Movie Review: Miss Potter a Story of Beatrix Potter
First Let me say that just finding the movie I wanted was quite difficult. I was actually searching for the BBC’s version of Beatrix Potter’s story which I heard from other homeschool mom’s had been an excellent history and art appreciation lesson. After searching and searching on Google and other search engines I found this movie, Miss Potter, The Story of Beatrix Potter with Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
I realized it wasn’t the same movie however, in hopes it was close 2nd I couldn’t wait for it to arrive for me to watch it. It turned out to be a lovely movie of the romance of Beatrix, it did not dig deeper into her childhood as I was expecting. Being a Catholic homeschooler I was expecting to see more of Beatrix home schooled days and I was a bit disappointed in that part of the movie. It merely showed slight glimpse of her childhood life.
Now if your interested in how she became a published writer or the how it was that she remained single all of her life. Then you should watch this movie. In the part of the movie where she goes from publishing house to publishing house is quite realistic and inspiring. To think, if she had stopped trying we never would have had her lovely tales and pictures books in our lives. Missing out on Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregors garden! I can’t image it.
Another part in the movie I found somewhat comical was Beatrix Potter’s mother. She thought all her daughters pictures and stories were childhood rubbish and that she would outgrow them. She was the last person to understand that her daughter was quite famous and wealthy from her writings and picture books! That part alone makes a person stand back and think about what dream they can say yes, I can accomplish what I set my mind to do, with the help of God.
Based on those two parts in the movie, along with the beautiful cinematography and history of the times back in 1902 I rate Miss Potter 4 stars out of 5 stars.
You can view the details and buy a copy of the Miss Potter movie here.
How to Educate yourself about Homeschooling
As Pope John Paul II says: Do Not Be Afraid
Everyone who begins homeschooling has some type of phobia. Either afraid they won’t socialize their child or fear that they don’t have the brains to do it.
I had those same fears just as most do. What’s the old saying, the more you know the more you know that you don’t know! Get yourself some support friends, either through Catholic Homeschooling yahoo groups, websites, or your church. I can’t believe what a difference it has made in my families life.
Still don’t think your educated enough? If you can read and you like to learn, your educated enough. Seek assistance from those with positive homeschool experiences to help you.
Take a Grammar Refresher or Keyboarding online course from Ed2go they have a wide selection of Online Courses.Even though I have a bachelors degree, I have taken continuing education courses through this establishment. They are very reasonably priced. The experience was great. I never had to leave my home. Maybe you have a child in high school that may benefit from one of these courses or one that is college age but, not ready for college. In our area the price of a course runs approximately $99 – 105.00 and run every 6 weeks. You work at your own pace as it fits your schedule. There are message boards that share class discussions, emails, and other ways to communicate. Hold on to this motto: You are never too old to learn something new! It’s life changing!
Find the key to making through your first year without spending a mint.
Find out about a Catholic Home Study Program.
Learn about Scope and Sequence for each grade and where to find them.
Go to the library and read books like
Charlotte Mason Education is not a Catholic Curriculum however her vision for education was not one to be overlooked. So a number of women came up with a totally free Catholic Version of the Charlotte Mason Curriculum. You can find it at Mater Amabilis.
You can join their Yahoo Group, Mater Amabilis (which means Mother Most Amiable) to find out more about their style of homeschooling.
Another well known author in Catholic homeschool circles is Maureen Wittmann. She has written a number of books one of which is on my recommended book list, Catholic Homeschooling Companion, and another book called For the Love of Literature. She has also started Webinars help homeschooling families. You can visit her blogspot maureenwittmann
The best advice I received from a friend when I was investigating homeschooling was that I was already homeschooling my daughter; with all the schoolwork/homework she was bringing home because she wasn’t doing it in school, what difference would a few more hours on my time schedule make. That comment opened up a whole new world for us. I can’t say there aren’t days that my daughter wishes she were with the kids at school or I wish I had a bit more time to myself however, overall it’s changed our lives for the better - Especially with our Catholic Education.
