How we learn

For those of you still getting to know me, I have a background in education. I do have a bachelors and two masters in education. I am currently not certified to teach, but that is something I am working on. Because of my background, I am always looking at different ways we learn, different ways to teach information, and different aspects that can affect learning.

One of my favorite classes when I was in school was a class on Brain Based Learning. I enjoyed the class so much that I actually kept my used text book for future referencing, which believe it or not I did do in classes after that and will again today.



The basis of the class was to explain how people learn differently. Many schools will talk about learning styles, like visual or audio learners, but there are also other aspects that affect learning for each individual. Here is some information on the different learning styles. Which one fits you?



Now, I personally learn quite a few different ways so it is important for me to recognize that. I learn and retain information better if I physically do the work, read about it, and see it. For example, last summer I made my own soap mold to use with my soap bars. I was very intimidated by power tools before that, but using the tools, cutting the wood myself, and attaching the pieces together helps me to better understand how power tools work. Now they aren't as intimidating or scary.

While I do agree it is important to understand how we each learn efficiently, Brain based learning takes that a step further and looks at other factors that influences how we learn in both positive and negative ways.

Some of the things that can influence learning are:

1. Biological differences
2. Physical movement
3. Stress and Threats
4. Senses

Let's look at each of these a bit more.

Biological Differences

I'm not a sexist person but biology does make a difference in how we learn. In general, men's brains are about 10% larger, are approximately 100 grams heavier, have more cortical neurons, and men have better distance vision and depth perception than women. However, women's ears are better at picking up sound, nuances of voice, sensitive sense of touch, and stronger sense of smell. Men and women also have very different approaches for problem solving (Jensen, 2008, Brain Based Learning).

Physical Movement

Physical movement is a factor in learning as well. It enhances circulation, gives the brain more oxygen, stimulates mood-enhancing neurotransmitters, and enhances growth. This can be an issue for children with many schools having to cut physical education because of budget issues. Having a child with ADHD, I also see that physical activity allows her brain to take a break, regroup, and allows her to better focus on what she is learning.

Stress and Threats

When the brain perceives a threat, it plays a major role in learning. This is because when a brain is feeling threatened, the reaction can effectively stop or stunt the learning process. When threatened, the brain:

1. loses the ability to interpret environmental clues
2. loses the ability to index, store, and access information
3. responses are automatic and limited (more instinctual than anything)
4. affects the ability to retain information long term

That is just to name a few and doesn't include the physical aspects that stress and threats have on the body itself, like difficulty breathing.

Senses

Many people can relate to the information I provided above, but those are not the only factors in learning. Our body's 5 senses also have an impact on learning in ways that are not always considered.

Sight

-Color
The brain is wired to pay attention to bright colors, intensity, and movement.
Color affects a person based on mood and state of mind. For example, an anxious person may become aggressive when exposed to the color red.
Color preferences can also make a difference on whether or not you feel relaxed or depressed when walking into a room painted in a specific color.

-Lighting
Fluorescent lights can have a slight flicker and barely there hum, which can cause excessive blinking and raised cortisol levels.
Natural sunlight can increase learning progression, while a lack of natural light can decrease learning and cause additional health issues to arise like fatigue, infections, and posture problems.

Touch

The major factor for this sense that affects learning is temperature of a room. Every person's comfort range may vary, but being just one degree warmer than that comfort level is enough to disturb brain functions. Temperature is an important factor for me when it comes to learning. If I am too warm, I can not concentrate, have trouble focusing, struggle to stay awake, and retain information learned poorly if at all.

Taste

Many people recognize that eating is an important part of every day for our bodies and brains to perform at top levels.
Not having the proper nutrition can influence alertness, reaction time, quick thinking, attention span, information retention, memory, spatial abilities, and the ability to perform calculations.
Dehydration can also affect learning by increasing stress hormones, cause memory deficients, impair cognitive performance and increase discipline problems.

Smell

Anyone familiar with aromatherapy will understand how smells can affect a person's mood. Scents can calm a person,
center them, and help them focus. On the other hand, scents can also make it difficult to focus, cause physical reactions, and create a stressed student or adult. It is important to use caution with scents because it is not always easy to predict how someone will react to any given scent or a person's sensitivity level to a scent. Scent can be a trigger for other health issues as well including headaches and allergic reactions.

