Hello, folks!

I like to let you know when I hear of something great from one of my homeschool publishing friends.

I have to tell you about Knowledge Quest's Terri Johnson, who has an affordable new course for new homeschoolers. It comes with plenty of valuable and useful freebies from people like me.  I can  recommend anything Terri does as something that will be useful to you.  I think this course is a wonderful idea that will save plenty of people from making mistakes. I wish I had had such guidance when I was starting out!

This course is really risk-free, because Terri has a 100 percent 60-day money-back guarantee.

Here's the link, if you're ready to check it out now.

Or read more about what Terri has to say:

Are you brand new to homeschooling?
Don't let self-doubt, or lack of experience, rob you of the best first year possible! 

All you need are a few basic "how-to's" and your homeschool can be up and running in 48 hours or less.  Plus I'll send you weekly assignment for the next six months that will help you step-by-step to turn this first year of homeschooling into the best year ever!
In our class, you will...

*Determine YOUR philosophy of education - By understanding what you believe about education, you will be able to impart that education more strategically to your children. And stay more focused and on-track!

*Understand your children's learning styles - We all learn differently, there is no doubt about that. When we understand how our child learns best, we can cater his education specifically to him.

*Learn the ins and outs of buying & selling curriculum - Let's face it, if we need to buy curriculum to successful teach our children, we might as well learn to buy it right!

*Find out how to get and stay organized - You and your children will function better when your school day, school area and school work are well organized.

*Learn how to teach multiple ages at the same time - Most of us do not just have 1 child and so it helps to learn how to teach more than one child at more than one grade level. You CAN excel at this!

*Make the most of field trips - Field trips can take school from good to great. Find out how to optimize learning while still having fun.

*How to handle the "S" question - Socialization - People will constantly ask you how you are socializing your children. Have an answer and a plan.

*How to start each day WELL and keep it going that way - Keep your children motivated, stay cheerful in their attitudes and quick to finish their schoolwork.

*Get hundreds of dollars of free curriculum - Many wonderful companies are partnering with us to bring you the best possible first year experience. They will be giving you substantial portions of their curriculum to get you started right.

Again, here's your link.

Blessings,
Phyllis Wheeler
MotherboardBooks.com

 

by Cindy Rushton

Want to know one of my biggest secrets to homeschooling the easy way? Want to know one of my biggest secrets to scheduling success? This one secret can make your daily schedule finally fit. It can end your scheduling frustrations forever.

I am not a "schedule by the minute" type of person. (GRIN)  I fail with schedules like that. They don't meet my needs. My life includes too many areas that have different needs daily. Timed schedules just do not work for me.

So, what has worked for me? Setting up a framework to my day. This is one incredibly powerful tip. It can make a HUGE difference in your day as well. It just might be the secret that has alluded you through the years.

Wondering what I mean by a "framework" for your day? By framework, I mean a general flow to each day that includes all of the areas of my life that I juggle. But, how do I do that? Here are some quick tips:

1. Decide what should be included in your daily schedule. Look at what you are all about. Look at your goals, activities, values, priorities. Look at your husband's schedule--wrap everything around him. Look at what you need to include in your day to get everything done--quiet times, lessons, homemaking, read alouds, work, etc. This is important. Otherwise, you will include things in your schedule that may not be the very best choices. And...one big risk...you may never get around to the things that matter the most. Decide what really needs to be a part of each and every day for your day to be successful.

2. Decide the best time for the tasks you need to complete each day. This will help you get a good flow to your day. For me, quiet times are just best at the beginning of the day. Chores are great right after them--I need them completed so my brain can focus on the table time.  Our business work and errands need to be done in the early afternoon. Read alouds are best before bedtime.  You get the picture. When I tried to read aloud over lunch, we had so many distractions that we could never fit it in. Trying to work the business in the morning would never work...and of course, we couldn't take care of business errands at night. See how important it is to really look at the best time to get tasks done. Look at the best time for all of the tasks that need to be done. Look at the best flow to get everything done easily each day. You may not get this right at the beginning, but you will get closer and closer each day. You will love it!