Homeschooling With Gentleness: Catholic Discovers Unschooling
Editors Note: I have had personal experience with Fast Web, it really works. It’s not a gimick.
Computer Support and Where to buy Pinter ink
This is a continuation of “Before you Buy a Computer”
Part 2
There are some really save money and find deals out there to buy printer ink so don’t just think your stick with a certain price when buying printer ink. Unfortunately for me, I procrastinate until I am in desperate need of printer ink and then have pay a premium price when I purchase my ink, unlike my dad who stocks up! So, if your a stock up kind of person you can really find some great buys on any of these websites. I include today. Also check out the ink refills. Some are good, some aren’t. It just depend on your printer and the brand of ink you purchase. If your as frugal as I am I recommend you try ink refills at least once. Then you will know if it works for your printer. I found an off brand name like Nuke that work just as well and long as name brand for half the price. I used to find that brand at Office Depot.
For online discounts try these links for printer ink. I have included some discount codes for Free Shipping if you order anything online. And, all of these places are really pretty quick about getting them to you. Sometimes as quick as 2 days.
Like any home school parent we are always looking for deals. Grab these coupon codes for Free shipping and stock up over the summer. Take you pick find the right price and company for you.
Abucus says their ink products are superior quality. Since I recently found them it will be hard to decide which of these companies to buy from.
Free shipping on any order in the U.S. via code: FREEBIE
Ink Smile offers:
Is one the first on it’s way to securing the average consumer. I haven’t talked about security or secure storage. I predict in the very near future every consumer will basically have some type of online secure storage for all of our photos and documents. We pretty much do now only these will be much more secure. I made be compared to renting hosting space only you use it for storage. However, depending on the amount of security you want will depend on the price you pay.
One you may be surprised in knowing is SnapFish.com is one of those type of sites.You Securely keeps your photos online.
If you nee help Fixing your computer try these people out.
I always recommend going to Housecalls by Trends Micro
Housecalls is free to use in an emergency. They actually offer several features for free on the site. My information came from the our Library’s IT friend who takes care of all the library computers. 10% Off – 1 YR – Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 – Coupon Code: TrendIS.
Well you can go to your local computer repair shop many times it’s just easier to pick up the phone.
I haven’t tried this tech support. Yet I am keeping their information close by in case I do need them. They are called 
Support.com – We fix computer problems!
I also recommend that people also go to Majorgeeks.com for answers to their computer problems. And if you own a business and need some massive professional help try calling The Nerds.net
When dealing with programs and applications I have found many of them oncnet.com also known as download.com. It’s a great website. If offers free software and trial software, plus it gives reviews on them and so much more. Their site has a editors choice and a users choice. That’s always good to see. In other words they do the research work so you don’t have to.
That’s how I found a program I use all the time on their site called Primo.pdf. Designed for corporate America the little guy can use this for free to create pdf files instead of printing a hard copies. I love that program.
More coming about programs I use in the future. That’s all for now.
Before You Buy A Computer
Computers are here to stay like microwave ovens and homeschoolers know it.
Part 1
In order to make as frugal a purchase as possible on another computer and upgrading an older one I have been investigating different companies to help me save on memory, laptops, and more. However, sometimes coming up with a good deal is like finding a needle in a hay stack. These are some of the the best websites I found for our tight budget.
The following are good sources for buy parts, accessories, and actual computers. If you notice a **** next to a name that means I rate the company as an excellent choice on price, customer service and product experience. If I show an item without stars don’t worry, it’s just that I haven’t had an opportunity to make a purchase from that vendor but plan to in the future.
Tiger Direct **** A good friend and computer Guru genius Hu Chou told me about Tiger Direct some years ago. I love there very low prices and good quality. You don’t have to know much about computers the customer service is great. My elderly father even buys from them, he is 75 and very picky.
Tiger Direct (CA)has also branched into Canada. This makes it great for consumer purchasing. You can avoid some of the taxes and tariffs associated with buying out of country.
