Curriculum Clean-Out Giveaway

This giveaway is over now! Sorry you missed it! Be sure to become a follower though, so you don't miss out on another one, and any new ideas and thoughts!

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Original Post

So I don't really have any curriculum to give away, but I though you all may like some goodies to go along with your curriculum. So I dug through my collection of plastic bins to find some items that you all will love.

What you'll get:

• 2 Pocket Charts, one red, one blue (as seen here)
• 2 double sided (solid/lined) dry-erase white boards
• A set of uppercase alphabet stamps with a red and blue ink pads
• A set of uppercase magnet letters and a set of magnetic numbers
• A set of word strips (green, purple, and orange)
• Set of "Parts of Speech" stickers
• Set of cursive handwriting stickers
• Set of play money
• 180 "Motivation Stickers" on a roll
• Disney workbooks, one each of Phonics and Reading (Pre-K -1st), Time and Money (1st-2nd), and Addition and Subtraction (1st-2nd)
• 12 Sets of Flash Cards, one each of, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Sight Words, Phonics, Rhyming, United States, U.S. Presidents, Landmarks, Insects, and Animals.

Excited yet?

Here are some details as well as how to enter this giveaway!

1. Entries will accepted from August 2nd until August 13th 9pm EST.
2. You must live in the continental U.S. to enter.
3. To enter, leave a comment below, answering the following questions: 1. How long have you been homeschooling and why did you decide to homeschool? 2. What item do you love the most, and how would you use it should you win?
4. Want extra entries? Become a follower and let me know in a separate comment, or tweet about this giveaway and leave the link in a separate comment below.
5. No more than 3 entries per person.
6. I'll announce the winner either late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Be sure to check back to see if you won! I won't be coming after you!
7. If you have any questions, please email me (don't leave a comment) at morgan.gaking[at]gmail.com

I think that's it! Good luck all!

Sight Words

In about a week, I'll be participating in the Curriculum Clean-Out over at Homeschool Creations. But I'm not actually giving away curriculum. I don't own much of any curriculum yet, and the little I do is state curriculum which personally, I despise. And well, sadly, our homeschooling era has come to an end in my house, and all that's left curriculum wise is stuff I know I want to keep for myself. Sorry to be selfish like that.

So instead, I thought I would try a little something different. I've been collecting lots of goodies for my future classroom. Because I'll have about 25-30 kids, when I see something I gotta have, I buy a lot of it. So I did a little plastic-storage-box diving and came up with an awesome goodie box/bag/basket of items that every homeschool family is going to love!

So to get you all pumped about this giveaway, I'm going to showcase some of the items that you can win and how you can use them. Featured below are sight word cards, pocket chart, magnetic letter set, and alphabet stamps.

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What are sight words? Sight words can also be referred to as high-frequency or instant words. These are words that appear rather frequently in text and/or cannot be decoded phonetically. Because of this, these are words that early readers need to memorize, or know by sight. Knowing these words is critical, because if a reader does not know them, reading any text may become very frustrating.



Seeing and practicing these words frequently is critical for their memorization. But there is no need to make practice boring. Here are some activities that you can do with a simple pack of sight words I got out of the dollar section at Target.

(Can't wait that long? Here are some ready to print and cut (and I strongly suggest lamination!) List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5 Also, here is a list of the words, decending by frequency. This might be helpful when choosing what to practice).


Have students sort the cards by their various features, such as letter they start with or end with, or by the number of letters in the word. This is a good activity for students who may not be able to read many of the words. This gets them familier with the words and helps them spot different feature in the words.

Have students use alphabet stamps to stamp out each word. This is a good activity to have students do with words they are somewhat familier with. Before they stamp the word, have them say the word, spell the word as they stamp it, then say it again when done.

Have students use magnetic letters to spell the words. An extra bonus here is that if your child has a younger sibling who likes to do everything that older sibling does, this is an easy letter recognition activity. They don't actually need to read the word to find the letters in it. Plus, like in the picture I have below, the words are written in lowercase letters, but the magnets are all uppercase. This is also good practice of the recognition of both upper and lowercase letters.


Make a word train. Match the first and last letters of the words and string them together.

Sort and group the words that rhyme together. Let's say your child struggles with the word house, but knows the word mouse. If they realize the words rhyme, it might help them next time they come along the word mouse.


Have fun practicing! And be sure to check back starting August 2nd!