Indie Education

Homeschooling Language Arts on the Web

2009-11-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

Homeschool Reading and Book Sites

Starfall
A very well-designed, colorful interactive children's reading course online...all free! Great for 4- to 7- year olds!

Scholastic Kids
Games, downloads, and activities for children's literature.

All Info About Reading Education
Lesson plans, activities, worksheets, and other helps for teaching young and beginning adult readers.

Book Adventure
A free site that gives children points and prizes for answering questions about the books they've read! They can earn enough points to get a subscription to Highlights for Children magazine, books, candy, temporary tattoos...Parental permission required, but the site is quite legitimate!

Book Hive
A searchable list of kid's books, with games, coloring pages, quizzes, You can search by subject, genre, reading level, etc. Each book is reviewed , and you may add your own review, Some have advisory notes for parents. A really fine resource!!

All Info About Teen Reading
Features reviews of good books, parent helps, worksheets, and much more!

Homeschool Writing Sites

Free Worksheets
Printable story starters.

Alphadictionary
A site for kids ages 7 to 13. If your child signs up (with parental permission, they will e-mail her a vocabulary-building kids word-of-the day, called the Goodword Junior, five days a week along with tips and tricks to help her remember correct spelling and pronunciation. There are also games, puzzles, and other fun things to do here. A really great site!!

Family Education Printables
A wide assortment of pages with topics ranging from puzzles about classic kids' books to parts of speech to paragraph writing. This can be very valuable for that end-of-the-year portfolio, and the kids may really like some of the puzzles!

MLA Style Guide
Practice writing college-level reports.

Homeschool Grammar, Spelling and Other Sites

Learning Page
Free membership, and many free printables, including alphabet and handwriting pages in several styles, story ideas, etc.

Kids Page Archive
Many worksheets for kids ages 5 to 12. Vocabulary, rhyming, spelling, grammar, stories, etc.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
The punctuation game...

Proofread!!!
An article about editing...with a great photo!

Mad Libs on the Web
By far the easiest and most fun way to learn the parts of speech!! Add words to stories...and read the silly results!!

Fun Brain
Online games to improve vocabulary, spelling, plurals, and other writing skills.

I Know That!
More online games, like Punctuation Paintball and Scrambled Stories.

Anagram Server
Play with your words!!

Don't Buy It!
A site about media propaganda and wise consumerism for teens. Eye-catching and fun!

Free Science Lessons-Physics

2009-11-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

How Stuff Works

All ages. How do computers work? How do malaria drugs work? What if I tried to drive my car underwater? A great site for the bored kid...and a great resource for the Eternal Questioner.

Fizzics Fizzle

All ages. A Thinkquest site which gives a very good introduction to physics. There are games and animations that reinforce the information presented. A great reference, introduction or refresher.

Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab

7 and up. A fun site with many experiments and good explanations of the results. Also has games and puzzles!

MadSci Network

For all ages. Another great site for the bored child. "represents a collective cranium of scientists providing answers to your questions. For good measure we provide a variety of oddities as well." Really fun, and has an 'Ask a Scientist' program!

NASA Beginner Guide to Rockets

Ages 11 and up. Look at various types of rockets - from bottle and stomp rockets to full-scale boosters. Find out how the work.

Life, the Universe, and the Electron

For teens. An exhibit about atomic structure.

Teach Engineering

Lessons all ages.

Glencoe Physical Science

Has quizzes and web resources for ninth-grade textbook in physical science. Can be useful.

Optics For Kids

Ages 10 and up. Learn about light, lenses, and lasers.

The Atoms Family

11 and up. Basic physics in a fun and memorable way!

Physics Life

11 and up. A look at the physics pf things in our everyday world. Nice interactivity.

Antimatter: Mirror of the Universe

8 and up. A look at the CERN particle accelerator and the quest for antimatter. Good for the teen who likes mysterious subjects. There is a kids' section!

Science Hobbyist

8 and up. Fun and useful articles and experiments. Includes the famous resource, Is Your Child's Science Textbook Wrong?

The Particle Adventure

8 and up. Activity sheets, graphics, animations..all explaining the subatomic world.

PHet Simulations

All kinds of Java physics demonstrations! Colorful and insightful!

EdHeads Simple Machines

Ages 6 to 12. Activities, animations, etc. all explaining how simple machines work.