Right now I have a Dell and a Compaq Presario but I have thought about getting a Toshiba. If anyone has purchased one from them or is going to let us have some feedback.
Computers4SUREOffers Free shipping and that speaks volumes when your on a tight budget. I gotten to the point that I look for this first before buying anything. Then if I can get still get the best deal with shipping that’s when I make that decision.
Computers4SURE is a part of Office Depot and Tech Depot
.All these companies are good ones. When you go to the Tech Depot
website it has some nice features, you can check the speed of your computer, check for rebates, and they sell all types of computers and ink, which I like very much, and now I can buy them online!
Shop Office Depot before going to the discount stores for your ink you might be surprised.
When it comes to computer RAM memory needs and you don’t have the money to buy a new computer to fix the problem let me suggest 4AllMemory.com**** I buy my RAM from there. They have really good prices and are friendly easy people to work with. They have a feature on their website that will tell you what type of memory you need and all the different prices ranges you can purchase. So you don’t have to be an expert to DIY!
Here is another special feature you can use from 4All Memory:
I have been watching a new company called onSale.com
they are set up like Tiger Direct and sell everything from TV’s to computer parts at really discounted prices. I like that they have a neat Deal of the Day feature. I will probably be making my first purchase from them before the end of the summer.
They offer FREE SHIPPING on most OPEN BOX SPECIALS! (Limited Availability)
too. Did I mention their prices are great.
Something I stumbled into:
I investigated this company in hopes to find some computer batteries. Instead I found a good source for all types of rechargeable batteries. However, instead I found All-Battery.com and thought it would make a nice resource for anyone who uses lots of batteries.
Here are coupon codes from Abacus for Free Shipping, and up to 75% off on Computer cables, ink, adapters, and computer batteries. 
Want to find out about Printer Ink, and where to find good PC Security for Free Click the more link.
Movie Night
Many of us can’t resist a good movie. Are you ready to watch movies but not sure if about finding a good movie and how will you know if it’s a good movie?
Going to the video rental store and looking around for a movie is a thing of the past. It usually ends in disaster too, if you have kids with you. They don’t give you the luxury of remembering why you are there and which movie you are trying to rent. Usually before you know it your faced with options you did not expect to encounter. That’s one of the reason why I decided to go online for movie rentals such as Netflix, PiusMedia, and Graboid.
If you haven’t rented movies like this before you should consider it. You’ll find arguing about which movie to watch can be pretty much eliminated. These movies can generally be rented in two ways, by mail, or watch them instantly online.
The nice thing about Netflix style movie watching, is the way each person in the family can browse through the movies at their leisure. Put them in an instant que or a mail out que. Then you can go in and rearrange them, remove or add movies. Controlling movie watching in your house will be a little easier than watching a movie the television stations thinks you should watch.
These movie rental programs are also great if you sign up your elderly parents or grandparents; give it as gift – many of movie rental companies offer great movie classics. Take it from me, my parents love it! At first, they were very reluctant, saw no purpose in it and now can’t wait to go to the que and rent another movie. Older children can even help grandma and grandpa to show them how it works. Help discuss and learn about the movies (movie reviews) with one another.
I discovered a new site (to me) in the past few months. This movies by mail site is one of the best websites out by far for families who like to watch movies It called Faith and Family Flix their values are high. You may end up paying a little more for the basic plan but the regular plans are very competitive. Their selection on finding good Catholic and/or wholesome movies is also great. Plus you receive One Free Month if you join at this time. I understand it’s run by a Catholic Family. Pius media is also a Catholic based videos by mail organization who offer for rent, the largest selection of Catholic centered videos I have seen! I think every homeschool should should belong to this company to gain access to their collection for teaching purposes. I love the way you can search for saints by the feast days during any given month, that really helps with lesson planning.
Blockbuster is holding it’s own with their Total Access. You can download movies from their site, or by mail or exchange within their store. And they have branched in the UK. My friends and daughter who live in the London as I understand can now go to Blockbuster.co.uk where blockbuster offers a free unlimited DVDs for one month.
