Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Maggie
Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Maggie
This is the veiw from our deck towards the North … beautiful
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Filed under: Alaska
Web Design and Hosting
Posted on May 2nd, 2009 by Maggie
If you are looking for a great Web Design and Hosting company, look no further! We’ve got the best around!
GTL Enterprises Web Design and Hosting http://gtlenterprises.com rocks!
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Filed under: Web Design
About Fishing in Alaska
Posted on April 29th, 2009 by Maggie
We went fishing for the first time in Alaska last week. We learned several things - ok, more than several things.
#1 … when walking backwards up the beach in two feet of water, the rocks become especially slippery and might cause one to fall.
#2 … when you are wearing hip waders and fall down in the ocean, ocean water fills the entire boot - all the way up to the top of your legs.
#3 … Alaskan ocean water is cold … no, make that VERY cold.
#4 … Hip waders, when full of water, are very heavy.
#5 … when you sit down in the car to pull off your ocean water filled hip waders, make sure you are hanging off the OUTSIDE of said car - that much Ocean water is difficult to mop out of a car.
#6 … ALWAYS bring a second (or third) change of clothes - even if you are certain that you will NEVER get wet!
#7 … a petite little 12 year old does not fit well into her 6′1″ 220lbs brothers extra pair of sweats that happened to be the only extra pair of pants in the car.
Yes, we had quite the adventure! And then Ian caught his first Alaskan fish! Oh what fun! Ok, so it was a Lord something that is known as a junk fish (it doesn’t have any meat on it to eat) - but hey, Ian had fun, so it was all worth it! 
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Filed under: Alaska
Special Hearts Page
Posted on April 23rd, 2009 by Maggie
We’ve started a new/different page for our Special Hearts blog: http://home.maggiemccormick.com/special_hearts_blog/
If you have a Special Needs Child, get yourself a hug cup of Mocha (or tea or coffee or …) and follow the link for some great time of help, encouragement and the realization that you are NOT alone! You can do this - yes, it’s hard - in fact, it’s the hardest thing you have ever done … but you CAN do it!
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Filed under: Special Needs
Free Recipes
Posted on April 3rd, 2009 by Maggie
Don’t buy another Cook Book ever! Ok, so if you really want to spend money on a cook book, be my guest, but you really don’t need to. Why? Cause the internet is FULL of free Recipes! You can go to http://www.cooks.com/ my personal fav or to tons of other ones out there! Just get on to your favorite Search Engine and search “Recipes”. It’s that easy!
That said, I still have all those old but great Cook Books. You know the ones that were written back when people actually cooked from scratch! Those are great too! Then too, keep your eyes open for those great give aways and freebies. Save that hard earned cash for something that you can NOT get for free!
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Filed under: Maggies Musings
Face Book
Posted on February 4th, 2009 by Maggie
I did it! I actually joined FaceBook. Of course, I don’t know a thing about what I’m doing … but I’m there! Look me up and say hi! But don’t get upset if I don’t answer right away … I’m still trying to muddle my way through all this.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know!
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Filed under: Uncategorized
Educational Games
Posted on October 26th, 2008 by Maggie
We love games at our house. They are a great way to have fun and – shhhh, don’t tell the kids – they are learning! http://www.ellenjmchenry.com has TONS of great educational games you can download for free! On the right hand side of the web site, the fourth tab down is “Free products to download”. Now I haven’t checked out each and every link … yet … so make sure you check this out before you let your kids go on this site (you never know what’s on the internet now a days – but everything I’ve looked at so far on this site looks GREAT).
She’s got Life Sciences, Earth Sciences, Chemistry, Energy/Machines, History/Social Studies, Geography/Maps, Math, Latin and Drama.
The Game downloads are HUGE! They are well worth it to me, but if you are on dial-up or a satellite system, you might want to go to your library and download there.
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Filed under: Homeschooling
The Old Schoolhouse Planner
Posted on September 4th, 2008 by Maggie
This is a Planner … on steroids! It includes something for everyone. It has Monthly Planner Pages, Homeschooling Planner Pages, Household Planner Pages – you name it, it has it! This 247 page Planner is in a PDF version. If you have a Mac, you need to make sure and download it as a PDF – do not let your Mac change the formatting. This Planner starts out with a yearly calendar (a MUST for those of us global thinkers) then moves on to the individual month – along with Timelines, Tips, Store Resources and a couple of unique recipes – for each month! After all 12 months, you can choose from 41 Homeschool Forms or 34 Household Forms to print out and use.
For those of us moms who are organizationally challenged, this planner is amazingly complete. I started out by printing out the three (yes, I said 3) pages of Table of Contents. Then I highlighted the forms that I wanted to print out to create my Personal Planner. This gives me the ability to personalize it anyway I need to. Make sure and check out all those cool pages you don’t know what the title means … you might find a great help! (or you can always go and read the Instructions) For me, it’s the Homeschool Forms that really interest me – but all of it is amazing! Once you know what you want to print out, you can pull up your Planner PDF on the Table of Contents page and click on the name of the form that you want to print out. Your PDF will go directly to that particular form – without you having to scroll through all 247 pages. Then just print it out and put it in a notebook! Oh, and before printing out any of the pages, make sure and type in all the information that you already know. For example: on the My Address Book, you can type in all your information before you print it all out! Or type in your Co-Op plans into your Month Planner pages and then print it out, all complete and ready to go.
In my humble opinion, this is one of the most complete Planners I have ever seen. You can create a small Planner or take all year and create the biggest Planner on the planet! Because we have a Special Needs Child, boxed curriculum just don’t work for us. However, I’ve been struggling with keeping our Homeschool organized and on track. Not this year! Especially if you live in a State where you must “prove” you are homeschooling and what exactly you are teaching, make sure and print out the Course of Study form.
I believe there is only one thing I would change in this Planner… the color scheme. I’m really not a “Rust” person, and when I print this out on my black and white printer, it prints in a grey scale – so it’s not really sharp. I usually print on colored paper (colored paper is cheaper than colored ink), and a grey scale just doesn’t pop like black does.
The TOS Planner does a great job of incorporating forms and ideas for Unschoolers, Classical Schoolers, Unit Study Schoolers, - really anyone who Homeschools will benefit from the TOS Planner.
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Filed under: Homeschooling, Reviews
Timez Attack
Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Maggie
This computer program teaches the times tables in a fun and engaging way for young mathematicians – and non-mathematicians! It’s like something they would play on Nintendo or Game Boy … but on this game, you need to answer the questions correctly (times tables) in order to get the golden key and advance to the level.
Being the sneaky mom that I am, I loaded it up and started playing it myself (turning up the volume very loudly!) Soon, both my kids were saying, “no mom – go here!”, “push this button”, “MOM … you are gonna loose or walk over a cliff!!!” and the final, “Mom, you really need to let me play this game cause you are gonna loose.”
Timez Attack is a great game for High Functioning Special Needs Kids. It is easy for them to figure out – even this old mom figured out how to make it walk and such – of course, the directions are there if you want. But who needs directions when you can push buttons and make it work?
The only thing that might be tough for some kids is the timer. Some Aspergers kids or ADHD kids don’t do well with the intensity a timer creates. I realize that with “normal” kids, this would not be a factor, but with our Special Needs Kids, it tends to be. It would be awesome if the creator could produce a different version, one with out the “timer” for our kids!
I would defiantly recommend this Computer Program. Oh, and did I mention, it’s FREE! Yes, you can buy an upgrade version, but my kids are having fun and learning on the Free version. For more information, see: Big Brainz - Timez Attack
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Filed under: Reviews