Showing posts with label contests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contests. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2011

After 8 months she finally admitted it!

Last fall, thanks to my dear friend Shirley, I came out of the closet. I admitted something to the whole world. Something that I used to be embarrassed about. I thought people wouldn't accept me and if they did know, they would judge me. They would think I was weird. They would have written proof that I was weird.

I admitted that I was a blogger. I shared my blog with everyone I knew, because I love a good competition.  After I was nominated by Shirley for an award,  I figured, I had to let people know about my blog. They couldn't cast their vote for me if I didn't ask for it. I was shocked, they voted. They stuck around and continued to read it. They said nice things to me about it. They didn't know how much wind they had put in my blogging sails.

Then the day Lyn told me she stumbled upon my blog. It was over then. I became obsessive. I ordered business cards. Must blog more, must blog better, blog this, blog that. She is like having a personal blog cheerleader. Every blogger needs a Lyn. I am so thankful for my dear sista(not a typo where we come from) Lyn.

If you have read my blog for any amount of time and enjoy it, I am asking a favor. Will you cast your vote for me? Will you pick me? Can you take a minute to vote, early and often? Actually, you can vote once a day, I read the rules. I'm one of those weird people that tries to follow the rules. I just don't know if I am weird enough to remind you to vote.

To vote for me, click on the button above and scroll down until you see my baking cookies logo. 



Then vote by clicking the thumbs up. I am in great company on that homeschool blog list. I actually know one of them IRL= in real life.

I want to thank Circle of Moms Top 25 Homeschooling Blogs for nominating and contacting me. I am thrilled to join in the fun.

Thanks for stopping by and voting!
If you like my blog vote and enter your email address:
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Saturday, April 9, 2011

Winners, losers and second chances

God is a God of second chances. For that I praise Him. If you know me in real life, you're nodding your head right now..
It's the day to announce a winner and later on today, another giveaway. Before I tell you who won, I have some words of comfort. If you had your heart set on winning, I am including a list of other bloggers who reviewed I Will Praise You. They, too, are giving away a copy.


A huge "Thank You" to Catherine from Our Village is a Little Different for sharing this with me.

And the winner is...


When I looked to see who won, I smiled. I had stopped by Toyin's blog and knew I'd like to have coffee with her. I love her site, and you will too. She's a woman in love with Jesus.
Congrats! and if you didn't win, God is the God of second chances in the big picture and the little things.

Thanks for stopping by,





If you like a good contest occasionally, enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner

Thursday, January 27, 2011

A little contest

I entered this picture in the "feet" contest over at Pixosphere. I know they aren't as cute as baby toes, after a certain age feet need a little assistance be a thing of beauty.


I am not under the impression that I have a chance of winning. If you head over to Pixosphere, you will see some amazing photos. I just love the idea of this site, I would love to see it grow. I have used a few of their pictures for free on my blog.  What appealed to me was the family friendliness of the site. Too many times I have come across some yucky pictures, while searching for some basic images like math or nature. Sisterlisa keeps things clean over there and for that I am so thankful. Will you try your hand at a photo contest? If Terri G. can do it, anyone can.

boston feet by terrig, on Pix-O-Sphere

If you love beginning photography, you will find tons of it here. Enter your email address:


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Reader comments are welcomed with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Giveaway Winner Announced: See The Light


Great News! The winner of the See The Light Dvd has been chosen using the ever-cool Random Number Generator. Congratulations to Shirley. She has been contacted and is thrilled. 
Staying up late and entering blog contests, is not always a bad idea. She will now See The Light with her family!

If you didn't win, do not be discouraged. 
SSSHHH.........I have some inside secret blog information. A sister-in-thrift and homeschooling blogger is working on this same give away. As soon as it is posted, I will pass on the info to you. 


Have a Great Weekend! 


Monday, November 8, 2010

Winner announced!




This means Debra from Footprints in the Butter is the winner of a signed copy of Bottega and a box of Lemon Pepper Panko crispy bread crumbs courtesy of MyBlogSpark. Congratulations! 




I hope Debra enjoys Panko as much as we did. If you didn't win, don't cry in your soggy bread crumbs. Stop by here and get a coupon for $1.00 off any Progresso Panko mix.








I welcome reader comments with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Thrifty Thursday....where someone could win a CSN gift certificate

I really don't know that many bloggers in person. I know about 7. I just don't travel in circles of writers. Lori is one of my first bloggy friends, that I can physically punch in the arm. I don't do this often, but she would forgive me if I did. 