Graboid Video
Graboid is not necessarily family oriented it offers all type of movies. You should supervise kids when selecting a movie. However, they have a good selection of with 60,000 Movies & TV Shows Basic version is completely free. If you already know which movies you plan to watch, this site can be very nice. You download movies directly to your computer for later or watch it immediately. The cost per usage is determined by bandwidth downloaded. It’s clearly marked and easily understood. They offer a free month and I mean really free , Graboid does not make you put in any credit card info before your trial, just an email (and they don’t bug you.) At the end of the month or when you have used up like 10,000 gigs of download bytes then you decide if you want a monthly rental agreement. They do not mail movie to your house. depending on the amount of download bytes your interested in. Full access only $1.97/month Get it now for FREE Personally, I think it’s worth the trail and the quality is great.
One other Movie access that deserves to be mentioned is RED BOX they look like vending machine at Walmart and other convenience store movies can be rented for $1.00. They began to offer a Free Monday Movie night that was scheduled to end during May. However, recently they extended the promotion you can receive as a text message.
The Free Movie Monday monthly code will be distributed via text on the first Monday of every month, beginning June 1. To register or view promotion details, go to www.redbox.com.
Movie Reviews
Now that you know where to go to watch movies, let me show you where to find a good movie review source.
US Catholic Bishops Conference offers detailed movie reviews with the following codes.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ratings
A-I General patronage
A-II Adults and adolescents
A-III Adults
A-IV Adults, with reservations
L Limited adult audience
O Morally offensive
Motion Picture Association of America ratings
G General audiences
PG Parental guidance suggested
PG-13 Parents strongly cautioned
R Restricted
NC-17 No one 17 and under admitted
Before you watch movies here’s another place to go for a review. It’s called Decent Films they even have a fact checker too. Most everything else will just lead you back to the Bishops website.
Blockbuster Link for the United Kingdom
Coupons for Groceries
I had to dust off the cobwebs have a cup of Mystic Monks Coffee and try to remember all the different ways I save money using coupons and refunding. Now with times being what they are it looks like it’s back to clipping coupons in tight times.
I am the queen of going to every store or nearly every website to find the best possible price on an item I am considering purchasing. Of course I usually end up back at the first location only to find the first thing I saw was no longer on sale or gone but, NO more. I found a nice little website that called Beat My Price .
The way it works you enter in the name of your item, the location you found it, and the price then there search pulls up all the same items (or mostly) and their prices. It worked pretty well. Google still did pretty much pull up the best prices but at least with Beat My Price I didn’t have to sift through all the other sites to locate what I was looking for.
If you have FireFox as you Web browser you may want to put the following add on to it. It’s from Retail me not.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4980 This add on automatically notifies you if the website your on has coupons codes available for you to use.
Grocery Coupons
Groceries, we can’t live with them and we can’t live without them!
So if you have a chance to join in the grocery game of coupons, refunds and rebates, I know people who have the stores paying them for their purchases.
If your like me and you just want to find and print coupons you use in the stores then your best bet is Coupons.com They have such a wide selection of grocery coupons.
Retail Me Not is a fabulous site too. Enter the Stores Web address or Keyword like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Kroger and you get coupon codes and printable coupons. You could also go directly to the Kraft website however you have to just through hoop and sign up on their mailing list. By the time you do this you often forget why your there.
Smart Source is probably the #1 website for coupons. You can print your coupons easily and up near the top right side of their site is a local button. If you click the local button, virtually all the items in sale at your local area grocery stores will pop up with everything they have on sale. Click the items you want then it has a feature to print a grocery list with where and how much. It’s really cool. You can also get on their email list for weekly deliveries in your inbox.
If your looking for Kroger coupons to print or in store specials? Then you can go straight to the Kroger website and find weekly savings at your local store. You find the coupon your want click “save to card.” When you go into the store, buy the product and use your Kroger Plus card, the manufactures coupon from their website is activated on your card. Kroger also offers a new feature called Cellfire, it saves the coupon to your cell phone.
