New Linky Followers Blog Widget

Have you all seen the new widget available for your blogs and your blog followers?

This has been developed by the awesome Linky Tools developers, that I use and love for all of my link lists here on the blog.

I am a huge Google Friends Connect user. I just haven't been able to go across to a reader for some strange reason. I like having blog updates here in my dashboard, I also enjoy clicking over and reading directly from the blog. I dislike that readers take that away from us somewhat.

So I am guessing most of you know that GFC is being removed for non blogger blogs and the word is that it may go all together, forcing everyone to use Google+

This is where Linky Followers comes into play. It works very much like GFC, just sign up to Linky Followers, add the widget to your blog and start following.

Can you see mine over there -----------> It's the empty looking one with not many friends :-(

Please take a quick moment to click Follow Me in the Linky Tools widget.

Top 100 Home Schooling Blogs

This is a great list of Home Schooling Blogs. Such variety and a wealth of ideas and resources.




I was just a little bit chuffed when I received an email letting me know that my blog is listed amongst those in the Top 100.

Go check them all out :-)

Christmas - New Year Blogging Break

I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Thank you all for another wonderful year in the land of blogging. The inspiration I glean from all of you is nothing short of incredible and for that I thank you.

The connections I have made with people far and wide really does make this world seem so small. What a blessing the internet is to us homeschoolers.

Thanks to those of you that took the time to link up all of your Christmas posts. I know they will be a great help to others in the future.

I'm taking some time out from blogging and all things computer related. Hoping for some sunshine, because right now things aren't looking so great in the weather department!

See you all soon.

Homeschooling Meme

Two weeks break, not quite what I had planned, but well worth it none the less. Prior to my break April tagged me in a homeschooling meme that has been doing the rounds.

1) One homeschooling book you have enjoyed.

Gee it's been so long since I've read a homeschooling book I'm not even sure I can answer that........ok I just checked my shelves. I know in my early days Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling and Learning Without School really helped me settle into things.oops that was two books ;-)

2) One resource you wouldn't be without.

Do I even need to answer that? The computer of course!

3) One resource you wish you had never bought.

In all honesty I have utilised something from most things I have purchased. If I had to list something I would say Peak with Books, simply because FIAR is far better for our needs.

4) One resource you enjoyed last year.

Math U See is definitely a staple in our home. Great program!

5) One resource you will be using next year.

No idea lol! Next year is still a long way off for me. We are also very much teetering on a more child led approach (have been all year) with a montessori influence so I can't really answer that one at the moment. We are open to all possibilities :-)

6) One resource you wish existed.

I am going to steal April's thoughts on this. A regular home schoolers Conference, with Curriculum displays and second hand stalls right here in Brisbane, thank you very much.

7) One resource you would like to buy.

To be honest I have stopped looking at resources, we have a.l.o.t however a full cd rom from either Montessori Print Shop or Montessori For Everyone would be a fabulous addition to our homeschool!!

8) One homeschooling website you visit regularly.

Well of course I would have to say Connecting Queensland Home Schoolers.

9) One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading.

lol I wouldn't call it reading perse, but the Rainbow Resource catalogue is one huge compilation and a great place to start if you are looking for something in particular.

10) Tag other homeschoolers

ok I could really get carried away here, however I'll try to be good ;-)

Sound Schooling
Life's Little Distractions
Mumma of 4 Boys
My Cup Is Full & Overflowing
Towards The Sun
Tired Need Sleep
The Homeschool Den
Adventures In Mommydom

Ok that was kinda fun! Thanks April. :-) Looking forward to seeing your responses to this.

Blogcation Time

So much happening, so little time to do it in.

Visits from those that are very dear to my heart. This time will be full of surprises. There will also be cuddles, giggles, tears and lots and lots of yakking!

Time spent with loved ones, wriggling our toes in the sand. dipping our feet into the ocean and spending precious time together.

This is just some of what I'll be getting up to whilst this blog is on blogcation.

See you all soon!