Lori has given me some great advice over the past year. Like what I should really buy with a CSN gift certificate. I saw her in those purple boots, they are so cute. They are very Lori! 


If you want some purple boots, head over to her blog and enter to win a CSN gift certificate. But hurry, the contest closes Friday October 29th. That's like tomorrow. To save some time, just click her cool button below.


HomeSchoolReviews

That's my Thrifty Advice for Thursday. I know it's not profound, but it's real. Like my friend Lori.



I welcome reader comments with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Thrifty Thursday....where someone gets a great book for free

If you have been reading any of my mindless ramblings this week about contests, you may have happened to notice, I was hosting a give away for Vocabulary Cartoons SAT Word Power. I am happy to announce the winner is Kimarie from The Cardamom's Pod. She used irascible correctly in a sentence and follows my tightwad tip of entering contests. Congratulations! Stop by her blog to give her a high five comment or ask her to lend you her copy. 
Another tightwad tip: borrow books.


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I welcome reader comments with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Simple Math

Years ago, our local homeschool support group held monthly meetings. Ideally, each family would host one night and pick a topic to share with the group. When my night arrived, I chose homeschooling for the thrifty. I spoke about numerous ideas, books, part time jobs, sources for free curriculum and other tips. One of my strange tips was:
Enter Contests
I went on to list some of the things I have won over the years. Here goes what my colander of a brain has the capacity to remember: $100.00 cash, a health club membership, a box of expensive cigars(Gross!), books, pizza, a sailboat, a gold bracelet, concert tickets, albums(o.k. that was a real long time ago) restaurant gift certificates, a computer desk, flowers and gift cards. The other Lori used to grumble when I kept winning the door prize at our meetings.

I have to tell you, I do not believe in luck. I am not a lucky person. I believe in God, His provision and His blessing. I do believe God shows us in His Word many promises to the believer as they walk in obedience to His word. I won't deny, many times I prayed to win. Especially the $600 furniture gift certificate. The desk in my bedroom consisted of 2 file cabinets with a wood door across the top, Oh so ugly. I did thank God for that and testify to anyone who would listen of God's goodness. 

So why did I win all of those things? I don't know.

Now those were the days before I had discovered blog give aways. Because I entered contests where the amount of entries were low, my chances of winning was high. It was simple mathematics. Most blog give aways have between 10 and 200 entries. If 4 or 5 of the entries are mine my chances are 2% to 50% of winning. 

I experienced a few winnings lately on blog contests. They were not things I needed, but things I could use or bless someone else with. I won an o.k. Christian book from Lori @  www.homeschoolreviewsandmore.com. I won the cutest little ride on toy from Mama M. for a sweet little girl that I don't get to see enough of, I won a therapy ball for my boys to beat each other with bounce on from Dandy Giveaway. I won a 3 month membership to JumpStart.com for my Little Guy from here. Yesterday, I won a $45 gift card to the CSN stores from BentoBloggy

Before you start thinking, does all she ever do is enter blog contests? Actually no. Only when I feel like avioding sleep or housework. At times I may not enter for weeks. I just follow some blogs and enter them sporadically. In fact, I entered the Bentobloggy give away late the night before and had a good feeling about that one. 

At our local park day gatherings, the home schooling Moms have discussed this part of blogging. I think the consensus was, you either love them or hate them, the commercialism of them turns people off. I love them. Most bloggers have interesting posts. A contest in between great writing is a bonus. It's like a commercial that you jump into to. Of course, I am the wierdo that when I get in front of a television, I become mesmerized by some of the commercials. I think of these blog give aways as a fun commercial. I'll watch and play if I have time. Do I ever end up purchasing items from the ads/contests? No. Do I want to? Many times. Usually may all time favorite tightwad tip kicks in. If you want to know what one that is, you have to endure an eternal post from me, again. This was one of my first blog posts on thrift.

How about you? Do you enjoy a good give away? Do you ever win any of them? What was the best prize you have won? Do give aways on a blog annoy you? Did you enter my last give away? It's not too late.

