New Items for October

Mathematics of the Incas Code of the Quipu

This is the book we got today to add to our personal library which is a facinating book how the Incas kept records since nothing was in writing. It also goes into how to make a Quipu of your own from items in the house however you do need a drop spindle to make it...........so looks like I  will be ordering a drop spindle soon, this looks like it will be tons of fun! Lots of nice photos too of actual Quipu however the photos are all in black and white.

New Items for October

         Since we are into a lot of Japanese things at the moment I thought I would introduce the kids to this Haiku Magnetic Poetry Kit!  They came up with the Haiku you see in the above photo here that is now displayed on our Fridge and will get updated often! The kids loved these and I look forward to using it often with them as well as introducing other magnetic kits in the future!

We also brought in these 2 new books for our home library and use as the mood strikes us !

Garage Sale Find!

The other day I noticed a garage sale within walking distance of our house and found this Triops hatching kit for only $4! I love Smithsonian kits and was very excited to find this and when I brought it home, the kids were both just as excited and can not wait to try this out! Triops are basically considered Dinosaur Shrimp and I am hoping they are just as fun as the Sea Monkeys I had as a kid. I think we will be doing this today or sometime this week anyway and we look forward to getting to hatch and observe these wonderful little critters! The only thing this was missing was the lid to the tank so now our biggest problem will be to keep the cat from drinking the water or perhaps trying to eat the shrimp!

Another Purchase This Week

I ordered this cookbook this morning as just one of the items we will be using for our Japanese submersion culture course. Initially this was just an interest for my son, however after a visit to the Japanese Grocery Store and a Japanese Entertainment store while visiting family, and a purchase of a pair of chopsticks for each member in our household..........my daughter became obsessed with also wanting to take part in our Japanese submersion culture course. These wonderful stores were located in Novi, Michigan on Grand River Ave both next to each other and much like visiting a Japanese Museum, it was a great experience for all of us!

What do I mean by a Japanese Submersion Culture Course? Basically what I mean by this is that we will be exploring as much and deeply as possible every aspect of Japan and it culture as we can take it. This means eating ethnic Japanese foods and dishes, learning the language, learning it's customs and celebrations, watching Japanese films, pouring over maps of the area, whatever we can bring into our home to live and breathe as much Japanese culture as we can! I am very excited about this course as my kids bring me into their world of unique interests that I get to explore along with them. I think it is a fantastic and interesting choice they have made and I am excited to see how much Japan I can bring into their world!

Materials Ordered This Week

Our Start Date is September 12 so this month I am ordering some things to kick off our new year the one on Custer and Little Bighorn was actually a special request from my son.

While this is NOT a complete list, this is the starting point of what I ordered and of course I will be adding things all the time. I will keep a whole list on the materials page tab at the top of this blog anytime you wish to see it and watch it grow from beginning to end of our school year.

The nice thing is I only spent $13 in total as I  earned enough swagbucks to turn in for $25 in amazon gift cards so I am thrilled I was able to purchase all this for the small amount that came out of my pocket! While visiting my sister she also very kindly paid for 10 notebooks, paper, glue and markers!  I also did not have to purchase the whole set of the Unicorns of Balinor as me and my daughter have been reading them all summer so I only have had to purchase books 6, 7 and 8 in the set however I will eventually have the whole set in our home library as she is very thrilled with this series. I will also be purchasing every Daniel X book I can get a hold of because my son is hard to come across things he likes to read and when he fell in love with one of the Daniel X books from the library, well I checked and found there are quite a few of them so I like to have available things he enjoys reading!

If you would like to try to earn swagbucks for your school items you can sign up at and use your swagbuck points to get $5 amazon cards that are stackable!