menu (snuck in a little math lesson to figure out what 50% off would be of all of our choices) and I distributed the Super Teacher Worksheets that I had printed off.  And, that was that.  We were there for a total of about 2 hours and there were no problems or reasons for us to get asked to leave or anything!  Ha!

No, the kids weren't silent.  There were discussions about how to do problems, and guesses on what the secret picture would turn out to be.  Requests for a red or blue crayon.  Even a big sister reminding a little sister how to borrow when doing subtraction.  A mom helping correct a graph coordinate mistake so the picture would actually look like a sail boat and not some random thing.

And, get this, it was relaxing for me.  It was amazing.  Plus, I got a great burger for half price!

The thing with the Super Teacher Worksheets is that they are not just the usual drill the information into your head kind of worksheets with row after row of problems.  Granted, they do have those kinds too, if you want them.  But, the ones I had chosen all had a fun, interesting twist.

It is hard to explain because, in the end, they are still.....worksheets.

They were still doing extra math, or working on spelling, but,  my kids always looked forward to doing them.  Whenever I announced that I had printed some off to take with us, I was met with choruses of "Yay!"

Seriously.

How often can you say that about anything school related?  I mean, yes, we are homeschool nerds, but my children are still...children.....and school, much of the time, elicits eye rolls and groans.

Just this past week 2 of my big kids had eye doctor appointments. We all went.  Again, I am sure when the staff saw all of us troop in (and take up all but 1 chair in their waiting room) they were nervous that there was going to be damage to the waiting room by the time we left.  But, I pulled out their Super Teacher Worksheets and they worked on those.  All good.




But, I guess the Super Teacher Worksheets aren't just about fun and games either.

S-girl has been struggling with subtraction when she has to borrow.  For some reason, that has just not clicked in her brain.  So, math was ending up with tears, especially on the days where she "thought" she had gotten it right, but when we corrected it, she hadn't and she had to go back and redo everything.  So frustrating for her...and for us.

So, I logged into Super Teacher Worksheets and searched the subtraction  section for problems with borrowing (FYI - you can also find subtraction with no borrowing).  I looked for the worksheets that had something fun to them and printed those off.  She especially likes the ones that reveal a secret message or picture.  So, yes, she is doing extra work for subtraction, but it isn't entirely painful and I can see her frustration is decreasing and she is starting to "get it".

One of the other things I liked, that did require a little bit of extra effort on my part, but was totally worth it, was using the Work Sheet Generator section.....specifically the word find generator.  I could take their spelling and vocabulary words for the week, and create a word find that was personalized to them.  I could even sneak in a few words not on their list, just for fun. (Mom.....loves.....you)

Another feature that I LOVED about Super Teacher Worksheets is the fact that there are answer keys.  No, you don't always need them because they are easy enough to figure out on your own, but sometimes, your brain doesn't want to have to think,so having the option to print off answer keys is awesome!  If you don't want to waste paper, all you have to do when you print is tell your printer just to print page 1, not "All".



I don't want to bore you with explaining how all the worksheets worked or were laid out.....and really, there are too many for me to even begin covering them all.

Suffice it to say that this ended up as one of my favorite review products of all time.  Fun and practical.

The worksheets on the log in page are divided by categories, but you could also do a straight search if there was something you were looking for.  The categories in which there are worksheets are as follows:

Math
Reading  Writing
Phonics and Early Literacy
Handwriting
Grammar
Spelling Lists
Science
Social Studies
Holidays
Puzzles and Brain Teasers
Pre-K and Kindergarten
Worksheet Generator

I know.  Right?

I realize that it is a little strange to be this excited about a worksheet membership site, but it is really awesome.  We used it.....a lot.  The kids liked it.  It was fun for me to search around on the site for something I knew the kids would like.  It was fun for me to present their worksheets like they had won a prize or something.  Crazy, but true.