I welcome reader comments with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Vocabulary Cartoons: a review and a give away

Vocabulary Cartoons SAT Word Power
Learn Hundreds of SAT Words with Easy Memory Techniques


When my copy of Vocabulary Cartoons SAT Word Power came in the mail, I suspected trouble. Why? I already owned an older version of it and it was still summer break. My older copy had sat dormant in my sunroom for a while. When you live five minutes from the beach, you rarely do 'school' in the summer. These two strikes could make for a difficult review. Thankfully, I was wrong. This book is not very 'schoolish'.

What is it?

Vocabulary Cartoons is over 300 pages of funny cartoons to aid your student in learning words that frequently appear on the SAT Tests. This book is published by New Monic Books, Inc.  The words are arranged alphabetically and after every ten words there is a quiz. This is the first book in the series and costs $12.95. There is a second SAT Word Power book which I am coveting and resources for younger children available at their web site:

My Thoughts

I am not in favor of teaching to the test, but usually prefer learning vocabulary naturally in the context of a great book. This little book makes learning vocabulary fun. Each new word is accompanied by a funny cartoon with some word play in it. This was right up our alley. I am sure Charlotte Mason would have appreciated the gentle short lessons of this book.

I just learned a new word, irascible, which I will try my hardest not to be.

You can view more samples of Vocabulary Cartoons here.

My sons' thoughts

Random, who masters the quizzes easily, likes it. He surprisingly informed me he has never liked vocabulary. I take this as a high compliment for Vocabulary Cartoons.

Paperboy's first experience with Vocabulary Cartoons shocked me. I assigned him a chapter from the middle of the book. He took it into his lair and returned quickly.
He handed me the book and said: "I love it, let's keep it."
"Did you even read it?"
"Yes, of course I did."
I assigned him the quiz. I realized, he read it, but not so carefully. I decided it was important to handle the words daily in little doses. Hence my schedule below:

How I am using Vocabulary Cartoons in our home school this year with my 8th and 9th grader:
  • On Monday, I orally quiz them on the words in the chapter, just to see if they already are familiar with them. At times, they surprised me and knew a few. They read the first chapter through once.
  • On Tuesday, they reread the chapter, focusing on the example sentences. I want them to understand the words in the context of how they are used.
  • On Wednesday, I orally quiz them on all of the words.
  • On Thursday, I give them the quiz in the book. I photocopy it. If they score 100%, they are done for the week.
  • On Friday, they fix their quizzes, if needed. The quiz consists of 20 questions matching the definitions and filling in the correct vocabulary word.
Although the quiz is fill in the blank, it does require some extra effort. The student must change the tense of the verbs to agree with the sentences. The boys are learning to handle the words and memorize the definitions.

More of my thoughts

Vocabulary Cartoons fit in with my children's learning styles. The visual, a great cartoon, evokes giggles. The words are in alphabetical order. This is the one thing that confused my children. When they were introduced to 7 words that have the same 2 or three letters, they mixed up a few of the words.  This program takes 10 minutes a day at the most. If your child is nearing SAT time, you could surely assign 40 words a week and finish the books in 5 weeks before moving on to book 2. Our method works nicely with our workbox system as it is one of their lighter assignments.


If you already have vocabulary in your curriculum, I would still encourage you to purchase this book. Leave Vocabulary Cartoons in the back of your car, in the bathroom(eew) or on the coffee table. All ages will appreciate these cartoons.


You can see what others are saying about Vocabulary Cartoons here.


How you can use Vocabulary Cartoons in your home school, maybe:


Because I already owned this book, I need your help. Help me not to hoard books. My  friend, who shall remain nameless, is slowly weeding out her vast collection of home school books. I was the benefactor of her kindness a few years back. Now I have an extra copy to give away to one lucky reader.


Rules, Rules, Rules.


Mandatory Entry:
To win this book, you must leave a comment using my new word irascible correctly in a sentence.


Extra Entries:
Tweet or share this on Facebook and leave me a comment for each one you are doing.

Another Extra Entry: Boost my self esteem, follow me or let me know you already do.

Make sure I can contact you through your blogger ID or leave your email in the comments.

I will pick one lucky winner on September 24th. If you don't win or have time to enter contests, head over to New Monics, Inc and see these great books yourself.


I received a complimentary copy of this book as a participant in the 2010-2011 TOS review crew. The opinions are my own and of course my children's. 

This give away is closed, congratulations to the winner! She has received her book and loves it!


I welcome reader comments with open arms. I also understand if you aren't the commenting or hugging type of person, you can drop me an email at accidentallyhomeschooling@gmail.com.