Home School Thursdays

In My email today I got a a link to a great site that helps you teach history along with food.  The blog is called The History Chef.  It worth checking out. 

Last I talked about what we were using in Bible for this year.  This week I will Talk a bit about Literature.  Hannah is taking a lit class in our Homschool Coop so that is taken care of for us this year but in the past I have used Old Fashioned Education for ideas of books to have Hannah read Also Amblesideonline .  LearnOutLoud    has free audio resources to use for Literature. 

Glencoe is a wonderful resource for study guides for many great books. 

These are just to get you started in the right direction. There are many great resources on the web.  Just do a google search. 

Homeschool Thursday

Here are some of the things I would like to share this week!!

Hannah and I will be starting her 10th grade on Monday.  Our main Curriculum is Far Above Rubies with a little bit of Old Fashioned Education and Ambleside Online 

A Good Source for History Mini Studies is Learning through history.  A Great source for week to two week mini units.  Can be expanded upon

Scholastic has some interesting history sleuthing games.

Have a great day Everyone!!

Homeschool Thursday

I got a great email today from Knowledge Quest .  In it was an Article that listed 5 must have no cost resources for homschooling.  I use or have used all of these resources and highly recommend them.  Here is the link to the article


Classics for Kids is a great resource to teach your kids about classical music.  If you sign up for the newsletter they send you info on what the shows are for the current month and the next.  They also have a activity sheet for the children to do.  My 15 year old loves these shows even though I believe they are intended for yournger children.  But the way I look at it if she is listening to classical music it can't be bad.

I know some people have started school already.  We are aiming for August 30th.  Hope everyone has a great year!!  

Language Warmups

I am finalizing my plan for Hannah's School year. 

Here are some of the sites that I plan on using for Language arts.

Language arts Warmups takes a different theme each week and gives you exercises that deal with that theme.

Dailygammar.com is just that short lessons on grammar that you do every day.  I usually have my children do two a day as they are so short.

I will combining these two sites with a daily vocabulary exercise plus a Speech and Literature course that Hannah will be taking at our Homeschool Group.  She will studying the Lord of the Rings.    

Homeschooling in Pa

Today I make my yearly trip to the school district to declare my intention to homeschool.  Every year in PA we have to file an affadavit with the school district declaring that we will abide by all the requirements for a homeschooling education.

Getting on Soapbox

One of the things that I have always wondered about was the part in the affadavit that we have to delcare that no one that lives in the house has be convicted of among other things homicide, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, rape.  Now I do understand the States concern about the welfare of the children and I do know that for some people having your children home all day would help conceal some of these crimes.  But my question has always been why don't parents that do send their children to public school have to sign something similar?  Most cases that I have heard of are usually about children and families that are in the school system.  Of course there are the rare cases such as the case a few years ago where a boy who wa homeschooled killed the parents of his girlfriend and and he and the girl took off (my daughter would have graduated with this boy).  But these are few and far between.   I guess they figure that the teachers will pick up on things but with so many children and behavior problems etc.  it is hard for them to catch some of these things. 

Anyway off my soapbox


 I will also have to turn in the objectives of what I hope to cover this year in school.  I usually get these from World Book Typical Course of study.  I use these as a very loose guideline because almost always we go off on tangents and don't get everything covered.  I will admit this seems to happen less in the upper grades but we like to keep our options open. 

I usually turn all of this in in June when our evaluations are due (another thing that we have to turn into the school district.  We have to be evaluated by a certified teacher every year.  But different school district do this differently, our old school district we had to turn in our portfolio (another requirement we have to have a portflio of school work done through out the year to prove that education was taking place) plus our evaluation.  Our current district only requires the evaluation.  They have taken the position that it is the certified teacher's responsibility to determine if an appropriate education is taking place. 

I have been told that PA is one of the most retrictive as far as homeschooling is concerned.  I have found that as long as you take care of these requirements in June and August and don't give anyone concern about the treatment of your children it is not that bad. 

     

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful today for the internet.  Without the internet, we would have not been able to homeschool our children.  I am thankful for all the free resources that have been made avavilable through the internet that have enabled us to school our children and not gone completely broke.

