Saturday, March 26, 2011

A new freebie for you! Created by me!

Does anyone know how to insert a PDF or MS-Word file into a Blogger post?  None of the tutorials that I have found have helped. 

And, bonus if you can tell me how to get links to open in a new tab or new window...the tutorial I found for that didn't work either.

And, please don't tell me to use Wordpress instead.  Wordpress is not my friend.  Thanks.

Anyhow, I have a five year old tutoring student that is very resistant to reading.  However, he loves to keep track of things.  So, I created a reading chart for him.  For every book that he can read on his own, with no help, he can color in a square.  Once all of the squares are filled in, I will give him a prize.  He has been asking for Spiderman books (not because they are books but because, hey it's SPIDERMAN!).  So, once he completes his first chart, a Spiderman book will be his!

I thought I would share this little chart with you, and wanted to embed it directly into this post for you to print, but Blogger isn't having any of that today!  Harumph!  Instead, please scoot on over to Scribd to find my chart and print a copy for *personal* or *classroom* use.  Please do not print or alter it and use it for profit.  This is my own original work and as such is subject to all copyright laws.  Thanks!

Friday, March 18, 2011

We've been busy...

Brushing the dust off the ol' blog...  A new friend mentioned that she'd checked out ye old blog and liked it.  I realized how long it has been since I updated it.  Oops!

Truth be told, we've been extremely busy, and some things just kind of fell to the wayside, like this blog...watering the plants...cleaning out the car (just shove it under the seat!)...um, maybe I should take care of some of that...back in a sec!

...some time later...  Ok, plant was beyond saving so it is now in the trash.  Car is sort of cleanerish...  And, here I am updating the bloggety-blog-blog.



So, what have we been up to since my last post (in January!)...a lot!  School has been crazy hectic this term.  My reading list for one week is equal to the reading list for the entirety of last term!  So, every week is a scramble to get my readin' and writin' done!  I actually feel constantly behind this term when it comes to school.  Sigh...  But, this is my spring break and I am trying to take advantage of the extra time.

I've also been tutoring a lot more...A LOT more!  That's both good and bad.  Great for the wallet, but not so good for my free time, time to spend with the kiddo, or time to spend on my own studying.  Thankfully, the families I tutor for allow me to bring the kiddo with.  That helps like you wouldn't believe!  And, he gets along well with my students, and with their siblings.  Bonus!



We also joined a homeschool support group...finally!  And, a group of single parent families.  We've met some of the homeschoolers a couple of times now, and they are great!  Looks like most weeks we will be trekking into Manhattan at least once per week for homeschool stuff - FUN!  I love Manhattan so I am thrilled!  I also realized that driving in NYC isn't as scary as I thought it would be and the area where the group meets is actually less congested and less crazy than San Francisco when it comes to traffic.  Given that I have Pro status at San Francisco driving, NYC/Manhattan driving will be cake!  I even told someone a few weeks ago, when I had to change lanes with very little distance available, "I'm going to San Francisco this..."  I won't explain beyond saying, the driver I cut in front of was probably not very happy with me.  My passenger gave me props for turning "San Francisco" into a verb too.




The weather has also finally turned warm so we'll be spending much more time outside!  Yay!  And, I've actually bought a few pieces of furniture so we won't be reduced to eating dinner off of a cardboard box table.  Funny though as the girl I bought our new (used) kitchen table and chairs from is moving from NY to California, driving cross-country in the same make/model of car as what we drove cross-country, and she is moving out of an apartment complex that we *almost* moved into.  Small, small world, right?