I Do Love You

My dear dear blog

I hope you know that 

I do love you so

Often when life gets a littled harried

There are certain things that need to go

But just like an old friend

That you may rarely ever see

I do love you my dear blog

I sure hope you know

Yay, I'm Here!!

Ok thank goodness, I was getting worrids. Blogger went down a week or so ago and I haven't been able to access my blog since then. But here I am and all seems to be fine. Yay!

Now time to get back to some regular updates around here :-)

Voting

Please jump over and vote for my little old blog on Circle of Moms. They are gathering the Top 25 Homeschooling Blogs between now and May 11th.

You can vote once a day every day between now and then, either by clicking on the Circle of Moms banner above or over there on the right or visit this link http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/homeschooling-blogs and click on the organge thumb next the Our Worldwide Classroom banner.

500 eBooks $1 Each

I thought this was just simply too good not to pass on.

Now granted, I may just about be the only person on the planet that didn't know about these $1 deals, but, better late than never I say.

Thanks to some very new homeschooling friends, now I do!!

You only have until the end of the month though.


So jump on over and enjoy the $1 eBook Deals!

PLEASE VOTE FOR US - JUST ONE CLICK

Pay It Forward Bloggy Love Recipients

Thank you to those of you that are excited about participating in some Bloggy Pay It Forward goodness.

It is exciting receiving unknown gifts in the post from way over on the otherside of the world and for me, even more exciting to be sending them on.

I know a couple of you had concerns about being able to keep the Pay It Forward moving. Please don't worry about that in the slightest. I am sure you will all do what you can, even if it means, as I did, to try again later down the track.

Well I guess you really want know who are the recipients are then, don't you?

Our Cup of Tea

Mouse Grows Mouse Learns

Academia Celestia


Please contact me via email ladies with your snail mail address and thanks again for participating.

Vote for us. One click is all you need!

Thank You For Nominating My Blog - Please Vote!

Oh My Goodness, I was totally chuffed, over the moon even to see that my little old blog received a nomination in this years Homeschool Blog Awards!

That was certainly something I wasn't expecting, thank you.

I've enjoyed seeing how these awards have been put together as I have never participated (my blog is still too new). There is a fabulous line up of sponsors offering great prizes too!

It's wonderful to receive recognition from your peers in a positive way without all of the strings attached, as is often the case with general blog awards that do the rounds on the blogosphere.

You can imagine my surprise when I found that I was actually nominated in four (4) seperate categories, wow, thank you to those of you that nominated, that was such a thoughtul thing to do.

So now it's time to vote for the winners. You can read the voting guidelines by clicking here.

And in case any of you actually want to vote for me, I have been nominated in the following categories:

• Best Crafts, Plans and Projects Blog

• Best Homeschool Methods Blog

• Best Super Homeschooler Blog

• Best Nitty Gritty Blog

To vote you simply need to click on the little blue circle next to our blog name - Our Worldwide Classroom

Have fun voting and checking out all of the cool blogs that have been nominated.

Spreading Some Bloggy Love, But You Gotta Pay It Forward

Quite some time ago I was very blessed to be one of the recipients in some Bloggy Pay It Forward Fun that Mary Lea from Pink and Green Mamma had decided to participate in.

Mary Lea made her Pay It Forward recipients a super cool repurposed tie dye tshirt bag.  You can see some a photo or two here if you like.

The rules of participation at the time were simply that you were required to pay the love forward to three other bloggers.

Well at the time (even though I did what was expected) I think I only had around 10 - 20 followers of my blog and hence no one responded boo hoo boo :-( .

That little stream of the Pay It Forward project died pretty quickly with me.

However I have not forgotten about it and have always kept the thought in the back of mind to bring back some Bloggy Pay It Forward Letterbox Love.

So that is exactly what I am doing. Right here, right now!

I have 3 distinctly Australian Gifts sitting here waiting for me to send on to one of you. Whilst I am not sharing a sneek peek image, they are very Australian in nature and that's all I'm giving away.