One such resource that I just came across in my email today from Clickschooling.com's newsletter (which is a great resource in itself) was  The Literate Mother. This site gives ratings on books that your children may want to read.  They rate on sex, violence, language and adult themes. 

For alot of homeschool  freebies check out The Old Schoolhouse Magazines Freebie Directory.  There is something for everyone. 

a Major Upheaval

Without going into too much detail my Husband finds himself looking for a new job this week.  We have  had several ups and downs this weekend and he finds himself  going through the whole process of applications and interviews.  I have no doubt that he will have a new job by the end of the week at the latest and that things will  be semi back to normal by the beginning of next month.   The circumstances that lead to this change are both ridiculous and actually a blessing in disguise.  The blessing part is that his job was taking a major toll on his body but he would never have left it on his own.  I won't get into the ridiculous part other than it is a product of the way the current legal system makes it so easy for someone to sue (which we could do twice over if we wanted to but have chosen just to let it go).   All prayers for our current situation and for the upcoming transition would be greatly appreciated.

As I have confessed  here to being a major book-a-holic.  I got my weekly email from Heart of the Matter (which you should subscribe) and the main subject was how to cultivate a love of reading in your children.  Some of the advice I have done with my children and you will find that you may already know but it just nice to see others using it with success.

Cultivating Readers,   Free children's books downloads, Encouraging a love of Literature were some of the articles I found interesting.

Another article was about setting a goal for ourselves to read great literature.  That article is here.

As a mother of a child who has always read way beyond her years I found this article about keeping up with an accelarated reader very interesting.  I always found it difficult to find books that Hannah would find enjoyable at her reading level.  (She has read at aobve 12 grade level since 3rd grade).

  

A little frustrated.

I am a little frustrated with my youngest today.  I had quite a long talk with her about her responsiblities around the house yesterday, as a matter of fact the subject was brought up several times throughout the day as I brought up examples as they presented themselves.  I asked her to do a certain chore as I left for work last night and I had told her I wanted her to do this chore earlier in the day before she went to bed.  When I got home from work the chore was still not done.  She is 14 and quite capable to do what I had asked her to do.  So I guess that she will not be going skating with her friends tonight, will not be going online for personal use today and not watching tv tonight.  Sigh.  I hate when my children force my hand and need to be disciplined.

I have several homeschooling links to share with you today.

Currclick's freebie is quite an extensive unit study on the Human body. You  may have gotten this if you ordered her bargain last week in the link I posted but if not here is a chance to get a really great unit study .  The link is here.

Becky over at Homeschooling at Hospitality Lane posted a great link for vocabulary.  It can be found here.  Check out Becky's blog too.

Hannah is reading Treasure Island so I found this link very interesting.  I got it from Home school freebie of the day newsletter.  The direct link is here.  The homeschool freebie are several links for audio version of old radio shows , a pdf of the book and the unit study.    While you are there why not sign up for their newsletter.

If your child is an audio learning your may be interested in some link for audio books.  Florida has a program called Lit2go.  Here you will find and abundance of poems and books just waiting for you to download and listen.  It gives you listings for grade and reading level.  The link is here

LearnOutLoud.com has just recently added a listing of over 1000 books from Librivox.org.  Librivox records public domain books and has them available for download.  These are done by volunteers so the quality varies but this list will give you plenty to sift through.  The link is here.

I have other links that I will list in another post but these should get you started.     

Meet The newest member of the family!!!

My daughter has been wanting a dog for quite some time but we were not certain that she could handle the responsibility so my hubby took her to the Humane League and this is the adorable kitty that she picked out as we figure cats are a little bit less responsiblity.  We will see how she handles the cat then we will be looking at dobs probably at the end of the year.  We didn't bring her home as she hasn't been spayed yet.  We will pick her up on Tuesday.  Hannah hasn't named her yet.  She is about 3 years old and very affectionate.

My hubby will be home this weekend which will be nice.  It is lonely when he is away.

Some homeschool freebies that I came across today  are Free world U which is a free curriculm that uses flashcards to help your students remeber what they are learning.  Looks interesting what I saw of it.  

