Over the next little bit you may notice a few changes on my website. New graphics. A new domain name. A switchover to WordPress. Most of you may not even notice the shift over {it should hopefully be a fairly painless process for us all}, but there is one thing that will be disappearing.

Google Friend Connect.

Google is phasing out the widget for any non-Blogspot related site. Do you know which widget I am talking about? Looks a little like this…is your face one of the ones pictured?

Since I’d rather not lose you all in the transition process, I would love it if you could take a few seconds and click on the button to Subscribe to Homeschool Creations in a Reader or Subscribe by Email. The RSS button is in my header and you can enter your email address in my sidebar and just click ‘enter’. Updates will be delivered to your inbox for FREE!

As a thanks for being a subscriber {either a new one or one who has been subscribing since the start}, I’m giving away a $50 gift card to Amazon!! To enter, all you need to do is click ‘I did it’ in the Rafflecopter widget below {email subscribers, please visit the blog to enter the giveaway}. Be sure to confirm your subscription too if you become an email subscriber!a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit these great companies!

• Grapevine Studies ~ stick figure your way through the Bible
• Time 4 Learning ~ online education for PreK to 8th grade

Do you have a few minutes you’d be willing to spare? I’d love your help in answering some questions!!

The survey is closed now ~ thanks so much!

You all were an amazing help!!

Visit these great companies!

• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
• Great Homeschool Conventions ~ outstanding & affordable homeschool events

 

To celebrate Valentine’s Day and God’s love for us, What’s in the Bible has a special Valentine’s Day card and coupon code that is available today only {February 14th}. The coupon code will give you $10 off Volume 1: Genesis and includes FREE shipping and handling.

Bottom line is $5.

Just click on the valentine card with Sunday School lady {she just cracks me up} and use the code LOVE4 during checkout.

Visit these great companies!

• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
• Great Homeschool Conventions ~ outstanding & affordable homeschool events

It’s always good when I take a look at the plans that I made at the beginning of the year. Especially, when those plans include a week-long break that starts today.

Ahhh….the fun we will have. :)

The kids and I just started reading Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins and they are also anxious to rack up as many reading hours as they can to earn a free ticket to Six Flags.

In case you missed the post on my Facebook page, the Six Flags: Read to Success program is open to homeschoolers!! You have to register and each child needs to read 6 hours before March 1st ~ but you still have time. So, if you live within 250 miles from a Six Flags, sign up and download the forms.

We’ll be cuddling up on the couch to finish up the last few hours of reading {although certain children have already managed to finish up their allotted time}. I will have some other fun posts this week still, including a giveaway, so stay tuned!!

Visit these great companies!

• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
• Great Homeschool Conventions ~ outstanding & affordable homeschool events

 

After finishing up some Valentine’s Day baking, I dumped all of the extra candy into a jar to use as treats ~ and then decided it would be fun to use it as an estimation activity for all the kids. And a yummy one too.

Everyone made their candy count guesses:

Ironically, the kiddo without the slightest clue of how many were really in the jar did the best job guessing the M&M count ~ he told me to write down the number one-nine-eight {and repeated it to me several times}.

We counted out the Kisses by groups of 5 and the M&M’s in groups of 10. The overall candy count? 262 M&M’s and 51 Kisses…which are now down a few since the kids all got a treat after the counting was complete!

Just a little extra Valentine’s Day fun!!

Visit these great companies!

• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
• Great Homeschool Conventions ~ outstanding & affordable homeschool events

 

For those of you who are newer to blogging, can I share one of my FAVORITE blogging tools?

Are you ready? It’s Windows Live Writer.

I promise you, it is one of the best things I ever installed on my computer and is compatible with several blogging platforms {Blogger, Windows Live, WordPress, LiveJournal, TypePad, and more}…but sorry to those of you who are Mac users. It isn’t compatible with Macs.

Update: One of my readers {thanks, Stacey!!} emailed that there is a tutorial on how to use Windows Live Writer for a Mac!!

Which seriously is one of the reasons I don’t want a Mac. Which may make me re-consider the Mac issue in the future!

Why do I love it so? Let me give you a few {or ten} reasons:

1. I can blog anytime, anywhere without needing to be connected to the internet. All those post ideas swimming around in my head are saved as a draft in Live Writer and I can edit and add things when I think of more to add. This was a HUGE help to me when I was traveling and didn’t have constant access to the internet. I was able to write my posts and get them ready to go and then ‘publish’ them when I did have internet access.

2. I can post from multiple accounts. Live Writer allows me to create posts for all of my various blogger accounts. I don’t need to log into blogger, and with a simple click of a drop down menu I can switch accounts. This has been a huge help for me with this blog, the Totally Tots blog and what seems like a gagillion other sites.

3. I can create template posts and use them as needed. There are certain posts of mine that use the same format. I love that I can click a button to pull a template that I’ve created/saved and all the same information pops up quickly without my needing to redo it all. The templates are super easy to edit and I use this plug-in for my templates.

4. Photos and formatting is SO much easier! All it takes is a quick click of a button to add a photo, quickly resize it and even add watermarks and other special effects. When I publish a post, the picture automatically uploads to my Picasa or Photobucket account. This part alone has saved me so much time! I can even add alt text to a picture or have it link somewhere specific.

5. I can preview my posts. Live Writer offers the great feature of previewing your post so you can actually visualize what it will look like on your blog. This helps me see if there are any odd spacing issues before I actually post. Not that it’s ever stopped me from posting wacky stuff…but still. The option is there. :)

6. Editing after a post is up is simple! Live writer lets you ‘recall’ a post even after it has posted to your blog. Should I notice a spelling error {ahem} or anything else that needs to be fixed, I can do it quickly…and you all never even know!

7. Our kids can safely use it. Both of our girls have a hidden blog and they can type their posts {or assignments} using Live Writer.  I have Live Writer set up on the kids computer so that they can blog away and publish to their own blog without even needing to be on the internet.

8. It’s FREE! Did I forget to mention that? When you download the program it comes with extra ‘add-ons’ that are unnecessary, so be sure to uncheck all the extra boxes when you download it.

9. I can add links quickly and easily to photos, text…anything. I can even specify that the link opens up in a new window.

Do you all use Live Writer??? Are you on your way to download it now?

Visit these great companies!

• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
• Great Homeschool Conventions ~ outstanding & affordable homeschool events