Sound

I have said before that I am sensitive to sounds. Loud sounds make it hard to focus, but soft sounds can do the same thing if I find them distracting. Sound is important because it can make a difference in whether or not the student can hear the information you are teaching. A large room, with a large group of students, may make it difficult for students to hear a soft spoken teacher. Learning styles can help with this section as well since some students may learn better if there is soft music playing in the background, though this could be a distraction to others.


I hope this tidbit of information that I learned from my Brain-Based Learning class gives you a bit of insight into how people learn, how different things affect learning for both children and adults, and what areas to be aware of when planning a classroom environment. All of the information above was pulled from different areas of the book pictured. I will follow up with more information in future posts.

How do you learn and what affects your learning?

Happy learning

Danielle

Menu planning

The last two years in our house have been one giant financial struggle. During the last 2 years, I have worked only for about 8 months, part time, so life has been a true struggle. With hard times and no job, I have had assistance for food to help feed me and my daughter. To make the assistance last, I have used one thing to help ensure we have dinners for the month: Menu planning.

Menu planning is not an art, but it can feel like it when you looking at a month worth of dinners to prepare and limited funds to carry out the plan.

Menu planning serves a few purposes:

1. Helps to ensure dinners are covered for whatever time frame you are planning for.
2. Helps ease the stress of what's for dinner.
3. Eliminates scrambling around at the last minute trying to figure out what to make.
4. Ensures you have what you need to prepare those dinners without making extra trips to the grocery store.
5. Helps keep the waist line the same size since there is no need to run out for fast food.

Here is how I do it:

I use Microsoft Word, Excel, and a basic calendar template. If you don't have these on your computer or laptop, there are plenty of free apps you can download to help with menu planning.

I start with a blank calendar and fill in the days based on the particular month I am planning.
I do have a deep freezer that I try to add to when I do have extra funds so I try to use these items first, adding them to different days on the calendar.

In my house, it is just me and my daughter so I add in nights to use up left overs. I don't like wasting food and neither of us are big on having left overs for more than a day or so after the original meal. I also tend to try to use meats for more than one meal whenever I can. Let me give you some examples. Here is my menu plan for February.



On Valentine's Day, I have a whole chicken planned for dinner. There is no way the two of us will finish an entire chicken in one meal. I will brown the chicken first and then let it simmer for a while to make homemade stock, then freeze the extra meat so that I can use it the following week in chicken salad sandwiches. There is also a beef or pork roast planned for one day. I will decide which one to get based on availability and price when I go to the store. The extra meat I will shred and use to make tacos a few nights later.

I also use any extras from a meal to create my own TV dinners, so to speak. I have a few plastic divided containers with lids. When I make a meal, I will use one of the plates to create a full meal for left over nights. Since it is just the two of us, I tend to make one extra meal in the divided plates for each of the nights that I cook. That way on left over night, my daughter has a choice for what she wants for dinner and I will have the one she doesn't choose. If I have more leftovers than will fill just one plate, I will make a second and put it in the freezer for an additional option for left over night later in the week or a night where the day just didn't go as planned.

The next part you can do a few different ways. When I first started menu planning, I would plan out the entire month first then create a grocery list of everything I needed for all the meals. After I created the full list, I would then remove the items I already had in the freezer or pantry. This made planning a bit time consuming.

The other way you can handle is how I do it now. I add one day to the menu calendar, then look over the ingredients or items I need for that meal and add them to an excel file I have open in another window. I have already separated the file into different sections so I add the items to the pertinent section, then once everything is added, I will sort that section alphabetically.

If there are any meals I have planned from recipes I have not created myself, I will print those out and staple them to the menu, which then goes on my fridge. Eventually, I want to create a chalk board wall that I can write my menus on, but until then, I just stick it to the fridge with magnets.

Here is my grocery list for February that goes with the menu pictured above.



When I created the file I use for the shopping list, I made sure to include a column so I can check off the items as I add them to my cart. If you prefer, you can write in the cost of the item on the line instead so you can keep a running total of what you are spending so you know you are staying within your budget.

There are some items on my menu that I can make myself. For example, I can make the dough for the homemade pizzas and french bread pizza in my bread machine. I do recognize that on a busy day, it may be unrealistic to think I will have 1 1/2 hours to wait for that to finish before I make dinner though, so I tend to add in items that may make those days easier on the off chance time gets away from me. I also do this just in case I have a sick kid at home, something I can't plan for, or have unexpected appointments occur. I also tend to share my menus with a few friends who don't necessarily make their own dough like I do (let's be honest though, I don't always make my own even though I can).