Tin Can Knitting looks like an interesting way to knit and looks perfect for teen age girls.

Hands of a Child  is offering a free lapbook package about the First Ladies.  

I received some links that are new to me for free audio books.  These are all classics.  I have found that sometimes when I have a difficult time reading a book i can listen to it and find it very enjoyable.  These are all done by volunteers so are not profession but most of them are very good. 

http://thoughtaudio.com/

http://www.ejunto.org/

http://librivox.org/

   

Batten Down the Hatches we are in for a bumpy ride

According to the weather man we are suppose to have a Nor easter coming through later today through tomorrow.  Some places around here are already cancelling things and some schools have decided to let out early.  I went to Walmart this morning on my way home from work like I normally do on Friday's and it was already hopping at 6:30a.m!  But  they didn't have salt to put down so we don't get to much ice.  Hubby will be home this weekend so we will be able to enjoy some family time in front of the fire place while it is cold and snowy outside. 

I got a couple of freebies in my email this morning that I thought you might like.

If any one is planning on doing a unit on the human body here is a whole page full of free resources for your study.

There is still time to plan to make some yummy food for the big game on Sunday and here is a page with several free ebook cookbooks one of which is appetizers.

If your in the Snow zone  stay warm and dry.  Everyone else enjoy your weekend.

Two Links I want to Share

I just went to Christianaudio and downloaded the free download of the month. This month it is Religion Saves by Mark Driscoll.   I have listened to several books from this site and they are always good audios.  They offer a free download every month. 

Becky over at  Hospitality Lane  has written an excellent post about reading the Bible and letting it say what it says.  Theat post can be found here.

The second link is Shared School.   They have state tests and other things here.  I have used tests often to find my children's weak spots. 

It is still cold here in Pa but not as cold as the last several days.   

Audio books

I have really enjoyed audio books over the last few years.  I have listened to book that I know I wouldn't have been able to get through if i was reading them but I really enjoyed listening to them.  I discovered that certain types of books are still better in the traditional book form like the mystery series i read by Joanne Fluke about Hannah Swenson.  I tried listening to this series on audio but since such a big part of the whole thing is that she is a baker and there are recipes in the book this didn't work for me. 

I have tried to get my daughters interested in audio books.  Not to much luck but Hannah does like to listen to Adventures in Odyssey and Down Gilead Lane.

If your children are auditory learners then this might interest you.  I go thet link for Loudlit.org  today.  Although they don't have many titles yet they do offer the option of reading the book page by page with the audio.  Check it out.   

Baby It's Cold Outside

Here in Pa it is 25 degrees and the wind is blowing a bit.  But it is nothing compared to what my hubby had to endure during and after the blizzard. 

This is a picture of him trying to stay warm in the below zero wind chill.  He will not make it home probably till next weekend as the storm put him behind several days.  Glad he was able to get a motel room and the lady at the motel made homemade chili for him and the other guests.

Now onto the goodies I have for today.

Here is instructions on how to make interesting ornaments out of straws and a styrofoam ball.  Here is a picture 

This is a site that show you how to make a really neat paper snowflake.

Here is a pdf on how to make easy gingerbread houses.

Grinch coloring pages are are at the this link.

You can practice your math skills here with a Christmas twist.

Make your own wacky Christmas Tale here.

Here you will find a pdf of a bunch of Christmas worksheets.

Here is another pdf worksheet to match up Merry Christmas with the country.

This is a cute idea to keep your children writing all the year through.

The FDIC offers a free cd that can be used for Economic lessons.  You can find it here.

The following are several links that you can use with A Christmas Carol, most of them deal with Victorian age.  Here is a page on different things in the story.
This is more indepth about the Victorian era. This page has victorian crafts just becareful not to click the Google ads.  Here is an online quiz about A Christmas Carol ( I got 100%).

Last but not least is the page from Easyfunschooling for Christmas and Winter activites and units which can be found here.

 Dig in and enjoy.

Christmas Cookies

Every year I plan on making tons of Christmas Cookies but never seem to get around to it.

Here are some links for Christmas cookies maybe to get you and me both in the mood.

