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Fort Magic Review & Giveaway

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This Giveaway has Ended but Read our Review Below!GiveawayHeaderFinal

 Something magical arrived on our doorstep this past Summer!

Fort Magic has been keeping my children busy, busy, busy….

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Sailing in the open waters,

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Building secret passageways,

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Planning and dreaming

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Building and rebuilding….

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With 382 pieces Fort Magic is ginormous! There are so many different sizes and shapes for endless creations.

Fort Magic retails for $199 and every kit includes 382 Pieces:

  • 165 Straight and Curved Sticks in seven different sizes!

  • 87 Connector pieces in five varieties of shapes and sizes!

  • 130 easy to use fabric and accessory Clips! Securely fasten sheets or fabric to ANY shape design your child invents! 
  • A full color Instruction Manual with over 20 designs to build!
  • A high quality Storage Bag that securely holds all of the Fort Magic pieces – so clean up is quick and easy every time!

  • A 30-day Money Back Guarantee!
  • Full Manufacturer’s Warranty on all parts!
  • Fabric Covers are not included.

 

Fort Magic 6Forts Frames

 

The instruction manual presents children with over 20 designs,,

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Easy to follow building instructions,

Fort Magic Castle Final

And so much creative inspiration!

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Fort Magic is durable and will  last a lifetime.

Fort Magic has won 7 of the toy industry’s top educational awards, including:  Academics’ Choice Brain Toy Award, Creative Child Magazine Product of the Year Award, Creative Child Magazine Play Structures of the Year Award, PAL Award, Tillywig Brain Child Award, Parents’ Choice Recommended Award & Dr. Toy’s Best Classic Award – for Creativity, Construction, Educational Value and Activity Play for children!

Read our Full Review of Pro’s and Con’s of Fort Magic Here.

Purchase Fort Magic Here

Enter to WIN a Fort Magic Kit

9/8/14  through  9/12/14

GiveawayEntry

 

Disclaimer: I received a free Fort Magic Kit for purposes of this review, and an additional kit to giveaway to our  readers.  All thoughts and opinions about the product are my own.
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Homeschool Music with Ocarina Fundamentals

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20140520_143438Is is just me or did this past year FLY right on by?

Are there pages left in your workbooks?  Curriculum unused or tossed aside?

Did you cover everything you wanted to?

Are you feeling guilty over the following subjects: Music, Art, PE, Foreign Language?

Well, don’t.

YOU DID IT!!

You made it through another year and everyone is still alive.

(That is what counts right?)

We all have curriculum that didn’t work, or things we just didn’t get to.

It’s homeschooling.  It’s real.  It’s life.

And there is always next year.

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If you’re looking to get a head start in your curriculum planning, come read our review of Ocarina Fundamentals and check MUSIC off your to-do list.

Be warned, this is very easy to learn and a tad addicting.

Even for Mom.

*Ahem*

 

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The Hidden Whiteboard Review

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ReviewHeaderWhiteboard2

The Hidden Whiteboard is officially hung in our homeschool classroom/dining room.

Click Here to read our full Review!

Take a peek at our Before and After Shot:

Before

After

Want to see how The Hidden Whiteboard works?

Click Here to read our full Review!

 

 

 

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60% Off Online Math Program!

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DEMO
Huge Subscriber Offer: 60% OFF + BOGO at CTC Math
You must use that link for the discount. Homeschool Family Pricing Available.

Math is one of those subjects that your child either LOVES or HATES.

Sissy

My daughter HATES math.
VERY MUCH SO.

She does her math homework first thing in the morning.
Which if you know her, really means she dislikes it.

Some days Most days she bombards me with questions like,
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
It’s TOO HARD!
(which isn’t a question)
And WHY?

She is not behind in math,
She might even be a tad ahead, but she really EARNS that position,
it most definitely doesn’t come naturally to her.

Bubba

My son, on the other hand, enjoys math.
He is a thinker.
a problem solver.
a riddler.

If you happen to be new,
and anywhere within 100 or so feet of him,
he might surprise you by pulling a brain teaser out of his pocket
and demand that you match wits to see who can solve it first.

Math is his favorite subject,
something he looks forward to,
and if it were up to him,
math would be the only subject of the day.

He says things to me like:

“Math is my favorite subject”

and

“If it were up to me, math would be the only subject of the day.”

:)

But, even though they are both so very different in their enthusiasm towards math,
they both really like CTC Math.

Which is good because CTC Math sent us a free subscription to try out their program and let our readers know what we thought.

