Great Resources and Learning Tools!

This has nothing to do with the pumpkin unit but I'm really excited about it and it's worth sharing.

We keep a budget and try hard to limit our spending, especially since I decided to become a stay-at-home mom. I probably take it to extremes sometimes, such as doing my own "up-dos" for weddings, clipping lots of coupons, learning to sew clothes for the girls, and so on. However, there are times when I find learning resources that are well worth any money I may spend on them (after I find the cheapest way to purchase them, of course)!

These are two tools that I just bought for my girls:



These are called "Mini Geosolids" from Learning Resources. The company has their own site, but I bought this set from Amazon, using my swagbucks (see below).

These are wonderful hands on manipulatives for teaching sorting, patterns, classification, 3-d shapes and so much more! They are fun for her to use now for building little castles and things, but it is definitely a tool that she can use for most of her formal schooling.



This is a set of "pattern blocks" or "attribute blocks" that I bought on ebay. I bought them for the same reasons I bought the geosolids. These are definitely multi-purpose and can be used for many years.

Swagbucks is one of my new favorite websites! It is an great easy program for earning a little extra money for items I normally wouldn't include in our regular budget (such as extra toys for the girls).

All you do is sign up for a swagbucks account, open the email they send to verify your account, and then use it as a search engine. You will randomly win "swagbucks" as you search. These can be redeemed for a whole variety of prizes, my favorite of which is the $5.00 Amazon.com gift card. This is how I purchased the mini geosolids, as well as my youngest daughter's birthday present. You can also earn "swagbucks" by reading their blog and finding codes, doing online shopping through their site, and a variety of other ways. I've used the site for almost a year and I am very pleased with it! The link for Swagbucks is posted below:

For some reason my hyper links aren't working so here's the link to copy and paste:

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/NatalieWaddle