The nice thing about menu planning is that it is completely customizable based on what your family eats and likes. My daughter tends to be a picky eater so I try to find at least one new recipe a month to try out. If its a hit, then it gets added to the list of possibilities and if it isn't, it gets deleted from the list of dinner options.

I have not quite gotten organized enough yet to create a binder with the past menus I have made with sections of our favorite meals or foods, though that is something I have planned for the future to help make planning easier. I hope this was helpful and I would love to see your menu planning ideas as well.

Happy planning...

Danielle

Cyber Bullying

I was reading a post today from a fellow soaper that I follow on both Facebook and YouTube. She was letting the group know that she was turning off the comments section on her videos because she could no longer handle the nasty comments about her children that people were posting on her videos.

I can not begin to describe how angry this made me. Nasty comments are a part of life. We as adults understand that, however, when does it get to a point where the lines are crossed? When does it become cyber bullying?

My question is when did it become acceptable to say hateful things to each other? Especially to complete strangers? When did it become socially acceptable to sit behind a computer screen and say things you wouldn't say to someone's face?

I don't understand. Could someone please stand up and explain this to me? I don't understand how someone can sit behind a computer and feel safe enough to harm other people with their words.

Maybe its just me, maybe I just miss the times when people had manners, decorum, and class. I should have been born in the 50s I guess in that case, but I know how I was raised. Even now, in my 30s, my mother would still whip my butt if I talked to someone in a manner she felt was disrespectful or ignorant. Ask her, I am sure she will tell you the same thing. Or better yet, ask my close friends instead. Mom might think you were asking because I did something wrong and need a butt whipping lol. Yes, even a head shorter than me and she still scares me.

The point is that we are aware, as adults, the impact bullying has on our children. That it affects psychological development, causes health problems, and affects the adult lives of children. So why do we think this is acceptable behavior as adults just because of the safety of hiding behind a computer screen? Does that make it less damaging? Does that create a better feeling of power?

Someone please explain this to me, because I would love to understand. How can we teach our children tolerances for our differences, respect for selves and others, and to be responsible adults with behaviors like that?

Shaking my head in confusion,

Danielle

Again, I am not being paid to advertise any sites here but I loved that shirt too much not to include the picture in this post. The shirt can be purchased here at Wanelo.com.

Homemade bread with less work

I love bread, fresh baked bread is the absolute best. When you make bread from scratch, however, it involves a lot of hand kneading, which I just can not handle any more especially after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis recently. But I refuse to give up my homemade bread. It has fewer preservatives and all the ingredients I can pronounce. Not to mention the taste...oh does fresh bread taste so much better than what I can buy at the store.

Luckily, they have brought out a new invention in the last oh decade or so that is allowing bread making to happen so much easier than previously. And you still get that fresh baked bread smell throughout the house, just like grandma use to bake.

You guessed it...its a bread machine. I absolutely love mine. I have had mine for quite a few years now, I honestly can't remember when I bought it, but it is still working well.

I also have a wonderful recipe book that I pull out when I use my bread machine. The recipes are fairly simple, though they do have some fancy ones in there too.



Sorry for the shadow and again, I am not being paid to endorse the book or my bread machine. I just love them so much.

Here is the basic white bread recipe:



For those of you that prefer wheat bread, there is also a recipe for that, but my house tends to stick with white bread.

Now, it is important to check your specific model to see what size loaf you can make, mine makes either the 1 pound, 1 1/2 pound or 2 pound so I tend to do the 2 pound loaf myself (the recipes in the book are for either a 1 1/2 pound or 2 pound), and to see what order the ingredients need to be added to your machine. The general rule, again check your model for specifics, is liquids first, then dry ingredients, and yeast is the last item added to the top.

Here are the main components of my bread machine along with a few of the little doodads it came with, the machine with the pan, and a small measuring cup/spoon, plus the paddle. It also came with a metal hook to remove the paddle once the bread is finished (sorry I missed this part when I took pictures originally).



Here are the steps:

I measured out the milk and water together here:



Then add that to the pan:



Just a tip though...it helps to put the paddle in before you start adding ingredients. I realized after I took the shot that I hadn't put the paddle in first. I usually spray a little cooking spray around where the paddle attaches to the pan just to help prevent sticking....now the paddle is added.



Then add the butter or oil. I used butter in this case.



Then add the flour. When using a bread machine it is important to use BREAD flour. Regular all-purpose will not work for this. There are recipes that call for all-purpose flour, but the book I use has bread flour specified for all the recipes I frequent.