3. Balance your day. Don't let any one area of your life get out of balance. Everything that we do in our day has a tendency to grow into a big time thief--homeschooling, homemaking, home business. Those important aspects of our life can easily grow out of their boundaries. While I love each of them, they can get rather exhausting if we don't keep them in balance with the other things that we have to do. The best way for me to stay balanced is to be reasonable about what I expect for each day, keep things simplified and easy, and keep everything inside of its time of the day. I don't mind those days that we want to dig deeper in a topic that we are studying. I also don't mind those days that we tackle a messy room. I don't even mind those days that we have a special business project that needs more time. But, if those areas were demanding extra time every day, it would be easy to get burned-out, frustrated and battle with our time each day. Want to make it work? Find a balance for your day.

4. Set up routines. Talk about a HUGE help for me. Without routines, things can get so frustrating every day--there are constant decisions, there is more strife in the family, there is no consistency. Routines help us to make things go faster, without the strife and struggle of figuring things out DAILY. Routines reduce the stress of making decisions daily. Routines help our children to know what to expect so they can move through all of the things that they need to do each day. Routines are crucial. They assure a smooth ride. They keep us on track. They keep us out of the ruts. They take us in the direction that we want to go. One of the toughest things I ever did was develop routines in my home. However, one of the most rewarding things that I ever did was develop routines in my home. When I got very, very sick, everything kept going. During those times that I have been stretched, things kept on going. All because of routines. Set up routines. Then, your children will know what to expect. They will learn what is next and next and next. The decisions will be made for you. They will be able to "just do it" with or without you. Set up routines for your family. Develop one set of routines at a time--look for the time of day that things go haywire. If it is morning, for example, look at all that needs to be done. Brainstorm. Make a to-do list for that routine. Write it out. Work it as a checklist until it becomes a habit. If you see other things that need to be added into that set of routines, add them. Tweak it until it is smooth. Then, move to the next troublespot. Do this for all of the times of your day. Watch to see how much it helps!

5. Prune anything that is not necessary. Truth is, we cannot do everything. What we do in our day keeps us from doing other things. It zaps our time, energy, strength. We need to be picky about what we add to our day. Every single thing that we do costs us something. We need to constantly prune those things that are not necessary. Prune anything that hinders, distracts. Be honest. Be ruthless. Prune. Even the good things! Go for the best!

6. Take the squeeze out of your schedule. Watch out for the squeeze in your schedule. Don't fill every minute of your day with something to do. Why? Because there are always going to be crisis situations, interruptions, melt-downs, delays. If we have our schedule maxed out, we will constantly be overwhelmed, overworked, and squeezed. Find ways to take the squeeze out of your daily schedule--cut out extra running, watch out for time thieves, prioritize your daily to-do's (and eliminate any that make the day too tight), cut out extras that are unnecessary, keep the day simple and easy. Keep a relaxed atmosphere. Constantly, take the squeeze out of your daily schedule.

7. Stay flexible! Stay adaptable! Actually, one of the reasons that we really want to develop a framework to our day is so we have more flexibility, so we have more "space" in our day to be adaptable. We want to be able to seize opportunities that come our way. We want to be able to slow down and enjoy our children. We don't want to miss teachable moments. These days just go by too fast. We want to enjoy every second. We want to make sweet, sweet memories. This requires that we stay flexible and adaptable. So, take the time to develop your own framework to your day. Do the tough work. Get your plans together. Work on these suggestions. Then, stay flexible. Stay adaptable. Grasp on to all that God has in store for you!

*******************************

About Cindy Rushton…

Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. She is recording Preview Chats for the Ultimate Homeschool Convention RIGHT NOW! Join her wonderful guests FREE for the next weeks as they count down to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo (April 28-May 3, 2008--BUT! NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!). Get your ticket NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here:

http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=phyllisw&pid=1

by my friend Cindy Rushton

Today being inside just tortures me! It is STUNNING outside! Even the little birds are begging us to go outside.