Science with me

A cheery, colorful website with games, animations, worksheets and coloring pages for preschool to about age 10. Subscription required, but it's free!

For Fun!

Physics Behind Four Amazing Demonstrations

10 and up. I can walk on burning coals...can you? Here's how we all can...

Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments

All ages...but watch out!! What would happen to this if I put it in the microwave??

Physics of Superheroes

All ages. A Youtube lecture on the way things DON"T work in the world of comic book heroes! Really funny, and informative. Good for adult as well as kid enthusiasts, and for anyone who's ever watched a cartoon and marveled at how they are a bit different from real life!

Amusement Park Physics

7 and up. Design your own roller coaster, and see how gravity and friction affect your choices.

Skateboard Science

7 and up. Your future Tony Hawk will enjoy knowing how the tricks are done, and how to improve his or her own skating.

A Beautiful Day At Battelle Darby Creek Park

2009-10-31T12:17:00.001-04:00

Pictures by Charlie....

Make your own Christmas Unit Study

2009-10-31T12:08:00.000-04:00

Christmas Around the World Unit Study

...an easy and fun homeschool unit study for a very busy season!

This study is fast and easy to put together, and it is a fun break between the holidays. The kids will learn without knowing it!

Gather your basic supplies.
Look through your books at home, check the library, or check on Amazon or your favorite stores for Christmas in other countries.
Gather books about Christmas crafts for kids.
Find and bookmark websites that look promising. A few ideas:

* About.com has a nice selection of activities and printables
* Online Advent Calendar made by Junior High School students
* A nice summary of customs in several countries
* Another good summary, with different pages for each country. Has links to songs and recipes.
* Yahoo! Christmas around the world, a treasure trove of sites for various countries
* Links to lessons and sites for teachers

Begin linking the ideas.

Pick out which countries you wish to study
Look through your country books and check for any craft or recipe ideas
Pick out sites that correlate to each country you choose to study. You may choose one a day, or one every few days, or one a week, or go wild and have a 'Christmas in ____ ' holiday!

Make a general plan for each country, possibly something like this:

Introduce the country of the day or week. Show where it is on an map or globe, and read a bit about it on the 'net or in one of your books.
Do a chosen craft or two.
Read a bit more, and ask someone to find the country on the map.
Color a picture or do a puzzle about the country or about Christmas in general. Dover Books makes some very cute 'Stained glass' coloring books that are excellent!
Make something to eat for each...or make a whole meal!
Read a bit more.
Check out a website about the celebration.
Finish the book.

On Christmas Eve, be sure to follow Santa's trip with the NORAD Santa Tracker. They present geography facts in their periodic updates on Santa's whereabouts in several languages!

The Elephant in the Playroom

2009-10-29T09:28:00.000-04:00

When my oldest son Evan was about three, he was zipping around the nursery at a fair pace when an older woman said, "Is he hyperactive?" I didn't think about it much at the time: I just said, "No, he just takes a few minutes to settle down, then he's fine." Evan would cruise a new place for a while, then settle down and (usually) pay attention.

All three of my sons were like that: they seemed to need a bit to survey their surroundings, and they also needed a warning before changes ensued, be they moving to a new room or leaving for an outing.

A friend had a child who was like my boys, only more extreme. He reacted to nearly any change with tantrums. He had a hard time handling social situations. Sometimes it seemed that he wanted nothing more to be left to himself in a corner.

He and his family were nearly chased from the homeschooling group by other parents who had decided that the boy's parents were 'too easy on him', and that he would corrupt their own, more perfect children.

My friend's child was belatedly diagnosed with mild autism. All the difficult behaviors that his mom had been blamed for were due to neurological problems that she and her husband had no real control over.

I was reminded of all this by a book that came my way recently, The Elephant in the Playroom, by Denise Brody. This book deals with the joys and trials of bringing up 'special needs' kids from personal experience. It is full of stories and anecdotes written by parents of kids who are not 'neurotypical'. It's not about finding the right doctor, choosing the best curriculum or making sure of the diagnosis: it's about realizing that we're all in this together, even those of us whose kids don't have any of the challenges in the book.