Here is a list of other grocery stores that offer their own weekly ads, manufactures coupons and store locator for local specials.
Ingles – offers coupons and weekly specials.
Publix – Just enter in your zip code to locate the Publix nearest to you. Receive all the specials and coupons available.
Betty Crocker - just because we use Bisquick so often for pancakes at breakfast
Find Grocery Store Specials and Coupons near you!
Here is a link you are going to want to investigate. It is the Ad circular which list all of the grocers and their specials for your local area while offering it to all across the country.
Not into grocery shopping? No problem
Try this company and please let us all know what you think of them.
Other Coupon Deals I found that might be helpful to an active homeschool family.
Receive a 10% Off discount code when you sign up for email updates at CrayolaStore.com!
If you like sewing check out the link below.
Send a Fun Ecard
Just in time for Graduation season!
To go to Catholic E-card greetings click here.
Sometimes sending a catholic ecard is not always appropriate for an friend or relative. And, it can be so difficult to find a fun free e-card. Here are some links to sites that won’t disappoint you. They are egreetings that are clean, fun and light.
This selection of free ecard sites can easily be used by both parents who want to inspire someone or your kids who may want to send messages to pen pals across the country or world or next door.
When my son was in Iraq his wife and children used Smilebox Free ecards that included photos and videos, plus their own music to keep him up with his children’s daily activities.
For Inspirational and Christian based ecards I have found Dayspring.com to be one of the best.
This is not Catholic but it’s a wonderful e-greetings site and you can’t beat FREE.
For kid style e-greeting site that girls will love!
whether your child has an American girl doll or not, they will especially like sending free ecard from American girl ecard from American Girls ecard central.
Things to do this Summer
Kids Bowl Free All across the nation bowling alleys are offering 2 free games per day to kids 15 years old and under. Check this link to see which bowling alleys in your state are offering this deal. Here’s how it works. They will begin to by emailing you tickets for the week every Sunday morning. There is also a side deal that goes along with this one. You can purchase a family pass for up to 4 people (babysitters, grandparents, aunts, uncle and more included) for $23.00. So your whole family can bowl together. There is only the normal charge for the shoe rental.
Regal Cinemas are offering free movies beginning at 10 AM on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s during the summer. Click the here to check their website. Watch for the select a state drop down menu in the center towards the bottom of the screen, to view which theaters in your state are offing free family film festivals. Not all cinemas are showing the same movies but some of the movies on the marque are Kit Kitridge American Girl, Charlotte’s Web, Curious George, and Horton Hears a Who, just to mane a few.
Scrapbooking or Computer Scrapbooking:
Keep track of all the fun stuff you do this summer and create a Memory Scrapbook. You can also make a Computer Scrapbook by taking pictures of items that you collected on a trip or adventure that won’t last forever. Then post them in your scrapbook.
Here are a link to free clip art for your scrapbook pages to help you along. And, at scrapbook bytes they offer free tutorials for how to digitize you layouts.
I like working with Avery Products when I am doing an Arts and Crafts project. I can trust their products to work. You can 20% Off Avery® Clear Scrapbook Sticker Paper which helps when your looking for deals.
When out in the sun you see all kinds of wonderful things like butterflies and bugs. This inspired me to let my daughter to make my own magnets and I my own inspirational messages on magnets. You can get 20% Off Avery® Magnet Sheetseveryday too. I have purchased other magnet sheets however, I have not had as much luck with using non-Avery magnets sheets. My printer just doesn’t work with any other magnet sheet.
You can also Save on kid’s craft supplies at www.CreateForLess.com.
While your at it be sure to check out Art Supplies at MisterArt.com you can save 75%.
All over the country parks and recreational areas will have a daily arts and crafts area for kids. Some are free and some are a nominal fee. Check with your local parks and rec dept. or head over to your local park some morning about 9:30 AM and see what’s going on.Childrens's Arts & Crafts
Gardening
This summer why not turn your back yards in to Master Gardens. Gardening for Beginners is a fun site to stop at. Choose from annuals and perennials, learn what they are. Plant a vegetable garden; learn how to make and use compost and a whole lot more. Besides language translations, you can enter your location for hardiness zones.