Are you like me, dying from "cabin fever" and ready for spring? This is the perfect time to begin Nature Notebooks! Not only will you have an abundance of treasures awaiting your exploration, but these are perfect days to try something fresh. Ready? Let me help…

Chances are you already have many things that could be included in a Science Notebook around your home. Look for those "goodies" that do not have their own special place and add them to your Science Notebooks. This is the perfect opportunity to develop "a place" for those "goodies" while developing a nice product for displaying all the growing knowledge of nature all while your children are keeping special memorabilia! One of the things that I like about using supplies intended for scrapbooking is that there are so many products that enable us to keep bulky materials safely inside of our notebooks. Not to mention, scrapbooking makes EVERY notebook so much cuter! J And…to imagine that we call this "school!"

Want some ideas of things to include in your notebooks???

· Sketches...Don’t forget to include date, time, place, Latin name, and common name. Oh! Don’t forget to document where you found it.

· Snapshots…Don’t forget to journal about your snapshot!

· Pressed flowers, leaves, feathers, butterflies, etc.

· Glossary of terms studied…

· Artwork… (Nature art, original drawings, coloring pages…)

· Diagrams…

· Poetry…

· Information about discoveries…

· Lists of new findings…

· Handouts from trips…

· Narrations from trips, outings, hikes, nature walks, books read about nature or scientists/naturalists…

· Timeline…Mark your excursions, inventions, famous men and women, so on!

· Instruction Sheets on "How to Care for..." or "How to Collect..." etc.

· Booklets...

· Project data...

· Bible verses...

· Journal entries…

· Details from outings…

· Favorite quotes about nature…

· Reading list…

· Research...

· Reports...

· Essays…

· Science experiment logs…

· Notes from any Science study…

You can add a lot of life to your Science Notebooks with special supplies you find along the way! I have found that the little touches have made our notebooks so much more fun and in the process hooked my children.

Encourage your children to use die-cuts, frames, stencils, shapes, and edgings galore to make their notebooks fun and beautiful! My children now beg each weekend to work on our binders/scrapbooks. We have taken these simple skills into other projects for our Science studies such as creating books or booklets…making cards with pressed flowers, sketches, poetry and Scripture verses…and displaying our collections. The key is to just have fun and enjoy making your notebooks all yours!

Happy Notebooking!

Cindy

**************************************************

About Cindy Rushton…

Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. She is recording Preview Chats for the Ultimate Homeschool Convention RIGHT NOW! Join her wonderful guests FREE for the next weeks as they count down to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo (April 28-May 3, 2008--BUT! NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!). Get your ticket NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here

Someone emailed me this.  It's something we all should read! --Phyllis

HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY
IMPORTANT!!!

A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures..

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names.  As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first ,you won't be able to edit the message at all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC : (blind carbon copy)field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY
IMPORTANT!!!
A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures..

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names.  As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top ). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on 'Forward' first ,you won't be able to edit the message at all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail addresses. Always use the BCC : (blind carbon copy)field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) Remove any 'FW :' in the subject line . You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading.Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent.
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(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
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(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like, 'Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven't won the lottery??)
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(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for Years! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to  http://www.snopes.com/
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Its really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

An Internet friend of mine, Carla Hardwick, put together this Easter video when she and her kids  found themselves stuck at Walmart waiting for her car to be fixed.

Plenty of food for thought!

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=0ZVlheNkQFo

A review of Keyboarding for the Christian School, a book by Leanne Beitel, published in 2006 by iUniverse, Inc., New York.  Available at Amazon and other places.

I am often asked whether I think kids should learn to type. The answer is absolutely.  At around sixth grade, add it to your daily lesson plan.  So I was interested to see a book that is tailored just for Christian students.

