Product Review!

I am excited to share with everyone a great new family owned business. The Clark family has developed a great site where they share inspiration, ideas, organizational tips and more! You can access it here! One of the first products they are offering are file folder games. My family was able to try these products and we LOVE them!

Okay, lets start with why before these products I steered away from file folder games. I had been introduced the the "old school" black and white reproducibles. So the process went a bit like this...make copies....color pages....cut laminate....cut again....well that process gets VERY lengthy around the coloring stage!! So until the Integritas file folder games we only had 3 of the others that were ever completed!!! My other problem was that ALL of the games in that book were for children of one particular age. We know that in homeschooling or even as parents working with children after school that we need multiple age/level games.

So why do I LOVE these file folder games???
1.)Very cute designs...all of the artwork is hand drawn by the creator...a past art teacher!
2.)Interesting ideas...some are board game style, some are matching, etc...each.
3.)They are already colored for you!!! And it gets better! They are colored in a light watercolor effect so when you print them it doesn't feel like you are emptying your print cartridge!!
4.) If you have a concept that your child needs help with or simply enjoys ...you can request a special designed folder made just for your needs!!! For instance a friends son needed help with multiplication and loves football....and he now has a Touchdown Multiplication file folder game!


We decided to spend an afternoon at the park and I pulled over one child at a time to do the file folder game for his/her level. This was a great idea by the way because the other children were more than busy playing so we got one on one time!

Here is Lincoln (2 years) just playing with the Seasons Change file folder....he is not there quite yet!

Annie is the one who tried out the Seasons Change game for "real". She loved it! You dress up the fox in the clothing for each season...so she enjoyed putting on his raincoat and hat and putting an umbrella in his hand..picture paperdolls that teach!!

If you sign up for the email newsletter you can receive a file folder game for FREE!!

Oh and did I mention that the games are very reasonable and can be delivered directly to your email or you can purchase the entire collection for one one low price all on a CD!!?

Stay tuned for the reviews of the other games coming soon!

FYI:I did laminate our folders and the pieces at our local teacher resource center so they are more durable.

10 months ago....

..... Susan (our adoption agent) emailed these pictures to us! I cannot even remember my feelings that day! I will say it is now weird to look at pictures of the boys "there"....because it feels like they have always been "here". I promise you if are considering adoption or are on the adoption road but still a bit unsure of how the feelings will work out..that God has that taken care of! I truly believe he puts a feeling in your heart for "your" child...just the same as when you give birth and look into their eyes and know they are yours.

I do specifically remember looking at Yishake in this picture and thinking he looks like Paul...short, big forehead and curly hair!!!LOL I also remember that sneaky little grin on his face and thinking "Oh yeah he is a Maynard!!".

Wow..only 10 months ago!

Holiday World

Little Lincoln was afraid of most everything in the "world"...no pun intended!!hehe
He made it on the antique cars and the little canoe ride and that was about it! He was even afraid of cotton candy!! But I guess you can tell by this picture below that he does like ice cream! He had it under his neck, in his hair...ugh !! (I chuckle thinking what Kate of Jon & Kate would have done hehe!!) He had it so long that the cone was a elastic-ish substance! He kept shoving it in and gagging, until I explained to him we could throw it away and he smiled really big! Carson acting silly!

Wildly enough the boys were not afraid of good ole' Santa...they bear hugged him. Looks like if we visit Disney again we have 2 moe character hogs!!

Carson and Madelyn plan our route through the park!

I am so old because taking these pics makes me nauseous and can you believe little ol' Maddee is just hanging out with her hands in the air!?!

Oops just noticed the half dressed woman in the background...but I love this pic of Maddee in mid jump!

The School Room

If you can only imagine...the school room is usually not very presentable from August through May!!! So here is a quick shot of a neat and tidy school room! Below is the cluttered but organized closet! Here is our little reading area. This area is usually used by Annie when she is done with her school work but wants to stay with us in the room.

These are my lovely shelves from Target! The top little cubbies have all of my FIAR books in groups, BFIAR, FIAR vol 1, vol2 etc...it makes them very easy to locate!

The black wall is chalkboard paint..I love it! We school together at the table but the little desk is great for sending one of the children off for independent work. I love my solar system mobile from Pottery Barn...it will be great for our Apologia Astronomy we are studying this year! I also have a small childrens table that has the mini tv on it for Math-U-See for the older two.

Want to see more schoolrooms?? Visit the Sweetman Schoolhouse or the C-family Classroom or how about the Britt Classroom!?! So let's see your rooms!!!

Link's new 'do!!

Fun at Kentucky Horse Park

This summer a few HS families are spending our summer learning about Ky. history. So far we have learned about Daniel Boone and traveled to Squire Boone caverns. Yesterday we went to Lexington to the Ky. Horse Park. The children enjoyed watching the horse shows, petting horses, touring the museum, and playing on the playground!