The Elephant in the Playroom will give moral support to parents who are neck-deep in trials, but it will also explain the difficulties of these trials to people who only see a bit from the outside. The stories explain the frustration, the sleeplessness, the chaos, the anger, while reveling in the love, care, and joy. It might even give parents of 'normal' kids a few clues to their behavior, as it did when I saw shades of my own boys in some of the children with mildly Asperger's/sensory integration disorder. Neurological makeup is, after all, a continuum.

Maybe, just maybe, reading this book will help parents not judge each other (or themselves) so harshly, since we may not know exactly what the other person is dealing with.

The Elephant in the Playroom

Denise Brody

* Hardcover: 256 pages
* Publisher: Hudson Street Press (April 19, 2007)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1594630356
* ISBN-13: 978-1594630354

Author Appearances and Reading Enthusiasm

2009-10-26T10:28:00.004-04:00

Last Tuesday, I took Neal to the Columbus Public Library to see and meet John Green,the award-winning YA author who also does a great Happy Dance. I wish that I'd have had the time to really thank him for writing intelligent fiction for teens and others who love good writing. He obviously does not Forget to Be Awesome.

This was the second time that we'd been to see John. The first was hosted by the good folks at Cover to Cover Books in Columbus. Neal put on his UniYeti T shirt and we drove the 45 minutes and had a marvelous time. It also had a major impact on how Neal saw himself. Before the event, he had no interest in writing whatsoever. Getting a sentence out of him was exhausting, despite the fact that he has inherited his Dad's gift of conversation. After seeing that John Green is, in fact, a real, human person, Neal felt that perhaps he should give writing a try. He wrote several partial and finished short stories in the next few months. He now has a few blogs, and even a Twitter account for our kitten. His writing is getting almost as creative as his speech.

A similar thing happened when I took Neal to see Jeff Smith, graphic novelist extraordinare and creator of the Bone series. Neal's drawing experiments took over the dining room for a while. As an added bonus, Alanna was able to meet Margaret Peterson Haddix, which sparked her interest in reading books beyond the beginning chapter book series that she was a bit stuck on.

So watch your local bookstores and libraries for author appearances. They can be very valuable by providing a link between your child, the reader and the authors of the books she devours.

Also check out the online communities that some of the authors have going. Most have websites, and some innovators like the aforementioned John Green have major communities.

Side note to those who think that Neal is a bit young for Mr. Green's books: if a kid wants to read something that may be above his or her maturity level, I'd vote to let said kid go ahead, as long as it's not pornographic or super-violent. In my experience as a kid reader who read psychology texts and grown-up novels at rather young ages, and as a parent raising voracious readers, if it's really out of their range, they won't read far because it won't make sense and will be boring. If it is in their range, then it will make an excellent vehicle for discussion. It's nice to discuss important things like sexual values and ethics BEFORE the hormone rages have quite kicked in, and books are a good way to get the discussions going.

Besides, then I can rationalize extra reading time by saying that I have to read it in order to keep up with Neal!!

A Few Favorite Online Resources for Lesson Planning and Worksheets

2009-10-17T10:19:00.000-04:00

JASON Science

- Weather, ecology and energy are presented to kids from about 10 to 15 in really cool multimedia units. (Bright, interested younger kids might enjoy these also.) There are videos, activities and printables all available for free. It's easy to teach, or your self-starter can do it on her own. Not enough for a year of science, but certainly good for some variety. Has my kids' Great rating.

Curriki

- As a confirmed Linux user (can't wait for Ubuntu Karmic Koala!!!), I've been hunting Open Source educational materials as well. Curriki is the home of thousands of such projects - some ongoing, some finished. There's even a homeschool section. This is the home of the software developed for the One Laptop per Child initiative, which means that much of the curriculum is web-based rather than text-based. It covers from toddlerhood to college. Submissions are welcome also. Every time I go there, I'm amazed!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teachers (including homeschool types) put their best lessons, power point presentations, worksheets etc online, and other teachers (again including us radicals) throw them a few bucks to get the resources. Again, it's little ones on up, and there are quite a few few freebies. The previews are good, also. It's possible to make a bit of money on this site. The indexing is a bit clunky, though.

If you don't have Power Point and would like to use the ones offered on any of the sites above, try Open Office, a free, open souce program by Sun Microsystems that is much better than MS Office and includes quite a bit that MS doesn't. And it's awesome.

There are quite a few more to add to this list...but this should offer a nice beginning!