Recipe Lion is offering a free Christmas Cookie recipe e-book.   You will have to register on their site but they have several other e-books that you may find interesting.  I am always looking for new recipes (although I have more than I can ever make in the rest of my lifetime)

This site has a cute idea on how to present your cookies once they are made.

Here is an idea from Family Fun on another way to present your cookies.

Family Fun also has an idea for a gingerbread family kit.

Homeschool Helper has a unit study on Christmas Cookies here.

And Here is a recipe for a cookie in a jar gift. 

Hope this gets your inspired to make cookies.

Now I'm Hungry!!

Officially on Vacation

I am officially on vacation.  Yeah!!! 

My husband sent me a disturbing video of a song that children in New Jersey are being taught.  If you want to see it it is here.  I don't like to get to political and some may not see anything wrong with the song but it is adapted from "Jesus loves the little children". 

The Homeschooling site for today is one from the Smithsonian.  Mr. President is a site that you can learn different facts about each one of the Presidents.  I do believe that we need to respect the President but not worship him.  I  believe we do need to pray for our President and all our elected officials whether we agree with them politiaclly or not.  i belong to the Presidential Prayer team and they have a web site but for somereason it is not working at this moments so I will post the link as soon as I can.

One more day till Vacation!

I only have one more day till vacation.  I am really looking forward to this time with my family.  We hope to have a nice relaxing time.

I just realized this morning that a site I had posted before for homeschool Free Rice has alot of different subjects that your child can brush up on all the while donating rice to feed the hungry.  Just change the subject on the screens top right hand corner.

New Car

I finally got my car yesterday.  I realized that when I was driving the manual transmission that I was always tense.  What a difference a day makes. 

Only two more nights and then I am on vacation.  I am looking forward to haveing a nice relaxing time with our family.I am sure it will go by way to fast.

This is a picture of my hubby getting ready to enjoy one of the Chocolate chip cherry muffins I made last weekend. 

Todays  Homeschool link is Home School Inc.  I subscribe to their newsletter and they have some really good info. 

countdown

I am counting down to two events this week.  The first is I will be getting a new (to me anyway) car , so I will only have to drive our truck one more time and then I will have automatic transmission Yeah  no more clutch.  The clutch has been horrible with my arm. ( Just found out that my car won't be ready until probably tomorrow, bummer).    Second countdown is only 4 more nights of work then I am on vacation for two weeks.   We aren't really going anywhere special just doing a staycation.  We hope to go visit with Dave's mom for a day or two and go to some museums in Philly, maybe go to Valley Forge, go to some museums around here,  Head down to Washington D.C. for a day or two.  I have a tenative schedule but it's all up in the air depending when Dave gets back from his last load.

This will be us on vacation. 

The homeschool link for today is The Old School House Magazine.  This is a great magazine for all kinds of things.  You can suppliment your curriculmn and find inspiration for when you are burned out.

Drizzle

It seems like all it's been doing the last couple of weeks is drizzle rain.  Nothing really big but just enough to make everything wet. 

I did get a more understanding tech yesterday and we figured out for some reason I have to open the program from a fresh screen so I have to close down my page everynight and reopen in the morning.

This site helps you children work on their knowledge of vocabulary while alos helping the hungry.  For every word you get right they donate rice.

Frustration

I just got a new computer program for Hannah's math.  I installed it on Tuesday and she did her math no problem.  I went to look at her work yesterday morning and the program wouldn't work.  So I tried to reinstall it.  Still Wouldn't work.  So I call Tech support.  The first person I talked to had never heard of the error code that I had so she sent me to the next higher level of tech support and told me I was lucky there was no wait time .  20 minutes later I finally talk to a person.  He took me through several attempts at different things that could be wrong and every time it didn't work He kept telling me that it must be because I did something wrong.  Finally he just did everything remotely.  Hannah did her school yesterday no problem but this morning same error code.  So I will have to call tech support again.  I hope I get a little nicer specialist that doesn't make me feel like a complete idiot. 

Homeschool link for today is Project Gutenberg.  These are copyright free books that  you can download and read or print off.  Most of the classis fit into this catergory.