Cute Preschool Printables

Just found this website that has some printable units for preschoolers. I have not yet looked at them, but heard at least some of them have a Scripture verse at the end. Sounds perfect for summer school. : )

live webcam--baby eagles!

Just came across this link, and it is really engaging--a mama Bald Eagle hatching a brood. It looks like two have hatched and one egg remains.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Two resources I thought I would mention--multiplication and US history

Hello moms!

I just thought I would mention a couple of things we have been using in our homeschooling that our kids have really enjoyed:

1) Timez Attacks

http://www.bigbrainz.com/

Multiplication game you can download, in which your kid battles big ogres in underground tunnels (his character uses his multiplication skills to defeat them ; ).   The basic download is completely free, although you can pay for different "levels"--basically different scenery, maybe different characters to battle.  My kids are happy with the free version.

2) Liberty's Kids

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Liberty_s_Kids_The_Complete_Series/70106132?trkid=2361637

Basically Saturday morning cartoons that teach kids about US history, specifically the American Revolution.  I like how they try to get a broad range of perspectives in the episodes, like showing how the British soldiers might feel, and what was going on with Benedict Arnold to make him a traitor.  At the moment they are instant downloads available via Netflix, which makes them really convenient. 

(If you have been holding off on getting Netflix, they have changed their plans, so now it is even more affordable.  We do the plan that is $8 a month, for which we get unlimited instant downloads and one DVD out at a time.  If you have the internet connection to support it, it is a fantastic educational support--so many excellent documentaries.) 

Please do share your favorite resources here too!

How Earthquakes make Tsunamis

Here is a good link if any of you want to follow up recent current events with scientific facts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12739417

animals in the wild--caught on camera

Here is a fun (and fascinating!) site by the Smithsonian that features wild animals caught by camera traps (unmanned movement-sensored cameras). 

http://siwild.si.edu/index.cfm

Blog of sweet coloring pages

Another homeschool Mom just shared this in an email:

http://malbogen.blogspot.com/2011/03/mond-moon.html

It looks like a site where illustrators post black and white illustrations so that kids can color them in themselves. : )


*above image I assume is copywrited--the link takes you to its page.

a few resources for China studies

If your family is interested in a unit on China, here are some fun and interesting sites I recommend to get you started.


A really neat map of China and its provinces with a key that your child can color-code:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16586491/China-Coloring-Map-FREE-from-Berkshre-Publishing

Look up your child's name and see how it looks in Chinese characters:
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/name/blname.htm

How to count to 10 in Mandarin:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2306214_count-ten-mandarin-chinese.html

A youtube video of cute kids counting in Mandarin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dijFA3kqDaU

I found lots of good free printable coloring sheets too, and can send anyone interested files--just don't think I can do that here.

And there some very good videos on China available for instant download through Netflix at the moment:
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Wild_China/70099791?trkid=2361637

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Discovery-Atlas-China-Revealed/70058855?trkid=438403#height1338

(Don't forget Netflix offers a free trial membership, so if you are not already using their services, you can get a couple of weeks or even a month for free, just the right amount of time to study a topic like China. : ) When you watch these titles, you have to read between the lines--everything is so beautiful and the narrator overall so positive about China. But throughout there are subtle hints of the less positive side of China that you can catch and then talk about with your kids.)

If anyone is interested, I can also recommend a couple of really neat Chinese stories for your younger kids.

Want reading ideas for your kids?

a friend just showed me this blog, that might be helpful for parents who are wondering what else is out there to satisfy their child's particular reading tastes.  You would still want to read them first, as the site does not seem to discuss the content, but this could be a great place to start making a list of titles to try!

About Swagbucks, with which you need to get on board

Hello all you homeschool moms!

Ok, I have been having this conversation with some of you, but figure it is time to actual post about it, so everyone is in the loop.

Swagbucks.  A search engine, like google, that rewards your use with "swagbucks" that you can then redeem for prizes.  Like amazon.com.  Which means that just for using the search engine like you would any other, you get stuff.  I have cashed in my accumulated swagbucks for FORTY DOLLARS worth of books on amazon.  I already have another $5 waiting to be spent next time I place an order.

You can now also use it for PayPal.  Which means you can have PayPal credit waiting to be used for almost anything you can buy online.

This is serious, ladies.  Now, I am not advocating anyone get sucked into the special marketing things you can do with SB, because I am sure it would be easy to waste time (and even money, on some of their special offers) with too little compensation.  BUT I am telling you that ALL homeschool moms should be in on the search engine use--NO GIMMICKS, just FREE STUFF for doing what you already spend time doing every day.

I posted previously about SB on my personal blog here and here, in case any of you want to find out more about it.  I have also put a Swagbucks widget on this blog's sidebar, so if you want to check out SB, please do so through that link and I will get some SB as rewards. Becky and Sara Crompton already use SB, so if you two want to put your own widgets on the sidebar, we can all share! : ) Same goes for anyone who signs up now.