So, are you interested in an online math program? Here’s the deal:

CTC Math


CTC Math is a supplemental online math program for K-12.

A Subscription to CTC Math Includes:
1,367 animated and narrated math lessons (VIDEOS!!!)
A bank of over 57,000 interactive questions
Diagnostic tests
Instant feedback to students and regular reporting to parents
Algebra, statistics, geometry, trigonometry, probability plus more


Here’s how all that looks:

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Getting Started:


Essentially, you can start your child at any grade level and any topic that you want. Just choose your grade, choose your stream, and then choose a specific topic.

If you don’t know where to start, each topic includes an optional comprehensive test, and an instant report you can view to diagnose problem areas.

I actually already know that Bubba needs to work on Statistics and Probability so I put him in 3rd grade; Statistics; Graphs and Charts.

Clicking on the topic takes me directly to the video lesson.

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The Lessons:

Each video lesson is under 10 minutes long. (Can I get an Amen?) They are simple, easy to understand, and usually include interactions within the lesson.
Children can pause, stop, rewind any of the videos on their own. Big buttons. Real simple like.

Not to mention the teacher is Australian.
(Seriously, what kid can ignore a math teacher that sounds like The Crocidile Hunter?)

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Follow Up Questions:
Direcly after the video lesson, children complete the follow up questions. This is all done online and often involves click and drag positioning to answer some questions. I want to point this out because the response of the actual graphics is fantastic.

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I’m very impressed with how easy the tools and objects on the screen move around and respond to user interaction. They also make sense. (Which, if you’ve ever sent your children to a state required math assessment, you know how frustrating bad computer graphics and response can be.) CTC Math is crisp and easy to work with, there are no technical frustrations and children are free to focus on learning.

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Reports:

After taking the required questions, children are given an immediate report and it’s easy to visually see where the child missed the mark. For example, in Bubba’s report above I can easily determine that my child understands the concept of picture graphs, but mixed up the numbers. I can see that I don’t need to keep teaching pictographs, but I need to give him tools to SLOW down and carefully approach math problems so we don’t make simple mistakes. Additional reports are saved in the parent login area so you can always access and pull up you’re children’s work.

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Pros:

Family Pricing, CTC Math has competetive homeschool pricing. Even Better: CTCMath is offering our readers 60% off + BOGO, which means when you purchase a year subscription, you’ll actually get two years!!

Optional Testing. I can’t tell you how many online programs MAKE you test, or email the administrator to change the grade level of your children. With CTCMath comprehensive tests are offered for each subcategory, but they are NOT required to begin working at a particular grade level…..which leads me to my next pro:

Ability to bounce from grade level to grade level. CTC Math covers Kindergarten through Trigonometry. This is a helpful feature if you have a child who struggles with fractions but is amazing with division. You as the parent can assign them to different grade levels to continually build on their knowledge without any lapses.

Reports are Easy to understand. You can easily see what areas your children are proficient in, or what areas they need more instruction with.

No Visual Distractions. It’s not gimmicky. There are no flashing ads, no “design your own” avatars, and all that jazz. It’s simple. With a highly distractable child, this is something I can really appreciate.

NO CD’s!! Video lessons are streaming online, which keeps things simple. No disks to loose, scratch, or turn into flying saucers in the middle of a lesson.

Cons:

I actually don’t have any cons for CTCMath. (is that possible?) I WAS planning on complaining that the lessons weren’t available on our mobile devices, but I just pulled out my Kindle Fire to find that CTCMath is compatible with iPad and Android devices. I didn’t even have to download anything, it just pulled right up using HTML5 instead of Flash.

That was pretty impressive.

And if you still have any doubt, you can try CTCMath for free.
None of that credit card baloney either, just enter your email and you’ll immediately be able to take quite a few lessons…..see for yourself why over 200,000 students use this program.

If you do, let me know what you think below!

Siggy

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Deciding on Homeschool Curriculum?

By 3 Comments

I did it!

The decisions have been made!

Books have been ordered.

Some are already here!

Want to see what we decided on?