Participation Rules are as follows:

• Leave a comment on this blog post stating that you would like to play along (You must be prepared to follow up on your blog with your own Pay It Forward fun.)

• Comments will remain open until Monday evening (downunder time hehehe)

• I will choose three (3) random commenters using Random org for my Pay It Forward Recipients.

• A post announcing those recipients will be published shortly after, whereby you will need to contact me to claim your Pay It Forward spot.

• Once I receive the address details I will post off the gifts. At which time I hand over to you to continue the Pay It Forward Letter Box Love! 

Are you joining in the fun?!

We're On Facebook

Ok I finally succumbed to this and set up a Page for Our Worldwide Classroom over at Facebook.

I admit I still don't really know what I doing so any pointers you can offer will be gratefully received.

Please jump over and become a fan and follow us on facebook.

Tagged! Are You?

Ok you've all seen the game of tag that has been doing the rounds in the blogosphere. Ticia from Adventures In Mommydom got tagged and she passed this little game of fun onto me. And yes, ok I am kinda late in responding here, but better late than never now then hey!
Basically it's a simple round of question and answer, where the tagger gets to ask the questions and the taggee gets to answer them hehehe.

My questions from Ticia:

1.  What was your favorite subject in school?

In primary, everything (I was a goody too shoes) and in high I enjoyed Biology all due to my great teacher, German, again a great teacher and Art, yet again a great teacher.....don't they just make all of the difference!

2.  How did you start blogging?

Oh gosh, I have no idea to be honest. I have been blogging in some way or another for roughly 5 or so years (on and off ) it just wasn't about homeschooling back then. I think I just kind of fell into the online world whilst being at home with a baby and 3 - 4 hours every afternoon of idle time whilst the baby slept. Actually now I remember it was scrapbooking that I first started online and reading scrapbooking blogs which got me going.

3.  What is your favorite toy your kid have (note I did not say your kid’s favorite)?

I keep going towards Lego, but in all honesty they bug me because they are difficult to tame and standing on a piece in the middle of the night....well we all know how that ends don't we! But truthfully, Lego does keep kids entertained for long periods of time and their little brains are working over time and they don't even realise it.

4.  How did you meet your husband?

Oh no!! At a bar/night club. We had both just resigned from our jobs (the same day) and were out with friends.

5.  What is your favorite TV show right now?

I don't really watch TV. I did enjoy the Hestons Feast series though and The Block is quite good for a laugh every now and then.

6.  What’s your favorite type of thing to do with your kids?

Head down to our favourite spot by the water (which is only about 13 minutes drive) and just enjoy the space there. At this stage I'm not sure if we'll even get to do that this spring, we've had more rainy days than sunshine so far.

7.  What’s your favorite hobby aside from blogging?

I was going to say scrapbooking but in all honesty I haven't touched that in years so I can't really call that a hobby now can I? ROFL So I think I'll say making and preparing stuff for the kids, little activities and works for C to try and enjoy. 

OK, so now I need to pass this tag thing along to some others, let me see:

Cari from Stuff On My Blog

Kez from Kez's Blog

Tracey from A Slice Of Smith Life

Wendy from Athena Academy

Michelle from Lagniappe Academy

Queen Bee from Lost Persons Homeschool

Love2Teach2Day from Love2Learn2Today

Debbie from Our Cup Of Tea

The Dingo from The Homeschool Den

Heather from This Adventure Life

Riceball Mommy's Adventure in Motherhood

Laure from Sparkling Adventures

Ok really I could keep going but I won't hehehehe. If you'd like to join in and you are reading this consider yourself tagged.

So now I need to come up with some questions of my own.

1. Why Do You Blog? What's The Number One Reason You Keep On Doing It?
2. Do you frequent online forums? If so how many do you visit regularly? (feel free to share their details)
3. If you could visit anywhere, where would it be and why?
4. What is your number one thing be it tangible or not that you could not do without in your homeschool?
5. Have you already started planning for Christmas?