Learn about Dogs
Chances are if your in the 2nd or 3rd grade level and your haven’t got pet yet – here is a nice website for not only finding a pet but learning about different breeds of dogs. When your on the site just click view all and find many different breeds of dogs. Once you find one your interested in click on learn more and you can find out the characteristics of the breed; such as, are they energetic, do they need much exercise, are they hard to groom, and what type of temperament they have. The website is Petfinder.com and while I only mentioned dogs they cover a wide selection of animals.
20 Percent Off All Orders at StarbucksStore.com ~ This Week Only
Fabric.com Coupon Corner
…More coming
Get Half Price PHOTO COLLAGE MUGS in June. Use Coupon Code: JUNEMUGUK09. Ideal gifts for Father's Day.
Museums, History, Art, free Days and Homeschool Days
Find a Museum Close to You
Many of museums offer “free days” or “homeschool days”
Go to museums in the USA All types of museums to choose from. Art Museums, Science Museums and many more.
Visiting and Learning about Ancient Egypt, Greece and Italy is no farther than a click away.
Atlanta, Georgia has Michael C. Carlos Museum said to be one of the best Ancient Egypt Museums in the US. Admission is $7 per person. See Mummies Egyptian time periods. Items from Greek, Roman and Ancient American time periods as well.
Totally Tut Pyramid Game
$17.98
Exploring never got better than with the fascinating Michael Carlos online Ancient Greece Museum there is no explaining this one, it a fun way to read and learn all about Ancient times. Enter into a Flash multimedia presentation with lots of features and choices for teaching things such as architecture, living, geography, battles, God’s Goddess’, heroes, names, and Greek Democracy.
Art Institute of Chicago
View an entire multi-media guide to the Ancient World and choose from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Italy when visiting the the Art Institute of Chicago. Cick the stories button (link) if that option is available that goes along with the images. The story runs a quicktime movie that explains the history surrounding the image. For example, here is a video telling about the Ancient Boats used in the time of Cleopatra in Egypt. Explaining how the boats sailed up and down the Nile River. These would make great history lessons for younger grades as an introduction to Ancient History.
Lesson Plans for the Ancient Studies are also available at the Art Institute of Chicago for teaching Math, Fine Arts, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. These look like they would make great unit studies. Note: these lesson plans are main focus includes those in 4th and 5th grade.
Then go and learn about Ancient Egypt at the British Museum in the UK learn about hieroglyphics writings.
Vatican Online Museums
You don’t have to go any farther than the tip of your fingers to find loads of Ancient history. Here at the Vatican Online Museum you will find quality Christian history, art history and more.
St. Louis Art Museum
The St. Louis Art Museum is a spectacular Museum if you ever get the chance to go there. It’s free every day and on Friday’s their special exhibits are free too. They have beautiful Ancient Art and quite an extensive collection of religious and Chinese art. They also have educational programs some for free depending on the time and season.
Parthenon in the USA
One of the most awesome things I ever saw in the United States was a life size replica of the Greek PARTHENON – in NASHVILLE, TN!! It was unbelievable. I felt like I was in Greece. Inside there is a Colossal statue of Athena holding Nike It’s located in down town Nashville and at this time it cost $6.00 for adults and $3.50 for kids 4- 17, if your younger than that you get in free. they are open year round from about 9-4 except Sunday it’s 12:30 – 4:30. View the photo gallery
Never write your kids off
If you have an older child that seems to have strayed from the faith and values you taught them growing up listen to Monsignor William Smith interview with Mother Angelica from EWTN on the topic “Are we responsible for other peoples sins?”
Books, Videos, Gifts
Catholic Media
Free and Frugal
Good Deals
An_Amazon_Store For Catholic Family's
Watch Videos Now
List of Children Audio Stories and ebooks