I use the measuring cup to make a small well in the center since you don't want the yeast to make contact with the liquids on the bottom any sooner than necessary. Once the flour is in, I added the sugar and salt to the well first:



The final addition is the yeast. Again, make sure the yeast is specifically formulated for a bread machine. I bought the store brand from Kroger and believe me this jar has made quite a few loaves already and still plenty in there. They do sell it in packets too if you aren't sure you want a jar this size since yeast do "go bad" so to speak.



Now that all of the ingredients are in the pan, put the pan into the bread machine (make sure it snaps in place if that is how your machine works) and plug in the machine.



Again, check with your specific bread machine for the different settings. Here is mine, which it is set on menu 1, which is for basic white dough, medium crust darkness (we don't like it too dark here or the little one protests), set for a 2 lb loaf as well.



Sorry for the side ways orientation on this one...it was being quite stubborn and no matter how I tried to correct it, cooperation wasn't happening.

Now...once you decide on all that push the pretty blue button (on mine anyway) and then presto the bread is done. Ok, so its not quite that quick but your part of the work is done. The machine does the rest of the work. One word of caution, make sure to put the machine as far back from the edge of the counter or table as possible. This baby walked itself off my table one time and went crashing to the floor...boo on lost fresh bread ingredients and had to start all over again.

My machine takes just shy of 3 1/2 hours to finish the loaf, but the beauty is worth the wait.



Oh, a thing of beauty.

Remove the pan from the machine and unplug it. Don't forget to use the hook thingy, a technical term of course, to remove the paddle from the bottom of the loaf.



I have found that if I cut the loaf while its still hot, it crumbles badly, so letting the loaf cool completely before slicing is important. If you put it directly on a plate to cool, you may end up with a soggy bottom so I would recommend a cooling rack. Or if you are like me and don't have one handy, I use the steamer insert for my rice cooker.



I found that using an electric knife is the best way to get even cuts, but any long serrated knife will work. Keep in mind that fresh bread doesn't have any preservatives in it so it will go bad quicker than store bought bread. In my house, it is usually gone before it goes bad so this tends not to be an issue, but I would say at most a week is how long it will last. If you want to make more than one loaf at a time, make sure to let your bread machine cool completely before starting a second loaf. You can wrap the bread well and freeze it to help keep it longer as well. Slice the loaf completely first to make it easier to take out a few slices as you need them.

What is your favorite type of bread?

Happy bread making.

Danielle

Dehydrators Rock

I love fresh vegetables, but the darn things just go bad way too quickly. A lot quicker than I can eat them usually.

Well, after running across quite a few YouTube videos on dehydrating food, I decided to give my dehydrator a try.

I will apologize up front because I didn't take many pictures because I was just too excited about trying this out a few weeks back and didn't think about sharing this with others at the time.

What I bought:

2 bags of carrots
2 bags of celery
2 bags of green onions
1 bag of garlic
2 packages of pre-sliced mushrooms
1 bag of white onions

I sliced all the vegetables down into smaller pieces. The smaller the pieces the quicker they dehydrator but keep in mind smaller pieces may fall through your dehydrator layers if you don't have liners. I didn't but I did have a few disposable cutting mats that I cut to fit my dehydrator trays. You can also line the trays with parchment paper if you have that on hand. My trays are rectangular so that makes it a bit easier to line the trays.

The carrots I sliced into rounds, the celery and green onions I chopped down to smaller pieces, and the garlic I peeled and chopped using a mini food processor. I sliced half of the onions into rings, the other half I diced up and froze. The mushrooms were pre-sliced so those I only had to give a quick wash.

My dehydrator has 10 trays in it and I bought it roughly two or three years ago online, I believe from Walmart. I originally bought it to make jerky but hadn't ventured into anything else besides that up until now so I was curious how this would turn out. Despite having quite a bit of room, I still had to run the vegetables in batches.

The thing that is nice about this is that dehydrating the vegetables certainly adds to the shelf life of the vegetables but it also decreases the amount of room you need to store them.

Here is one of the bags of green onions dehydrated, both the jar and the bag are sitting on top of my dehydrator:



I was able to fit one full bag in that small 8 ounce canning jar by the time it was completely dehydrated.

Here are the carrots:



Both bags fit into this one recycled jar (I think it was a pasta sauce jar), though I have used some of the carrots so its not as full as it was originally.

The half of the onions that I sliced into rings fit nicely into this recycled container:



The mushrooms and garlic I did a bit differently.

I was intrigued by the thought of being able to make my own seasoning blends. Anyone who knows me knows how much I prefer to make my own items when I can to eliminate ingredients that are impossible to pronounce in my life.