I am sure you will agree with me that a saturation experience in the Word is a great thing. Leanne Beitel's book extends that principle to the exercises a student copies while learning to type. The book, which is high-school-level reading, teaches individual keystrokes, home keys and so on in the usual fashion, and then turns to the Psalms for typing practice.

This book covers not only learning to type, but how to set margins and so on in a word processor. It's also a business class, teaching the kids how to create a business letter, how to follow stylesheets such as MLA and APA, how to create a bibliography, how to format envelopes, and how to read proofreaders' marks.

The typing exercises include not only Bible excerpts, but also an uplifting story about an early Christian, and some evangelical material. This book can be a welcome addition to your home school. Phyllis Wheeler, www.MotherboardBooks.com .

Worlds Unseen, Book 1 of the Seventh Trilogy by Rachel Starr Thomson, published Nov. 1, 2007 by Little Dozen Press.

 

This fantasy novel is set in a place and time that is reminiscent of medieval England, France, and the city of Prague, but altered.  Perhaps it is in the far future, or in a different world. This world is called the Seventh World, and it is governed by the Empire, a force of evil. 

 

However, there was a time before the present age when there was a good King, a supernatural being.  When men turned their backs on him, he left.  However, a prophet many years ago said he would come back.

 

Our story opens with teenager Maggie, an orphan, whose foster parents are murdered.  She goes to live with another foster parent.  All three were members of a Council for Exploration into Worlds Unseen that had dabbled in the occult 40 years before and then split up.

 

As the story unfolds, Maggie agrees to carry an enemy scroll across Europe to another former Council member. On this journey she meets others and learns she is capable of heroic deeds.  Supernatural forces of good and evil come to fight alongside humans in a revolution in eastern Europe, and Maggie is in the middle of everything.  Characters include a blind seer, a witch, a man who is tempted to join the dark side, and a princess. A rousing battle caps the action.

 

I recommend this book. I really enjoyed reading it.  Here's a link for a free ebook download: Worlds Unseen.

 

Phyllis Wheeler

 

I am interested in Scratch, a tool for teaching reasoning and programming that MIT published last July.  It is very similar to the Logo computer language that I have been using in my books, also developed at MIT but 40 years previously. 

Scratch uses drag-and-drop rather than typing in commands, so it's easier to use.   It is quite sophisticated, although not currently as sophisticated as MicroWorlds Logo, which I am using in my curriculums.  (Specificially, MicroWorlds has functions and Scratch doesn't.) 

Scratch leads right into the Java computer language.  In both of them, the programming revolves around objects that are passed back and forth by programs. What's an object??  In Scratch, you can see it. It's a cat, or whatever.

One of the great things about Scratch is its price tag.  It's free. 

I've created a free lesson about how to use Scratch.  You can get it here.

 

 

Hi folks,

I thought I would share a link with you that someone emailed me, to a blog that lists 50 onlineresources for computer science students.  These would be older students of course. Here is the link:

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2008/50-killer-online-resources-for-computer-science-students/

Speaking of computer science students, there is at least one member of my co-op class that produced the Computer Science Pure and Simple Curriculum who is going into computers as a career. I ran into his mother the other day.  That made me feel pretty good!

Folks continue to like Computer Science Pure and Simple, for middle and high schoolers, and Logo Adventures, for gradeschoolers.  I answer occasional questions from students who get stuck.  Just answered one today in fact.

Here's my goal: computer literacy for every homeschooler!

Hi folks,

Someone sent me the link to another blog, Wired Science,  where plenty of people are leaving comments about their experiences with Logo when they were younger.  Many are reporting that they learned Logo as kids and became successful programmers as adults.

They are talking about Logo in the past tense. But for us it is now!  It's a great tool and it has NOT fallen by the wayside.  Just check it out at www.MotherboardBooks.com, the tool created at MIT to teach reasoning skills to kids, adapted for teaching programming in Computer Science Pure and Simple.