Sickness Schedule

2009-09-30T11:43:00.000-04:00

Allie had pneumonia last week. She's fine now, but the danged bacteria surely slowed our school progress! We did do some history and science, since she could relax and listen, but she didn't seem to be able to concentrate, so lessons were short and simple. At least we did accomplish something!

Allie was at the doctors getting meds on Monday, and playing soccer madly by Friday. Makes me glad for modern medicine, since her form of pneumonia could easily have been fatal or seriously debilitating a hundred years or so ago.

Wondering how we're doing with the enormous materials list for our units? Needless to say, they've been greatly simplified in real life. We've just finished Genevieve Foster's William Penn, which was a treat. It's wonderful to see how the lives of those people fit together. Wm. Penn actually met Peter the Great?

I did object to Oliver Cromwell being portrayed as a decent ruler, though. He was fine, I guess, if you like theocracy, loss of freedom, and genocide. It was only a one-line mention, so I'll forgive. She did show how ridiculous the Sun King became. That made me think of the Allan Sherman line, "What else can you expect from a king in silk stockings and pink satin pants?" ("You Went the Wrong Way, Old King Louis")

First Day, First Week

2009-09-03T18:08:00.003-04:00

Monday was our first day of "official" school. So far it's all gone quite smoothly and happily, so here's a few things I've learned about my Students:

1) Allie tends to go to bed right after her story time (which is Book 3 of the Belgariad right now), so she has no formal bedtime, but she gets in at about the same time each night. Neal, on the other hand, has no bedtime but he does have an arising time. As long as he can get up when he's supposed to and be relatively cheerful about it, I won't impose bedtime.

2) It's very nice to have Allie up for an hour or so before Neal gets up. That allows us to get through most of her academics without competition or interruption.

3) Neal believes that he is unschooling. While I'm sure that his definition wouldn't gel with some purists, he did pick out his subjects and books, and he studies mostly on his own, with a bit of encouragement. Sounds pretty close to unschooling to me.

4) I send emails to the kids most mornings with computer-based activities listed for the day. It may be a website to check out, or a workpage for their writing club, the The LOLcats and Phun Gnomes Society (Club Oath: We will not kick gnomes, and we will respect LOLcats. Excellent free lesson plans for a writing club)

5) Writing is much more fun on a laptop, even if it's Dad's. Having fun writing is more important than perfecting handwriting.

6) Subjects that have Girl Scout badges to go along with them are great!

Our First Week...

2009-08-29T11:27:00.003-04:00

This week was travelling school. Charlie (Dad) was off, so we made several short trips, many of which were educational ;-)

Sunday was niece Angie's baby shower, which was very enjoyable, followed by dinner at Charlie's parents. Monday was local business and soccer practice. Tuesday was a home day, Wednesday was a trip to Ceasar Creek Fossil Beds. We came home laden with bags of fossils, most of which were shells and corals.

Thursday was soccer practice.

Friday started out with a stop at Batelle Darby Creek Park, which was lovely, especially when we were heading down to the river when it began to rain very heavily. We made it to the van without being struck by lightning but with totally soaked clothing. The heater and fan on the van were put to good use on our way to the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus. There we learned about Egyptology, archaeology, physics, chemistry, oceanography, and basketball-playing rats! (Between the homeschool discount and the military discount, we pais $12.50 for 5 people!)This was followed by dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse and way too much food! I'm not sure that I'll have the Pasta Alfredo again, but the chocolate cake was deleriously wonderful!

Prep

2009-08-17T16:08:00.003-04:00

School starts very soon...

at least for the kids around here. We start a week after they do. Until then, we're edu-vacationing. We spent yesterday at the Columbus museum of Art, and at a strangely declining Hispanic Flea Market.

Ken is working on his CompTIA Certification, and we have plans for our first few months of lessons for Allie and Neal.

We MUST conquer math!

To start, here's a monetary challenge that might actually give you real $$$$...Sylvan's Algebra Challenge. It even has parent's (read: easy!) problems!