Sissy 5th Grade

Bible: Awana
Christian Character: Case 4 Christ
Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone Spanish 1
Geography: Daily Geography & Sonlight Core F
Math: Teaching Textbooks & CTC Math
Health & P.E: Abeka Health, YMCA Swim, Soccer Team
History: Sonlight Core F
Language Arts: Sequential Spelling Volume 1, Wordly Wise Book 5, Keys to Good Language 5
Reading: Sonlight Core F
Science: NOEO Science Biology, Apologia Zoology (finshing from last year)
Technology: Mavis Beacon Typing
Writing: Writing Strands
Art: Art Pac, Art History Study, Pastels
Music: Beginning Flute

Bubba 3rd Grade

Bible: Awana
Christian Character: Case 4 Christ
Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone Spanish 1
Geography: Daily Geography & Sonlight Core F
Math: Teaching Textbooks 4, CTC Math
Health & P.E: Abeka Health, YMCA Swim
History: Sonlight Core F
Language Arts: Sequential Spelling Volume 1, Wordly Wise Book 3, Keys to Good Language 3
Reading: Sonlight Core F
Science: NOEO Science Biology, PITSCO, Apologia Zoology (finshing from last year)
Technology: Mavis Beacon Typing
Writing: Handwriting without Tears, Writing Instructions, Writing Poetry
Art: Art Pac, Art History Study, Pastels
Music:

Okay, ya got me. There is one last little blank to fill in for Bub’s music.
Maybe I’ll print up some sheet music and set him in the corner with this for a while?

Now to get my classroom in order.

Which still looks like this in case you’re wondering :)

Siggy

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Giveaway: Pop for Addition and Subtraction!

By 279 Comments

 

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed!

We have a winner!!

Comment #188 was:

Last month we were contacted by Learning Resources to review one of their newest products

How Exciting!
We actually use many different Learning Resources products already,
so I was pretty excited to have a NEW item in our collection!
And I even got to choose which one!
Can you guess what I picked?
(Ya’ll know about my math fact troubles lately right?)

I chose a game called, “POP for Addition and Subtraction”
The suggested age level for this game is 6-8
and it retails for $9.99

It’s cute, It’s colorful,
and it’s helping my kiddos to learn (and relearn) those evasive math facts.

Like I mentioned last week,
we are hitting the math facts pretty hard around here.

So I thought it would be nice to change it up with a math fact game,
and seriously, a little friendly competition goes a long ways around here.

Not to mention that it’s fun to play!
Here’s the deal:

The game includes a spinner and an assortment of math fact gumballs.

On each turn, your child spins the spinner

Then draws the appropriate amount of gumballs from the “gumball machine” (i.e. box)

In order to keep the gumballs children have to say the answer to the math fact printed on the gumball.

If they get the answer correct, they keep the gumball in their pile.
If they don’t get it correct, the gumball goes back into the box.

If they draw a “POP” gumball, all of their accumulated math facts go back into the box.
(the POP gumball is now out of play).

The game continues until all gumballs have been collected.
They are then counted and a winner is declared.


What I like:
The quality of the game is reflected in the price.
The box, and playing pieces are thick and sturdy,
and they are sure to stand up to years of classroom use.

Everything is stored in the box, making it simple to store and easy to use.
(it would totally fit in a stocking if you’re looking for ways to stretch that homeschool budget!)

There are two levels of game play and the directions for both are printed on the back of the box
(how thoughtful is that

With 90 gumballs, this game is for any number of players.
You can play this game at home with one child or use it in your classroom.

Classroom Idea: Sometimes it’s fun to have an end of the day activity or ritual in your classroom….you know like a little fun treat children can look forward to.
I think it would be super cute for children to choose a gumball fact to solve on their way out and exchange it for a small treat, or sticker for their charts. You could even make the “POP” gumballs stand for something special. It would encourage children to be working on those math facts at home to show what they’ve learned each day.


I’m sure YOU can think of creative ways to use this game too!

Learning Resources is offering you the opportunity to WIN your own
POP for Addition and Subtraction game!

 

How to Enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me how you would use POP for Addition and Subtraction in your classroom.

Optional Entries:

2. Check out all the other Math activities by Learning Resources, come back and tell me what you have on your wish-list.
3. Like Learning Resources on Facebook. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
4. Follow Learning Resources on Twitter. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
5. Follow Learning Resources on Pinterest. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
6. Share about this giveaway via your blog or social media. Give yourself one extra comment for each way you share.

Giveaway ends Friday 11:59pm PST. Winners will be drawn at random and this post will be updated.


Disclaimer: I was sent free product from Learning Resoruces for purposes of this review and giveaway. All opinions are my own.

 

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IXL: A TOS Review

By 3 Comments

So.

Not to overwhelm you, but this will be my third math post this month.

You might say that math is on my mind.

Actually, math has been on my mind
ALL YEAR LONG.

3 Grader + Oregon = Statewide Math Test

It was our first BIG one.

It was required.

I was so nervous…

I wanted her to be prepared for it.