Ok I won't pain you all with a huge list of questions, 5 will do it nicely I think. I can't wait to see what you all have to say. :-)

Oh and yes I realise that the tag image is not quite what we after but I don't like doing posts without some kind of image hehehe

Our New Look

I'd like to take a moment to thank Jolanthe over at Relevant Designs for my gorgeous, fun and cheeky new blog look. I hope you like it as much as I do? I still have links to get up in the navbar and things to move around in the sidebar a little.

Most of you probably know of Jolanthe's Home School Blog - Homeschool Creations - she is now also doing blog make overs, great blog makeovers at fabulous prices!

If you'd love a new blog look and don't have the time to do it yourself or the expertise to do it then jump on over to Relevant Designs.



I just had a quick look and there are already a few other bloggers waiting in her queue so you had better hurry.

Thanks Jolanthe, I so appreciate the work you have done.

My First Blog Awards

In my absence I received my very first blogging award, in fact to my surprise I actually received 6 awards during the time I have been off line. 6! Wow, that was certainly a surprise, to go from none to 6 virtually overnight.

To be honest I have to say that I am in two minds about the whole blogging awards thing. I mean we all want to know that others enjoy our blogs etc etc but do we really need to recieve and give awards in recognition of that? On the other hand however they are just a bit of fun and I know I had a smile when I read the comments and emails letting me know that these awards had been passed on to me.

I received the Sunshine Award:

from My Bilingual Boys

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blogworld!!

I can't seem to find any more details about this award than above. If anyone knows where it has originated from can you please leave a comment so I can link back.

I am passing the Sunshine Award on to the following bloggers:

1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1 Carissa is such a creative blogger and always freely shares her creations

Homeschool Creations Jolanthe is another positive, creative blogger

My Family My Forever Susana and her kids are one creative bunch

Pink and Green Mama is one super crafty and creative mama, I love her blog



I received the Creative Online Online Award:

from Miescuelita Montessori

CreativOnline wants to reward blog friends that during the 2009. CreativOnline wants to reward friends blog that during the 2009th have been dedicated with a lot of creativity and love to share all their works. This prize should be exposed on your blog and should be delivered to 5 of your bloggy friends. have been dedicated with a lot of creativity and love to share all their works. This prize should be exposed on your blog and should be delivered to 5 of your friends Bloggy.

I am passing the Creative Online Award on to:

My Bilingual Boys

Confessions Of A Homeschooler

Aussie Pumpkin Patch

The Adventures Of Bear

Tired Need Sleep


I also received the Lemonade Stand Award from:

Chasing Marcus

My Bilingual Boys

Counting Coconuts

Crafts and Art for Children



The Lemonade Stand Award is awarded for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude.

I am passing on this award to:

The Snail's Trail

Walk Beside Me

What Did We Do All Day

Work And Play Day By Day

Stuff On My Blog

All of you wonderful bloggers inspire me in some way each and every day. Keep up the great work.

I know I have also missed many wonderful blogs but this is hard when you have to sort through your reader and link list.

Happy Blogging.

A Milestone

Albeit a small one.

Woohoo 100 Posts, now that's a little blogging milestone for me.

Nothing huge and exciting but still it is 100 posts, I wonder how long it will take to get 1000!?!

I have a couple of little things lined up for a small but fun giveaway. The posts for these are coming up this week so be on the look out.

Finally A Button That Works

Thanks for letting me know that my 'Grab My Button' code was not working.

I am pretty sure that is now though, so go grab it just over there to the right.

Please let me know if you do put it on your blog.

About Us

One day I will actually sit down and complete this part of our blog.

For now though you can meet our kiddos by clicking here.

You can also take a brief tour of our learning space by clicking here.

Looking All Pretty

Ahhh that's so much nicer isn't it. Our little blog is starting to look nice and pretty now thanks to Delightful Dots. It was so simple too, everything is laid out step by step for you to follow.

Thanks Delightful Dots.