One final note--if any of you are thinking about trying Netflix (they have a 2 week trial period) do so through Swagbucks, because then you get a little SB kickback. : )

lisa c.

Free online textbooks!

From an email I received earlier from one of our local homeschool groups:

This group won an award from TheTech: They have open source textbooks. Free. Wow. http://www.ck12.org/flexr/

cool space science websites

here is the link to an article that references several good sites for space studies:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/eight-good-resources-for-space-science.html

FYI: Free photos!

Just in case any of you have photos from your summer adventures you would like to develop, or any your kids want to use to "illustrate" a homeschool book, Shutterfly is offering a great deal:

We’ve got 101 great reasons for you to come back to Shutterfly: 101 free 4x6 prints.

You’ve got just ONE MORE WEEK to get them.


Promo code: PTSF822
Offer ends August 22, 2010

From my past experience, you just pay for shipping and tax.

some neat sites for homeschool

hey friends! I am SO enjoying the internet once again! Here are a bunch of neat sites that would be wonderful if you were to be studying weather, geography, and more!

Weather! awesome lesson plans, print outs, links to more info, songs, even lots about clouds, forecasting or meteorology!

This lady (from The Education Cafe) has a long list of links for free lesson plans, print outs and unit studies, if you are into that kind of stuff. I haven't personally checked these out, but they came with great recommendation!

I especially like the National Geographic Xpeditions site!! Everything is geography based, with some science, health and history mixed in there. I also LOVE the link for maps!!

Especially this one :)

If any of you like these links - we can add them to the sidebar, for easier access. If you have other links too = please share! Hope you are enjoying the summer weather!
Love Ali Mc

*Free online documentaries

Received this suggestion from another homeschool group and thought I'd share..

I know most of the world already has Netflix, but this site has tons of free online documentaries on all kinds of subjects:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/browse/topic/
It looks like there are a wide range of topics and many interesting and educational films. Not all are appropriate, but they do seem to be fairly clearly labeled with warnings if they have "adult content." As with most of the internet, browsing discretion for kids is advised though.

**We especially enjoyed watching "Sustainable Dave" as he talks about variety of environmental issues, including plastics! My kids were inspired to start assembling their own backpacks for use when on trips whether across country or even when we're just out and about. Our family goal is to completely avoid using plastic water bottles, utensils, etc. I'll post pic's when available :)

FYI-- just checked YouTube and there are *several* short clips of "Sustainable Dave" there as well!

Enjoy!

Quoting The Bard All the Live Long Day

Have you used any of these words recently?

• bump
  
• control (as a noun)
  
• critical
  
• eventful
  
• frugal
  
• hurry
  
• lonely
  
• road
  

If you did--and I am sure you did at some point!--you were quoting William Shakespeare!

Check out this amazing article for other words Shakespeare "invented" that are still commonly used today--and this article for common phrases.

The whole site looks like an amazing resource for all things Shakespeare.

Science website and kits

Just got this email from my E.S.:

Hi All,
This is a science curriculum that I learned about last night. It is Biblically based, and recommended by an atheist! I thought you might want to look at the website.
http://www.noeoscience.com/

The Guide can't be purchased with OG funds, but the books and kits can be.
Terry

Fascinating Math program! Please read!

Lisa C. here. I thought you all might enjoy this little conversation from one of my homeschool egroups:
---------------------------------------------
Howdy!

So as we are ending the "school year," I am panicking a little, because my daughter Aliya is really behind on her math. She's in first grade and happy to memorize her math facts, but the conceptualization of what she's doing is only now arising. Only now is she able to figure out a problem she doesn't know by using numbers she does know and figuring out from there. It took her a long time. We'll work through the summer to help her get down the addition and subtraction facts to catch her up to first grade.

But I am really worried about second grade math for next year. For borrowing and carrying, she'll need to understand place value, and conceptually, she just doesn't get it. Most first graders have a pretty good understanding of place value, and I've tried so many different ways to teach her, but it's just not getting through. I just gave her a calendar so she can keep track of her busy social life :) and the columns for the days of the week are a stretch. The idea of numbers in columns (place value) is really difficult for her.

I like my kids to be --reasonably-- grade level. I'm not very strict about it, and I think we'll keep on homeschooling, but I know things happen, and for my own peace of mind, I want them to at least approximate their grade level.

So do I wait, perhaps a year if necessary, for that "aha!" moment before moving on, allowing her to get farther and farther behind? Testing the faith that I'm not sure I possess in copious quantities?

Or am I not teaching her in the right way? Do I forge ahead, teaching her the pieces in more clear ways, hoping she'll put it together eventually? Math is not my expertise, so maybe I just need to explore other curriculums and ways of teaching it?

I've heard of the "aha!" moments for late readers, who all of a sudden bloom into reading at 9 or 10, but never for math...