I wanted her to pass it.

I feared that if she didn’t pass the first time
that my imaginary liscence to homeschool would be revoked.

I poured over all the requirements.

I purchased any and all math books
that said “state standards” or “correlated topics” on them.

And pretty soon, Sissy was using FOUR different math books every day.

Yes. FOUR.

You see, I purchased ONE because it was the type of math I liked to teach.
ANOTHER because it dealt specifically with word problems, and
ANOTHER because it taught graphing and beginning algebra connections, and
STILL ANOTHER because it promised to get us TEST ready.

So I watched all year long.
My little girl, dragging her pile of math books to the kitchen table,
and I can remember thinking;

Wouldn’t it be nice to just have one math program,
that took her through each standard to the point of mastery.

And while I’m not for ONLINE math as the foundation of our curriculum,
I’m pretty sure that I could have replaced THE OTHER THREE filler
Math books with one simple subscription to IXL.

ixl homeschool review

In fact, it would have made things quite a bit easier.

Here’s Why:

Colorful and engaging.

ixl review homeschool

I know that might seem like a small “PRO” but when you’re staring at a website
every day, it’s nice to have one that appeals to children and adults.
It’s easy to tell that IXL is a professionally designed website,
because I don’t have to squint to see the font, navigation is simple and easy and there is enough
color to keep children interested without burning out our retinas with flashy gimicks.

State Standards:

When you register with IXL, YOUR state standards are made available.
Everything is easily outlined by grade and
you can simply click which one you want your child to work on.

Explanations:

If a child receives an incorrect answer, they are given an option to have the problem explained.
This is a great because sometimes topics are on IXL that aren’t covered in our usual Math book.

Ability to Change Grade Levels:

ixl review

Unfortunately my son figured this out as well and spent an afternoon on KG math because he was simply having too much fun getting ALL the questions right. Aw well….After reading the user guide I learned that you can easily change the settings to hide the grade level navigation bar from your children.

Reports!

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I love being able to take a quick glance and see how a particular child is doing in a specific area. I also recieve an email report with details of their progress.

Here are some more specifications for IXL:

Membership benefits:

Complete coverage of math curriculum from pre-K to algebra.
Unlimited questions in over 2,000 skills.
Fun and colorful practice formats.
Questions that adapt to your child’s ability, increasing in difficulty as they improve.
Immediate feedback and question-specific explanations to solidify understanding of each concept.
Audio for all pre-K through first-grade skills.
Weekly e-mail updates on your child’s progress.
Informative, detailed reports pointing out successes and trouble spots.
Awards and certificates for you and your children to print out as they reach important milestones.

Pricing:

ixl

Pssst…..I just broke out my calculator,
and you’ll be happy to know that
$79 bucks a year is about $6.60 a month.

Read more about Membership options here.

Disclaimer:
As part of the TOS Crew Review I was given a family subscription for three of my children in exchange for my honest opinion about IXL.com

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ALEKS: A TOS Homeschool Review

By 2 Comments

When I started homeschooling one of my biggest concerns was:
How will I know that my children are really learning?

In fact, during the first couple of years I had nightmares
that we’d fall victims to the “Fill-in-the-blank” cycle of teaching.

You see I would spend a week teaching my children all about “Rounding to the nearest 100”
They would complete their worksheets with great accuracy,
then we’d move on to the next subject.

Half a year later, we’re doing problems that require rounding to the nearest 100,
and both of my children are sitting their completly stumped as to what I’m even talking about.

That ever happen to you?

This happens to me in every single subject.
I teach, they listen,
I test, they regurgitate,
I grade, we move on.

Of course NOW….we’ve learned to REVIEW.
(we actually have “Review” as a subject on our weekly calendar.)

And, usually our review sessions are short little verbal quizzes
in which we simply sit and play “Mom against the kids”
to see who can score the most points.
(Mom getting the points for a missed answer)

These types of reviews can usually be done on the fly,
with very little prep work, (and sometimes even in the car.)

But then there is math….
Math is a bit harder to review.
Sometimes it requires an actual sheet of paper to work out the problems.

But most often it’s hard to really know what math concepts my children understand,
and which ones their skirting around or finding other ways to solve.

So our ALEKS reveiw couldn’t have come at a better time:

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ALEKS stands for Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn’t know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions.

Did you read that last line?
“AVOIDS MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS.”

As a student I used to LOVE multiple choice questions.
As a teacher….eh, not so much.

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Here’s what I really enjoy about ALEKS:


–Initial Test to see exactly what my child knows.