Alanna's weather unit

2009-08-06T14:29:00.001-04:00

Alanna's weather unit

Girl Scout activities:

Cloud chart - 3
Weather instrument - 4
Weather Smarts - 5
pick 3 more

Web:
http://www.edheads.org/activities/weather/
http://eo.ucar.edu/webweather/
http://www.wxdude.com/basics.html
http://www.wxdude.com/proverb.html
http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/
http://www.sercc.com/education
http://www.wildwildweather.com/
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/home.rxml
http://www.funbrain.com/weather/index.html

Holt - unit 1
101 - ch 1

101 - chs 2-5

Holt - ch 2
101 - rest of book
Holt ch 3

Experiments:
Holt p 3 empty ball, blow up
p 26 barometer can, balloon

Where Am I?

2009-08-01T19:36:00.002-04:00

...or where have I been? Why hasn't this site been updated in a while?

I've been refinishing five huge pieces of furniture to the point of pain, diving kids to events and classes and the library, doing laundry and dishes, and trying to get read for school...

It ahs been pretty exciting, though. Renee and Brad are expecting again, with the little one due in March. Brenna has become very possessive of her mommy. She knows that something is going on, but how much is not easy to tell.

Now that things are settling down (except for my desire to redo the dining room table), maybe I will blog more. I'll fill y'all in on the latest about our Girl Scout Troop (if it happens - I don't have any clue what's going on with leadership.) You'll get all the down-and-dirty on our school year. And more updates on furniture!

Once again....

2009-07-20T18:52:00.001-04:00

...we're going to be Grandparents! Renee and Brad are expecting in late March.

1700s Unit Study Books Used - order

2009-07-07T11:34:00.002-04:00

This is a guide to our upcoming 1700s unit for Neal and Allie this fall...and no, I don't feel obligated to do everything! Most of it was made from books that we already have or that are available from the library. Wish us luck!

1700s Unit Study

Intro- review
Ohio 12-30 Geology 48-65 Indians
The Witch of Blackbird Pond , From Colonies to Const. Lesson 10
http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/
The CARTOON HISTORY OF THE MODERN WORLD to page 241
Native American Tragedy worksheets
Review Timeline
Africa http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h28af3.html
History Quiz
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Events_prior_to_1800
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/eras/era6.htm OVERALL
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/eras/era6.htm units (downloaded)
http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/Equiano.html slavery

General Worksheets
History Report doc

Literature
Robinson Crusoe
Wordsworth
Coleridge "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Rip Van Winkle
Ben Franklin
Christina Rosetti
Alice in Wonderland
Pride and Prejudice
Tennyson
Dickens
Caddie Woodlawn
The Sign of the Beaver
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Wm Blake
Thomas Gray
Robert Burns
Phillis Wheatley
http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/india/ramprasad India
http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/buddhist/ryokan Japan
http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/india/kamalakanta India

Art
Great American Artists John Singleton Copley p 14
Discovering Great Artists Linnaeus, Gainsborough, Blake, Constable, Hokusia, Audobon,
Story of Painting
A Story of Music Bach to Schubert
Story of Music
http://www.classicsforkids.com/composers/composers_timeline.asp
Philosophy for Kids 27, 48, 51, 53, 89,
Home Crafts
inventions

Frame
George Washington's World
Making Thirteen Colonies
From Colonies to Country
Places in Time
The Cartoon History of the United States to 116
Timeline

http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html

Great Awakening

Research
Speeches p 237
Write a stirring sermon about an idea
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/timeline/1700.htm

World
Can't You make the Behave, King George
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/monarchy/hanovarians.html
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/526565/Crime-and-Punishment-of-1700-1800
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107521.html (France)
Flame colored taffeta Sutcliffe Scotland Bonnie Prince Charlie
http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/upsidedown/timeline/html-frameset.html Australia
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/09/sfc/ht09sfc.htm
http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/lostworlds/timeline/lwstory6.htm
http://www.bized.co.uk/dataserv/chron/events.htm
http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1700&endyear=1799
http://www.diversiton.com/religion/main/islam/timeline.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Chinese_history
http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=131/ Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_America
Anson's Way Ireland
Quest for a Kelpie Scotland
Twilight Child Finland
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/18century/welcome.htm England
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/89662.html Cricket literature
Robert Burns Scotland
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/robroy/ Scotland
http://web.archive.org/web/20020214030439/http://www.tartans.com/articles/famscots/robroy.html
http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/index.html

