TheHomeSchoolMom's Free Homeschool Resources February, 2012
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- From the Editor
- Website Updates & Additions
- Great Homeschool Conventions (Our Sponsor)
- Educational Resources
- Homeschool Buyers' Co-op (Our Sponsor)
- Recent Blog Posts
- Featured Article - Cures for Cabin Fever by Laura Grace Weldon
My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being
educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself.
--George Bernard Shaw
As I do every year for the month of January, I have spent the past month focusing on getting rid of clutter and getting organized. I've been posting about getting organized in the kitchen over on our sister site, Menus4Moms, and I plan to try to keep a handle on purging clutter throughout the year. I ran across this great idea at the Red Chair Blog. It's a system (cheap and easy) for storing the items in your home that are in transit - stuff that needs to be donated, delivered, returned to the library, or given as gifts. While you are there, browse around - Amy has some great ideas for decorating and remodeling homes. If you would like some guidance for taking control of all of your "stuff", download this free calendar from M
y Simpler Life. It guides you through decluttering throughout the year.
Enjoy the newsletter!
Warm regards,
Mary Ann Kelley
Editor
Teaching Calendar
- Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart - 2003 - February 1
- Groundhog Day - February 2
- Massachusetts Admission Day - 1788 - February 6
- Laura Ingalls Wilder born - 1867 - February 7
- National Inventor's Day - February 11
- Abraham Lincoln born - 1809 - February 12
- Random Acts of Kindness Day - February 13
- Valentine's Day - February 14
- Arizona Admission Day - 1912 - February 14
- Oregon Admission Day - 1859 - February 14
- President's Day - February 20
- George Washington born - 1732 - February 22
| Five (5) GREAT Homeschool Conventions & FREE $65 Gift from Homeschool Legal Advantage! | |
 | Extremely affordable homeschool conventions in Long Beach, CA; Hartford, CT; Cincinnati, OH; Memphis, TN; and Greenville, SC. HUNDREDS of information-packed homeschooling workshops. Shop in the HUGE homeschool curriculum Exhibit Hall. FEATURED SPEAKERS include: Chuck Colson, Andrew Pudewa, Diana Waring, Dr. Jay Wile, Dr. Susan Wise Bauer, John Stonestreet, Pastor Tedd Tripp, John Rosemond, Cathy Duffy, Sonya Shafer, Attorney David Gibbs III, Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, Carl Kerby, Michael Clay Thompson, Ed Zaccaro, Amanda Bennett, Zan Tyler and dozens more speakers! |
| WORLDVIEW TEEN Track, PARENTING Track, CREATION APOLOGETICS Track, Comedian JOHN BRANYAN on Friday evening & more! The Homeschool EVENTS of the YEAR! www.GreatHomeschoolConventions.com | |
Mark My Bird
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is my favorite go to place for everything about birds and they have a new module that they are developing. Merlin will be a Bird ID Wizard when his database is complete, and Mark My Bird is an activity that not only helps fill and refine Merlin's database, but also teaches participants how to identify different birds by their size, coloring, markings, and environment. At the beginning of the module, you'll see a photo of a bird and be asked to answer 18 questions. At the end, you'll learn the identity, size, and habitat of your bird. After taking the quiz, bird lovers will be better prepared to analyze a bird in the wild and look up its identification, and Merlin will be better prepared to help you. The quiz can be taken as many times as you wish, with each entry helping Merlin sharpen his skills at analyzing different species of birds from a variety of input.
Academic Earth
Academic Earth was founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education. As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, Academic Earth is working to identify barriers to receiving a world class education and finding innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning. Their goal is to bring the best content together in one place and create an environment in which that content is remarkably easy to use and where user contributions make existing content increasingly valuable. The content is mostly video-driven and can be browsed by topic either as individual videos or as playlists for specific course material. Content comes from hundreds of instructors at universities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, NYU, and Stanford.
Books Should Be Free
Books Should Be Free is a repository of free downloadable audiobooks. Downloads are available in mp3 and iPod/iTunes format and most titles are classics that are in the public domain. Should you prefer to read the books, you can find many of the same titles as free downloads for the (free) Kindle app at amazon.com. I am currently reading the Kindle version of Oliver Twist and thoroughly enjoying it. If you've never installed a kindle app on your mobile device, you might be surprised and how helpful it is. We especially like the integrated dictionary that allows you to pull up a definition just by touching the word in the text.
Great Backyard Bird Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easyâand it helps the birds. The 2012 GBBC is Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 20. You can check out the Power Point presentation on the website along with downloadable regional tally sheets and a printable poster. You can even print a participation certificate for your child when the count is complete. To participate, start here.