–Subsequent lessons, reviews, and testing surrounds only subjects that my child needs to work on.

–There is an “Explain” button.…oh how I love that button
Sissy: “Mom, I need help!”
Mom: “Hit the explain button!”
Sissy: “Oh, I get it!”
Mom: “Zzzzzz” (that’s me snoring and taking a nap on the couch)

ahem. kidding.

–Data is presented in a pie-chart that my child can understand
(seeing your own progress is a great motivator)

–Daily review with each log-in.

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–Quick tables are great for speeding up those Math facts

–State standards are easily assessed

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–Quizzes show progress made and in what areas.

–You can PRINT out a worksheet to take on-the-go

You can read more about all the different features here


Now, ALEKS is a bit heavy, and more intensive then I first thought.
My daughter is in third grade, the very first level of ALEKS,

And there are initial training programs for children to learn how to use the tools and the functions, so that they don’t miss questions because of a lack of technological ability. This was something I was concerned about for our upcoming state test this year, so I’m glad that Sissy got in some practice.

You can subscribe to ALEKS in a variety of ways:

$19.95 a month,
$99.95 for 6 months of access,
$179.95 for 12 months.

(For families with more than one child, discount pricing is available.)

ALEKS also offers a Free Two Month Trial:
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I would definitly recommend trying out the program to see if it’s a good fit for your family. If nothing else, after the initial test you’ll have a great idea of what areas to work on with your children!

Disclaimer: I was given two free months of ALEKS for purposes of this review. All opinions are mine honest thoughts about the product. Read what other TOS Homeschool Crew members thought of ALEKS here.

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Notebooking Success!

By 162 Comments

Update: This Giveaway is now Closed! We have Two Winners:

Comment #128 was Marcie who said, “I really like that primary, manuscript, and wide ruled are offered. As a parent of a 2nd grade reluctant writer (who is also still learning to form letters), I like that I have options for him as well as my 4th grader.”

Comment # 107 was Jackie S. who said, “I find it hard to pick out one item that I like more than the others. All the information in this notebook is much needed and helpful to do notebooking right.”

Congratulations ladies!

Thank You to everyone for participating! You can still pick up Jimmie’s e-Book for the introductory special of $5.50 and be sure to subscribe to Jimmie’s blog (NotebookingFairy.com) because she offers so many invaluable printables and tips…and my favorite…Notebooking Q&A!

Original Post Follows:

Today is a special day!
We’ve got a special guest!
One that I’m sure you already know….

Jimmie (You know Jimmie from here…and here...and here...)
has just released a new eBook called Notebooking Success!

If you’re familiar with any of Jimmies blogs, lenses, and work on various homeschool websites
then you know that she is just the gal you want to get expert information from.

She knows her stuff.

And now she has published this handy guidebook that will help you get started using
notebooking techniques in your own homeschool.

Notebooking Success will answer these questions:

What is notebooking?
Am I using notebooking to its fullest potential?
How do I know if my children are really learning?
What should I expect from different ages?
How do I use notebooking to help my children learn and to remember what they learn?

»»Free Bonus — Grade Specific Reference Sheets

»»Free Bonus – 50 Things to Put into a Notebook
This free printable chart is designed for your planning notebook.
Refer to it when you need a fresh notebooking idea.

»»Free Bonus –General Notebooking Pages
This specially created set of lightly tinted notebooking pages features four layouts
in three line styles (primary, manuscript, and wide ruled).

Buy the eBook!
Jimmie is selling her eBook at an introductory rate of $5.50 (regularly $8.00)
So if you’re looking for ways to incorporate notebooking into your classroom Notebooking Success would be a great place to start!

And Guess What?
Jimmie has graciously offered to give away 2 copies of Notebooking Success to two lucky winners here!
And if you purchase the eBook and end up winning this giveaway, she will refund your money!
How great is that?!


How to Enter:

1) Check out Notebooking Success here. Come back and leave me a comment telling me what excites you about this eBook.

Additional Entries:

2.) Leave a question or a tip you have about about Notebooking.

3) Tweet, or Blog about this giveaway. Use the text:

Notebooking Success Giveaway
@JimmiesCollage @CraftyClassroom
#homeschool http://bit.ly/wVmG0N

Leave an additional comment telling me you did this!

Giveaway open until Friday January 20, 2012, Winner chosen at random.

Good Luck!

Disclaimer: Jimmie sent me a Free copy of Notebooking Success for review purposes and invited me to join her affiliate program! Yea! Thanks Jimmie :)

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