American Revolution

Story of Mankind 51
From Colonies to Const. Unit 3 Causes, Stamp Act, Who fired first,Effects
Speeches 229-235
Book of Games and Puzzles
Watchwords of Liberty
A Book about Ben Franklin A
Thomas Jefferson
George Washington A
Shh! We're writing the Con. A
Will you sign here A
Where was Pat A
Decl of Ind.
Eyewitness America N
The Way of Democracy A
THE PRINTER'S APPRENTICE
CHARLOTTE
FINISHING BECCA
Patrick Henry
Thomas Jefferson

Government
From Colonies to Const. Unit 4 evaluate, shays, arguments,foreign views
Speeches 236 245
The Words We Live By
We The Kids
Govt worksheet folder
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/toc.html Constitution

US after Revolution
Ohio 68-86 land ownership
History of Clark County doc
Geography early states
Presidents (incl articles of fed)
Courage of Sarah Noble A http://www.homeschoolshare.com/courage_of_sarah_noble.php
DANGER ALONG THE OHIO
The Second Bend in the River
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icuhtml/fawhome.html Ohio
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PENN/pnhome.html Wm Penn

French Revolution

A Little History 34, 35
Story of Mankind 52, 53
Les Miserables
A Tale of Two Cities
Voltaire

School Plans for 2009-2010

2009-07-01T21:35:00.003-04:00

Singapore Math 3a, 3b (fast review mode) 4a, 4b

Writing - continuing her novellas and blogs and such, doing simple reports. Work on punctuation and continue spelling.

Reading every day

Science - not sure yet

History - 1700s and beyond, world and US. Government. Geography of where we study.
Based on George Washington's World, our Timeline books, and a lot more add-ons.

Soccer, basketball, dance, acting, sign language, Girl Scouts, art projects (Discovering Great Artists), etc.

Neal

Head First Algebra, Life of Fred Algebra, Basic Math review

History - 1700s and beyond, world and US. Government. Geography of where we study.
Based on George Washington's World, our Timeline books, and a lot more add-ons.

Science - Conceptual Physics, Cartoon Guide to Chemistry

Writing - continuing her novellas and blogs and such, doing simple reports. Work on punctuation and continue spelling.

Reading every day.

Soccer, tennis, acting, art, music, etc.

Ken

Study for A+ exam, CLEP English, Canadian Studies?, Intro to College @ CS

Ohio Bulletin - Libraries

2009-06-22T18:20:00.002-04:00

WARNING TO ALL OHIOANS!

The State of Ohio, which has currently given us the third highest state and local tax burden in the nation, somehow can't seem to control its ravenous spending.

They want to cut the budget for libraries by half.

Notice that they've recently cut the budget for libraries to the point where our locals have closed one day a week.

Granted, they want money to pay state employees to run non-profits to collect money from taxpayers for state programs. Say what???

They always seem to cut where it injures people...education (like the libraries), health care...is that a way to justify raising the taxes again when the economy improves? Can't they go through the budget and find the programs that impact normal humans the least?

We can't do it...the state is too backward to have the budget online.

Anyway, call Gov Strickland (614)466-3555 and call your state reps and sens. Tell them NO more LIBRARY CUTS!!!

Back...

2009-06-15T14:38:00.002-04:00

We've just returned from a very busy time. Charlie and I traveled to Erie, PA to go sailing on the Brig Niagara, which was very, very interesting and fun...quite and adventure! A bit different for us! Then we went to Niagara Falls. It was our first trip alone in a few years, in celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary.

In case you are wondering, Ken went to Myrtle Beach with the Eresmans, while Neal and Allie stayed with Renee, Brad and Brenna (or should I say, Garion and Eowyn, who permit their humans to live in their house?)

Writing time!

2009-03-31T11:39:00.003-04:00

Alanna has blossoned into a writer! She's in the middle of a story about detectives (of course), and she's currently on page four and counting.

Neal has so many story ideas that he's having to summarize them on Google Documents and leave them for when he has time to write them.

So today I was getting books out for school, but we put them aside to work on our latest 'word babies.' Much better than assigning writing workbook pages!!

School Report....

2009-03-22T15:49:00.006-04:00

Allie and Neal:

The Renaissance Unit is going well. The kids have a timeline book, with cardstock pages that are labelled with the centuries or smaller units of time as needed. We decorate the pages with pictures that we download from the Interwebbies and glue on the pages. Dover books makes small books that have stickers of the works of great artists, which brighten things up a bit.