Hi folks,

I was interviewed Oct. 6, 2007, on Tech Watch Radio by Sam Bushman and Jay Harrison.  In the interview we discuss all the great things about using the Logo computer language to teach kids.  Logo was invented to teach reasoning to kids at MIT, and it's no surprise that kids love it.  High schoolers too!

I also recently asked for feedback from my newsletter subscribers, and am happy to find that so many of them are delighted with Computer Science Pure and Simple.  You can read some of their comments on my Web site home page, www.MotherboardBooks.com .

Blessings,

Phyllis

Hi folks,

Want to try my free Internet Scavenger Hunt for kids aged 12 and up?  It's a fun way to introduce someone to using the Internet.  It also includes directions for setting Google to SafeSearch. A $10 value!

Get your free scavenger hunt here!

Phyllis Wheeler

Hi folks, just wanted to let you know that my fun computer science curriculum has been doing very well this year.  In fact, I am struggling to keep up with the orders.  To find out more, go to www.MotherboardBooks.com . Thanks for all the support! Keep it up!

Phyllis Wheeler

MotherboardBooks.com

Hello homeschoolers,

I apologize for not posting for so long.  My husband was out of work for a year, so I went back to work, and it's been pretty crazy around my house.  I am being a mechanical engineer again and enjoying it. Meanwhile, my homeschooled daughter is at the junior college, and my triplet sons are entering high school, two at a Christian school and one, with special needs, at a public high school with a good special needs program. 

In my "spare time" I have finished a new book, Logo Adventures, and published it. This teaches Logo programming to kids aged 8-12, the fruit of a class I taught at our homeschool coop a couple of years ago, just before I started back to work.   I have also updated my mainstay books, Computer Science Pure and Simple Books 1 and 2.  Now all books are fully compatible with MicroWorlds EX and MicroWorlds 2.0, so you can take your pick!  Find out all about this and more at my Web site, www.MotherboardBooks.com .

Blessings to you!

Phyllis Wheeler

My computer class at the homeschool coop Tuesday was the last one. 

It was a fun class--the kids were finishing up their final projects, which involved creating basically a dynamic greeting card using MicroWorlds.  They animated shooting stars and explosions, and then transferred the viewer to a screen with a message, such as "Happy Easter" or "I Luv U."  There were lots of squeals.  The kids kept calling each other, "Come over here and see!" We got out the digital camera and took pictures of each other, too.

I am going to miss those kids.  We were working together on my new book, Logo Adventures, which should be appearing fairly soon as an e-book on the Motherboard Books Web site.  I am no longer homeschooling, because my daughter graduated a year ago, and my sons all really needed to be in school for various reasons.  (If you want details on that, read my e-book Nurturing Your Asperger's Child!) So I won't be teaching in the co-op next year.

When I first started in the co-op six years ago, one of my students was just two years old, and I looked after her in the nursery. Now Regina is eight.  She is a very plucky kid. It's not easy being the youngest one in the class! (The four others are one, two, or three years older.)

The co-op may be ending too, since the person who has put the most into it, Dawn, will be retiring from  homeschooling when her younger daughter graduates this month.

As my students were packing up, Dawn stopped by.  "It's the end of an era," we said to each other, and gave each other a hug.

Who knows what we will be up to next?? That's the big question.  The possibilities are many!!

Hey folks,
I thought I'd clue you in to an interview of me on The HomeCast.com, a homeschooler's podcasted radio show.  You can download the MP3 file to your computer and from there into your ipod or onto a CD, and listen to it whenever and wherever you like.  The interview is about Web Site ABC's, an e-book I wrote recently that shows newbies how to make a Web site using very little money. 
Here's the URL for the podcast:
http://www.thehomecast.com/2006/03/09/episode-2-grande-cooking-website-abcs-and-money-saving-tipsoh-my-2/.  Enjoy!

Like many of you who are reading this, I have had a lot of experience teaching my own children, and some experience teaching others. I was just pondering the fact, though, that one of my current students in my homeschool coop computer class is quite gifted, unlike most other students I have had.. In fact that is a challenge for me as his teacher.