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| The Miracle Cure for Bad Homeschooling Attitudes | |
| When children balk at their academics, it can twist homeschooling from a lively adventure into a grinding battle. And, unfortunately, in this war, there are no winners. Kids turn sour, parents turn angry, work doesn't get completed, and learning is stalled. If the battle continues long enough, it can significantly alter family life and damage relationships. For some, bad attitudes can lead to giving up on homeschooling all together. So what's a parent to do? Read more... |
| Here's to the New Year: Why I Homeschool Part 3 | |
| There are enough pressure, stress, and opposing opinions inherent in the homeschooling journey to give even the most stalwart home educator cause to question his or her choice at some point. So, instead of New Year’s Resolutions, this year I’m reviewing why I homeschool. I’m getting my foundation set right at the get-go, so I’m better prepared for handling the challenges that will inevitably arise throughout this upcoming year. Because when the foundation is secure, you can build something beautiful. Read more... |
| Promote Map Use by Kids the Subversive Way | |
| Hoping to spare my kids my own geography impairment, I hung a large world map in the kitchen a few years ago. But how to make that map a go-to place? I know the ho-hum status educational products achieve around here. I don't really believe anyone sits on the toilet studying the expensive shower curtain I bought featuring SAT vocabulary words on it. I know our stack of handy reference place mats haven't been out of the drawer in years. Yet that map is in use every day. Let me share the secret with you... Read more... |
More Homeschooling Blog Posts...
Cures for Cabin Fever
by Laura Grace Weldon
Stuck inside? Might as well extract some fun out of all that togetherness. For true cabin fever recovery, try something you’ve never done before.
1. Stage a treasure hunt.
First, hide a prize. The prize doesn’t have to be a toy or candy. Try a “find your packed lunch” treasure hunt. The real fun is hunting for it.
Next, hide clues throughout the house. For non-readers the clues can be rebus pictures, digital photos, or magazine cut-outs. For readers create age-appropriate clues with riddles, short rhymes, or question-based hints. Each clue should lead the child to a spot where the next clue is hidden. If you have more than one child let everyone search for clues and figure them out together. Or collaborate by staging treasure hunts together for each child in turn.
Once kids are familiar with treasure hunts they can easily set them up on their own. But beware. They may turn off your cell, hide it, and chortle gleefully while you track it down through clues left under the bath mat and behind picture frames.
2. Make soft pretzels.
Might as well make a recipe that isn’t complicated, just time consuming. Soft pretzels fit that description. Together you can roll and shape them into initials, symbols, or yes, pretzel shapes. We use Alton Brown’s recipe although we knead it by hand and divide the dough into more pieces. The kitchen will smell great even if you’ve used every inch of counter space. And just think, you’re teaching some delayed gratification skills because after all that time the end result is fantastic.
3. Play with tape.
Rolls of painter’s tape or masking tape can spur kids to new creative heights. Especially when they’re bored. Give them the following suggestions or encourage them rely on their imaginations.
~Toy vehicles and action figures can travel along roadways made of tape stretched along on the floor. Overpasses, buildings, and other roadside features can be made from shoeboxes and other cardboard discards.
~Tape a giant tic tack toe board on the carpet, then use two sets of matching items for x’s and o’s.
~Stretch tape across a hard surfaced floor to mark out hopscotch or skellzies.
~Collect objects like string, paper clips, cardboard tubes, boxes, and a small ball or two. Then use tape to construct ball rolling systems from one piece of furniture to another. Kids will quickly discover they need to start at the highest point.
4. Guess and check.
Make your home and family into a guessing game. Take turns making challenges, write down your guesses, then prove each other right or wrong. The proof part is particularly fun as kids hurry to count, measure, and calculate. Don’t know where to start?
~Guess how many shoes are in the house.
~How many books.
~How many countries are represented in a drawerful of shirts (as long as they have origin tags).
~Guess the measurement of each other’s heads.
~How many inches it is from the front door to the computer, the bathroom, the bed.
~Guess how many days or hours each person has been alive.
~How long each person can stand on one foot.
Well, you get the idea. The kids will not think this is fun if you have them guess how neatly they can put away their Legos.
5. Set up an obstacle course.
Release some of that pent-up energy with a temporary indoor obstacle course. It might consist of a few chairs in a row to wriggle under, six plastic cups to run circles around, a squared off area to perform ten jumping jacks, then three somersaults down the hall before turning around to do it all in reverse. Older kids can set up a simple obstacle course for smaller kids. The adult in charge should set safety rules in place before the frenzy begins.
6. Make geometric sculptures.
This takes only toothpicks and miniature marshmallows. It’s a great way to make free form sculptures while discovering some principles of geometry. As the marshmallows dry they’ll adhere ever more tightly to the toothpicks. They’ll also form a surface hard enough for some sculpture enhancement. After a day or two of drying the kids can decorate their sculptures with markers or paint.
7. Have a picnic.
Yes, a picnic. Fling a tablecloth or beach towel on the floor. Eating on the floor may be novel enough but make sure the meal consists of picnic-y finger foods for real authenticity. You might want to fire up the grill to cook hot dogs and roast marshmallows. If you’re eating on a tiled floor in the kitchen consider amping up the fun by ending the picnic with a brief rainstorm you impose with a squirt bottle. Then again, maybe not. The kids will get you back some day.
These activities are excerpted from Free Range Learning; ©2011 Laura Grace Weldon