Take a look and see if the other TOS Reviewers loved Super Teacher Worksheets as much as we did!

Here is all their social media....stuff.....locations.  Seriously.  Go check them out.

https://www.facebook.com/superteacherworksheets
https://twitter.com/superteacherwks
https://instagram.com/superteacherworksheets/
https://www.pinterest.com/superteacherwks/




SYLVIA SUBTRACTION PROBLEMS......ABILITY TO PRINT ANSWER KEYS...OR NOT....IF YOU REMEMBER......WORD SEARCH GENERATOR - FOR SPELLING WORDS...YES, REQUIRES A LITTLE PREWORK ON MY PART BUT IT IS WORTH IT FOR THE EXTRA PRACTICE AND FUN FOR THE KIDS.

A Little Secret

I am going to let you in on a little secret.

Yes, I realize how that sounds.  This blog is social media and I do plan to encourage friends and strangers, alike, to read about my secret.

But, to me, it still feels like I am really just opening up and sharing/admitting my little secret with friends.

Here it is.

Here is my secret:

I am tired of being frugal.

I am tired of being cheap.

I am tired of NOT spending money.

Most of the time, that is just me, being me though.

I have always been more of a saver than a spender.  I have always liked to think about things before spending money on them.  I have always been someone that puts things back when I am in a store....and usually, I am shopping at thrift stores and not regular people stores.

I have been like this even when I "had more money".  It really is just part of who I am at my core.

But, sometimes, oh sometimes, when I see other people nonchalantly buying things, or going out to eat, or supporting some other kids' fundraiser.....I wish I was different.  I look longingly at what I perceive to be their way of operating in the world.....and wish I could be more like them.

Last week, I did something out of character.  I went to a coffee shop. I went for two reasons.  One was to meet with a friend and chat and the other was to try to get some writing done for a project I am working on.  Usually, I can do a fine job writing from home with all the chaos and hub-bub involved. But, for this project, I am having a hard time (probably because the project itself scares me - because it is very public and has a lot riding on it).  But, anyway, I called my friend, asked her if she wanted to meet me there...and ended up with about 45 minutes of actual, uninterrupted time to write.

Because of that one trip to a coffee shop, I realized a few things.

• Coffee shop coffee is yummy.

• Coffee shop coffee is expensive.

• My butt is too big for the chairs at the coffee shop.  They are cute, industrial looking things.  They are paired with big, chunky repurposed old wood tables.  They look totally cute.  They are totally uncomfortable.

• I also learned that the little backless stools that they leave stacked up near the cute tables/chairs do, in fact, hold my butt.  But, (pun intended) they are NOT very comfortable either.

But, even with my uncomfy butt issues, I enjoyed myself.  I sipped my $3.76 mocha with whipped cream for a long time.  My coffee shop has fresh baked goods too.  But, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I had already spent a billion times more on a coffee than I needed to.  I didn't need to add insult to injury and spend more that I would need to justify in our next budget discussion.

This is where my own sense of wishing I was a different person snuck in.

Sometimes, I just want to be able to spend money.  Sometimes, I wish I was one of "those" people who didn't think about money all the time.

The kind of person who can easily splurge and treat my friends to coffee....or lunch.....or a just because present.  Sigh.

There are many, many times I have been happy that I am not a free spender.  That I am happy shopping at garage sales and thrift stores.  Really.

But, oh, sometimes, I want to be the lady that goes to the coffee shop every week....for coffee AND fresh baked goods.  Or, the lady that treats herself to lunch out.  Or gets a massage.  Or runs through the drive through for a Chic-Fil-A shake and fries and doesn't have to think/over think about the money.  It is exhausting to constantly have money on the brain.

I have already decided that the coffee shop thing is going to become a little more regular, because I got a lot done.  I have also decided I am going to head to the comfy back room - even if there are already other people there.  The introvert in me needs to put on some big girl panties and deal.....and my butt deserves better!

Wish me luck.....