Here are the mushrooms when they came out of the dehydrator, surprisingly I thought to take this picture:



Mushrooms seemed to shrink up the most because of their moisture content, but I was thrilled. After a run through my coffee grinder, I had a nice mushroom powder I can now add to my own seasoning blends, soups, stews, or any dish I want a little mushroom flavor without big pieces of mushrooms.



I bought 2 16-ounce packages of mushrooms, they were on sale, and was able to fit them both in this one jar once they were ground up.

The garlic I dehydrated as well, using the disposable cutting mats, and half of them I ground up the same way in the coffee grinder and the other half I jarred to use as they were.



I have also ventured out since to dehydrate canned green beans into yummy green bean chips of a sort and canned tomatoes which make yummy croutons on a salad.

The one down side to this is that it does take time. A lot of time. The mushrooms seemed to take the longest time and had to dehydrate about a full day, but overall I am very happy with the results.

What have you dehydrated lately?

Danielle

Headaches and Migraines...the things I've learned

I've suffered from headaches/migraines since I was in 2nd grade, roughly since I was about 8. They range from intense full on migraine to nuance mild throbbing. At their worst, migraines are debilitating while most headaches I can function through, though not always well.

Mayo Clinic defines headaches as throbbing anywhere in the head. It can occur on one side only, both sides, or radiate from one side to the other. They can also be sharp pains or just a dull ache.

Mayo Clinic defines migraines as intense pain in the head accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or sensitivity to light or sound.

Unfortunately, I suffer from both. I can count the number of headache-free days on one hand and that's in an entire year. In case you haven't figured it out, I have some form of headache every day, all day long.

Here are the things I have learned suffering from headaches for so long:

1. How to cope

I have had headaches for so long that for the most part I can function with most headaches. The exception is a full blown migraine. Most times, unless you are a close friend it is hard to tell I even have a headache. They tend to know only because my behavior is different during a more severe headache. As a single parent, it is not always possible to sit in a dark room with no sound or light. See, I like to have clean clothes for myself and my daughter. I also like to have a clean house (cluttered as it is right now, though I am working on that) and we both like to eat (though a full migraine means my stomach won't tolerate food well).

2. My behavior changes based on the severity of my headache.

When my headache is just a mild ache, well mild for me, I can function as a normal person. As the severity increases, I become quieter and more withdrawn. I am a talker, but during an intense headache talking hurts. During a migraine, I am lucky to be able to put sentences together. The worse the headache is the harder it is for me to handle speaking as the sound seems to echo in my already thumping head. It also affects my ability to recall words, even common words I may not be able to come up with despite having a decent vocabulary. This can be both comical and frustrating. Friends tend to notice the additional uses of thingamajig, or whatchamacallit, and understand that my head is not cooperating with communication at the moment. When it is at the worst, I can not handle communicating with anyone for more than a few minutes at a time. Oh, not to mention being known in our group as the grammar and spelling police. During a severe headache, spelling goes out the window.

3. Light and sound sensitivity sucks

Luckily, during most mild headaches I can tolerate most sounds and light. As the intensity increases, the less light and sound I can tolerate. I have taken much ribbing for watching the majority of my movies or shows (Woo hoo for subtitles on Netflix) with subtitles on. There are two reasons for this. One, I have an ADHD child who is always talking and making noise. The second is that when the headaches are bad, I can lower the volume and still understand what is going on with a show. At the worst times, like during a migraine, I tend to keep the television low if it is on at all because sometimes the light from the television can be too much. During a more intense headache, I tend to keep all the lights off until it is too dark to see inside without it, unless I am trying to get something done like dishes or cooking.

4. High pitched sounds are not tolerated well...anytime

Because of the headaches, I don't handle high pitched sounds well at all. I have had tubes put in my ears, though one has since fallen out, so this doesn't help either. High pitched sounds just go right through me worse than nails on a chalk board. It leads to me clenching my teeth and tends to make the headaches worse.

5. Irritability is real

The worse the headache, the less patience I have for anything. My friends do find this amusing as they tell me they never know what will come out of my mouth. You know that part of your brain that stops you from saying anything you think? Well, the more intense my headache the less that part of my brain works. So....if I think you did something stupid, you will know. Oh, will you know. I tend to apologize after I speak...a lot. Filterless Dani (as my friends call me) can be entertaining for others depending on who's there, but not always fun for me. I have noticed a trend though....friends tend to bring people around that have ticked them off when I have a more intense headache. It seems I have become the unofficial teller offer in my small group. Hmmm...I think they do it on purpose since it always happens when they know I have a headache.