Here's the challenge.  The gifted boy is 10 years old. The class of five contains kids from age 8 to 11.  I find myself spending a lot of time helping the 8-year-old, and very little helping the gifted boy.  What I find I have to do is prepare ahead of time.  I need materials for the class, which I go through with them step-by-step.  But the gifted boy can solve the problem we are working on by himself, which is better--he learns logical thinking this way.  So what does he do with the rest of the class period?

I have been preparing something for him to work on.  In the book I am working on, Logo Adventures, you will find frequent "extra credit" challenges.  These are the ones I am giving this child.  So in fact the book will be able to cover the gamut, from the 8-year-old needing lots of guidance to the child who can take it and run. 

I have decided to work on this book hard for a while and have it available as soon as I can, rather than in the summer.  Stay tuned!
Blessings,
Phyllis Wheeler

I am sorry, folks, that I haven't checked in in a while. I have been finishing up my new book, Nurturing Your Asperger's Child.  It's all the strategies I developed for helping my Asperger's kids (a girl and a boy) grow up.  They are now 18 and 13.  For the boy, growing up isn't finished, but a friend convinced me I ought to share with you all anyway.

Asperger's is a condition that affects one child in 150, according to the researchers.  This condition affects ability to interact socially, and often comes with a host of other challenges.  It is actually a mild form of autism.

For more information on this condition, you can go to a new Web site by a doctor and mother of Asperger's kids, Valerie Richey. She is homeschooling her kids, and has some wisdom for you.  Check out Autism in the Christian Home.

In my computer class for 8 to 11-year-old homeschoolers yesterday, we were working on our animated story using MicroWorlds.  In the story, a tiny person walks up to a giant, says "boo!", and the giant gets frightened and runs away.  Last week we worked on the drawing shapes that make up the animation.  Mostly we were taking shapes that were already there and modifying them.  Joel made a great frowning giant woman who then turned and ran.  Ian's running giant had her mouth wide open.  Kirsten's looked like her eyes were bugging out.  They were great.

So yesterday we knit together the program. We made a procedure (that's a piece of a program) that sets the figures where they will start out.  We had already made a procedure that runs the story.  Yesterday we made a start button and hooked it up. So now we are programmers! We have made a program with four procedures in it, and to run it all you have to do is click start!  I was amazed at how excited the kids were to be putting it all together for the first time like that.  They were hopping out of their seats and running to see what the other guys' programs did.  I told them they were programmers, and got some great big grins.

Phyllis Wheeler

Hello folks,
I just wanted to let you know that my new e-book, Web Site ABC's, is available now.  I wrote the book for some friends who have been bugging me about how to put up a Web site.  I've had some great feedback--people are really being blessed by the book, which not only tells you how to put up a Web site, but also how to market it.  I've learned a lot about Internet  marketing in the past six months from two conferences--Rhea's Entrepreneur Days in August, and Armand Morin's Big Seminar in November--which I "attended" by purchasing the CD's.  You can find out lots more at http://www.WebSite-ABCs.com  . 

Now I'm going to get back to working on my other e-book, Nurturing Your Asperger's Child.     I did some research today by going to a seminar taught by Rick Lavoie, on the subject of learning social skills.

I haven't been homeschooling this year because it just didn't work out--my triplet boys (age 13) are in three different schools, and that is what they need this year. My daughter graduated from homeschool last May, and is now in junior college.  But I am starting to think about next year. Perhaps I'll be doing it again next year!  This year I am still teaching computer in the homeschool co-op, even though my own kids aren't in it. How could I just leave the kids I have been teaching and nurturing for five years?  Some of the kids in my computer class were in the nursery the first year I joined the co-op.  Then I was playing dolls and dress-up with them; now I am teaching them computer animation!

I hope you had a blessed day today.
Blessings,
Phyllis Wheeler