Please let me know your anything at all that comes to you!

_____________________________

Rena, both of my children are very bad at computation. I must have tried (and bought) six different curricula. Two things really helped:

1. Kumon tutoring. The Kumon worksheets only have about 6 problems to a page and the materials are really non-threatening. I see they have a center on Cedar street--they did help my daughter when she was in 2nd grade.

2. Jump Math, a Canadian program. It's really great, really different, and had I known about it earlier I may have done this with my daughter from the beginning. I'm a real fan of JUMP'S down to earth approach--kids are taught how to count with their fingers, for instance. People have counted on fingers for a million years, I started to realize. Anyway they have a lot of sample material online that you can download and try, at this website:

http://jumpmath.org/about

Here is the page with the files to download:

http://jumpmath.org/publications

Here is the page where you can download second grade samples:

http://jumpmath.org/publications/materials/w/2

And here is an article about the developer of JUMP:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-moulden/math-is-not-hard-a-simple_b_331878.html


Claire

--------------------------------------------------------

I followed the links, and the math approach sounds fantastic! In fact, before you look at the websites about JUMP, I highly recommend you start with the article about the founder, which is listed last.

And as a follow-up to that conversation, you might be interested in this article, which was referenced in that last article.

Grammar links

From the Ocean Grove newsletter:

FREE GRAMMAR WEBSITES
Have you ever wished you could have your child brush up on a grammar rule that he/she may have forgotten, but you don’t want to purchase an
entire grammar program? Then check out these websites:

-Guide to Grammar and Writing, http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

-Grammar Slammer, http://englishplus.com/grammar/ , provides instruction and examples for practically every aspect of grammar. Over 440 free grammar lessons, covering parts of speech, to prepositional phrases to, noun clauses and verb participles.

-Daily Grammar, http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml

Khan Academy--Good, FREE math help

Lisa C. here--if any of you have not yet seen the Khan academy videos on youtube, you really should go look just to see what is available for when you need it down the road. This is an email I just received from one of the local homeschooling groups, and thought it was good information you all might want to know, even (esp.?) if your kids are just starting out in math.

----------------------------------

Hi everybody,

I just had the thrill of interviewing Sal Khan of http://khanacademy.org . He's really cool and I'll be writing about his summer camp. In the course of our conversation, he pointed out something about his site that I hadn't noticed: he is working on an interactive tool that will let students assess what their proficiency is in all levels of math. It's really interesting and I'm sure he'd be interested in having as many people use it as possible, as he is just developing it. It's at http://khanexercises.appspot.com/ -- Each person using it will need a distinct Google account to use it correctly.

He said something that I am planning to take to heart: He said that if a kid doesn't learn the foundation skills solidly, then he'll have problems later that will seem like, for example, not understanding Trigonometry, but the core of the problem is actually in earlier skills that they didn't learn. My daughter hates, hates, hates to work on foundation skills. I just have to figure out a way to be more creative about it so that she enjoys it…

Suki

Susana (Suki) Wessling
Blog: sukiwessling.parentclickblogs.com
Examiner.com: Santa-Cruz-Parenting and Gifted-Children
Suki's Parenting and Education Facebook Page on Facebook

The Worldwide Adventures of the Flat Sisters!

Hi Vintage Moms!

Remember way back when we had our "kick off" for the Old School Monday 2009-10 homeschool year? It was at the end of the summer, and some families brought displays of what they had done that summer? (hint: we will do this next year too!) And do you remember we started doing some geography at OSM and I was introducing the idea of "Flat Stanley" and suggesting we all consider doing them to help our kids continue the whole travel/adventure/geography thing?

WELL! I never did. I wanted to do it, and just kept putting it off. Until now! A few weeks back a new cousin by marriage sent us HER flat stanley, and that was the impetus I needed to get us underway! So, without further ado. . .

THE TRAVELING FLAT SISTERS!

I am posting this in the hopes that it may be inspiring to you all as well. Look at the fun things you can do with this project! The Flat Sisters have their own travel blog!!! Not only will I be posting pics of the Flat Sisters on their worldwide adventures--I am hoping the blog will encourage people to send pics to us!--but I will also be encouraging the girls to write stories about adventures the Flat Sisters are having, and post them on the site too. (Had the idea last night when we were in the car for several hours and G told us a story about the Flat Sisters going to Haiti!) I also might have the girls make little reports about the different places the Flat Sisters visit, and then post them there too. The idea is just to make it fun and interactive!

So, this is your opportunity to jump in on the fun! Please consider starting some travelling flat people with your kids this Spring--it is not too late!

If you want to share the Flat Stanley books with your kids, I am sure the library has them, or we were just given the whole set and can share!

Here is a great website to read before you make your Flatties.

And if you want any help making a blog (free!) for your Flatties, I would be glad to walk through it at some OSM.

Jump on into the adventure!