6. Ignorance is also real

Going along with the irritability factor comes the lack of tolerance for ignorance. Now, I am not talking about someone making a mistake. We all do this. I am talking just plain ignorance, disrespect, or intentional stupidity. The more intense the headache, the less likely I will be able to hold my tongue when it comes to blatant acts of ignorance or disrespect. I guess that also goes along with the filterlessness (yes, I made that word up).

7. Most people don't understand headaches/migraines

I have had a few people try to use a headache or migraine as an excuse for their poor behavior or attitude. Yes, believe it or not someone actually tried to use this excuse to me and a friend of mine who also suffers from migraines. I will tell you what I told her. As a sufferer of migraines and headaches myself, I know the difference between a irritability due to a headache and attitude because your not getting your way. Headaches and migraines do not cause pouting or stomping off. Yes, they do cause irritability, but there is a difference. I don't know about you but when my head is hurting, I tend to avoid meeting new people or I will rub my forehead or temples to try to ease the tension. I don't sit at a table with my arms crossed and a crappy look on my face, needing to one up everyone around me. Sorry, rant done.

8. Medications are not always helpful

I have tried a number of migraine preventatives over the years and none of them have really helped. Since I've had headaches for so long, pain medication to lessen the headaches doesn't even take the edge off. Over the counter medication is useless for me. My new doctor is trying to help with this and so far he has helped to lessen the intensity of the headaches, though not take them away completely even for a day. His solution is a prescription Naproxen (Aleve basically) 500mg taken twice a day. This is 200 mg over the daily recommended dose of the Aleve available over the counter. And these babies just barely take an edge off right now, making the headaches more tolerable.

9. Outside is bad

During the more severe headaches, I feel like a hermit or a vampire. Light is bad. Light is really bad. While everyone is different and tolerates light differently during a headache, I swear that when I walk outside I am going to dissolve into dust like the vampires on Blade. Oh, Wesley Snipes plays that part well. The best way I can think to explain this is stabbing, hot poker to the eye, pain. Some people will also experience what they call sensory warning symptoms. For me, I do get those before a full blown migraine and it comes in the form of star bursts in my vision. Its like watching a miniature, or private, fireworks show in whatever room I happen to be in at the time.

10. Triggers can vary my person

Some people have headaches triggered by food items, environment, or a combination of both. The only food trigger I have tends to be artificial sweeteners. This really sucks since I am a diabetic and have to watch my sugar intake and diet soda will send me into a migraine faster than anything else. Other than that, I haven't noticed any other food affected my headaches. My headaches do tend to be affected by my stress level though. They tend to be more intense during stressful periods, though stress isn't always a guarantee.

Now, I have stated before that I am a diabetic and have explained that I do have a blood clotting disorder. These two issues tend to have headaches associated with them as well which adds to the number of headaches I have. Again, every person is different and I understand that everyone handles them in a different manner. If you suffer from headaches, I would love to hear what solutions work for you.

Danielle

Danielle's Homemade Products....Resources for parents and students

There are many different sites available for parents and teachers. One of the sites I like the most, and use often as well, is Teachers Pay Teachers. Before I go any further, let me just clarify that no I am not getting paid to endorse this site. I use it often myself because they have a wide range of resources available, in PDF format, for download at a range of prices that meet everyone's needs.

I am both cheap and poor so I usually tend to download only the ones that are free, but there are many good downloads available for fairly inexpensive. You will have to sign up to download any of the files, but it is free to sign up.



Once you sign up with the site, you then have access to a ton of resources. One of the things I like about the site is that it is pretty easy to use. If you are looking for something specific, you can type it into the search box along the top. If you are just looking for general things, you can chose from the categories along the left hand side.

Here is the main screen that I see once I am signed in. They post the newest items and sale items first so they are easier to see.



Here is an example of a search I was doing for my daughter. She is in second grade and struggling with Math skills.



Once you decide on an item, you will then click on it and it will bring you to a screen where you can download it.



Once you click on download on the right side, you will be given an option to open the file as a PDF, which is what I usually do so I can scan through the pages, or save the file directly into a folder. Once you download the file, you can print up the papers for use with your child.

There are also other resources available on the site. They offer different products like bulletin board print outs, calendars, and even different clip art items.



Give it a try and let me know which resources were your favorite.

Happy Wednesday

Danielle