We listen to music from the time period, do art projects and read biographies of interesting people. The notebooks include worksheets, reports and other papers that pertain to the time.

Bedtime story right now is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At least until Allie starts having problems getting to sleep...

Allie: Math is multiplication, geometry and fractions.

She also has a book that uses fairy tales as story starters. Her ad for Rapunzel's shampoo was fun!

Science is what she decides to read or discover, which varies a lot.

Neal: Math is Beginning Algebra. Writing is blogging, writing stories and creating cartoons. He has also tried just about every type of Linux on his Eee. He's building a computer from stuff around the house.

Ken and Neal are watching a video series from The Teaching Company on Earth Science. It's college level, and they seem pretty happy with it.

Ken is studying Algebra, writing, studying guitar, and doing his usual computer stuff.

Flu Season is Over....

2009-03-14T19:37:00.003-04:00

...at least, I hope so. It dragged on and on and on, and now we're all recovering.

Ken and Evan are currently in Canada at a music festival with Caleb. They left on Friday, armed with birth certificates and a notarized parental permission form, which they didn't need.

For some reason (massive coughing? 102 degree fevers?) we haven't done much school for the past few weeks. I want to get back to it on Monday. Here is a list of our present projects:

Renaissance unit studies: Our World History videos, lots of books, art projects, etc.

Math is The Life of Fred. Excellent fun!

Science : Ken and Neal are watching a college-level video series from The Teaching Company on Earth Science. It's detailed and interesting. Allie and I are reading several books.

Writing for the history notebook and for fun.

Maybe, if the weather is as promised, we'll go to the Columbus Zoo this week. This being Ohio in march, though, it's a bit unlikely.

Which One?

2009-02-13T12:03:00.003-05:00

I think Neal is trying out his eleventh version of Linux on his Eee PC right now. He's tried two versions of Ubuntu (or is that 3?), Puppy Linux, Mint, and several whose names escape me because I wasn't able to catalogue them fast enough. He even found a version on a Japanese site taht he was able to download and change to English...

He said that he's being like Evan...

I wonder how commom Linux obsessions are among 12 yo boys?

A Very Favorite Resource

2009-02-10T16:18:00.002-05:00

Click Schooling is a free email list that I've been getting for more than two years now, and it's one that I always read. Every day, Diane Flynn Keith pints homeschooling parents to the best of learning on the web. The recommendations even come with age levels and highlights of the sites. Each day has its own emphasis:

* Monday = Math
* Tuesday = Science
* Wednesday = Language Arts
* Thursday = Social Sciences
* Friday = Virtual Field Trip
* Saturday = Electives: Music, Art, & Languages

It's really enriched our schooltime, and it's FREE! It would be useful for any parent, teacher, or childcare worker who is looking for activities, worksheets or online fun.

Halloo, hooray!!

2009-02-10T16:00:00.002-05:00

Calloo, callay!

Allie is actually asking to do math! She's even been heard lecturing Neal on the joys of math. Amazing!

Must be the entertaining combo of Life of Fred: Fractions and Math Doesn't Suck...

Neal is doing fine with Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, but he's obligated to complain because his little sister isn't.

Sickness in the Middle Ages

2009-02-03T16:41:00.001-05:00

Neal, Allie and I have been studying the Middle Ages, which is hard to do when they are using tissues faster than a crossbowman can reload. They've been laying on the couch watching history videos from The Teaching Company, which feature a high school teacher who dresses up for the time period and does various accents. He's quite witty and entertaining, and he gets the points across very well. Te kids enjoy it.

We are also starting Medieval Lives, which is a dvd series by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. In it, he demolishes much of what you think of when the Middle Ages pop into your mind, which probably isn't often.

We have plans for projects, like adding to our timeline books, painting with egg paints like Giotto, making foil pictures, listening to Medieval music, reading Chaucer, etc., but that will have to wait until Kleenex usage has declined.

Ken asked what he needed to do to graduate, probably with inspiration from his lovely friend Ashlynn, who's homeschooled and graduating in a few months. I told him that he needed a bit more math and some type of committment to learning to make a living: i.e., taking his A+ Computer Tech exam, and/or starting college. He rather liked this idea. He says that he's ready to take the exam now, but I encouraged him to study up, since the exam costs over $200.
More info as it becomes available....