An absolutely essential resurce element to my homeschool is my This Old Schoolhouse Subscription. Please be sure to check out their new digital version:
We’re excited about our new planner and know that you will be too! We have taken ALL of your suggestions and ideas and compiled them into ONE fantastic planner, so that everything you need to plan in your life can be in one place, making your busy life as a homeschool mom just a bit simpler! In The Schoolhouse Planner, you can expect to find:
• Calendars in various forms – yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily
• Lists of holidays and places to record special days in your family
• Planners for your homeschool – in various styles to meet your individual needs
• Pages for both long-term and short-term homeschooling goals
• Curriculum planning forms
• Evaluation forms and test score recording sheets
• A through-the-Bible in a (school) year schedule
• Forms for recording Bible memory and other memory work
• Logs for recording books read, movies and documentaries viewed, etc.
• A field trip planning form and recording log
• A sample science lab sheet and nature study sheets
• A place to record extracurricular activities
• Outside classes, co-op, and support group information and recording sheets
• Household planning forms
• Daily, weekly, and monthly household schedule charts
• Grocery, menu-planning, and food logs
• Various budget and financial planning forms
• Garden planning sheets
• An appliance and electronics inventory sheet
• Vacation planning ideas
• Address and telephone records
• And much, much more!
And, if that’s not enough, we’ve also included:
• 12 “homeschool must-know” items, one for each month of the year
• 12 essays from some of our favorite authors in the homeschool community – you absolutely won’t want to miss these!
• 24 easy main-dish recipes from some top homeschoolers around the nation
• Forms that are appropriate for preschool – graduation
• A 12-year planning form, so that you can plan your child’s school career from beginning to end!
• 2-page monthly calendar with BIG blocks, providing lots of room for writing in details each day
If all of that isn’t enough to entice you, each month throughout the year, we will also be offering “planner supplements” that you and your kids will love! Our first monthly module will be available in July and will include all kinds of interesting information about popular holidays. These will not only be filled with great information that you will love including with your planner, but they will also be extremely affordable!
What do the developers of the TOS Schoolhouse Planner have to say?
Kris says: “Just this year, I had FIVE planners in my home and NONE of them had all of the forms that I needed to keep me organized for the year. When the chance came to help create a planner that would try to meet ALL of the organizing needs of ANY homeschooling parent, I jumped at the opportunity! I feel that we have created an incredible product: a planner that includes forms to help organize BOTH the "school" and "house" parts of the home. Of course, we couldn't have done this without the outpouring of ideas that came from our customers. Each email was read carefully, notes were taken and then Heidi and I spent hours and HOURS working to create over 85 forms, all available in ONE product that is easily downloadable from anywhere in the world! You can buy The Schoolhouse Planner and begin using it the same day! I hope our customers are as pleased with it as I am!”
Heidi says: “I was so thrilled when I first saw the announcement that TOS was going to create a planner. To say that I was even more thrilled when I was asked to help create this planner would be an understatement. For years, I have looked for ‘the ultimate homeschool planner’, only to be disappointed by what is available on the market. I have continually made my own planning sheets to suit my needs. Now, not only were Kris and I given the opportunity to create what WE thought was the ultimate planner, but what YOU asked for in a planner as well. I’ve seen a lot of planners, but none with this amount of content. I am passionate about E-Books, so I’m thrilled to have this planner available in E-Book format. You might choose to print the whole planner, or maybe you will just want to print certain pages; it’s totally up to you. No two people’s planners will be alike; but each one will suit its owner’s needs. It is my hope that each one that purchases The Schoolhouse Planner will be as happy with it as I am, and will recognize the hard work and the heart that went into the creation of (what I like to call) ‘the Cadillac of planners!’”
Saturday, June 21st
3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Parking Lot 5:
Plover Spotting – Seven endangered PipingPlovers have been spotted along the shores of Grand Beach. Stop by parking lot 5 to get a closer look at the birds and their nests.
Saturday, June 21st
9:30 p.m.- 10:30 p.m.
Amphitheatre
In Danger! – The Plains GrizzlyThe Plains Grizzly and many species of animals have gone extinct in Manitoba, and others are at threat of disappearing forever. Discover what brought these creatures to their downfall and learn what we are doing today to prevent it from happening in the future. Join us for a movie afterwards about the majestic Peregrine Falcon.
Sunday, June 22nd
10:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m.
Parking Lot 3
Plover Stroll – Stroll along the beach with the Interpreters to get a closer look at the endangered Piping Plovers and their nests. Please wear appropriate footwear, bring a bottle of water and wear a hat.
Last Night our local home school support group held an Achievement Award Night. It was a wonderful celebration of what our children individually and families collectively accomplished this past school year inspite of situations and ourselves ~smile~
I encourage you to do the same. Gather a few homeschooling friends, some fun food and some paper (great for the portfolio) awards and recognize achievement and celebrate together! You'll be glad you did.
Our family has been "done" our official book work for some time, although the learning continues :-)
It's time to see how far we've come. I think this is such an important step in the whole scheme of things. It's always neat to hand out the blamk blacline map of the world and a-z list to be filled with things they've learned through the year. It's time to take pictures of their projects and tuck their favorites into their annual portfolio collection. In a few days it will be time to celebrate their accomplishments with our home school group. More on that later :-)
In the mean time there are wonderful resources online and in print to help you assess where your kids are at.
WANTED: some good reporters to write stories about news and weather for our Martian Sun-Times. Are you up to the challenge? Check out this fun developed as a part of NASA's Science Online Project:
Students will become weather reporters for the Martian Sun-Times newspaper. They will gather, interpret and compare current weather information for Mars and Earth.
With the heavy looming dripping clouds in our area, I thought we'd take some time to study weather...
Studying Weather
Interest in meteorology, the science of weather and weather forecasting, dates back thousands of years. In the 4th century B.C., Aristotle wrote what is believed to be the first study on weather forecasting. In 1820, Henrich Wilhelm Brandes, a German astronomer and physicist, made the first attempt to chart weather in Europe using data gathered from historical reports over a wide area. The invention of the telegraph later enabled the rapid collection and transmittal of weather information from weather stations.
Today, meteorologists use a host of devices to study and forecast weather, including weather satellites, rockets, computers, and radar.
Ticks are tiny bugs which feed on blood. Some are about the size of a sesame seed. Different ticks prefer different types of animals. Sometimes a tick will bite a person instead of biting an animal. While most tick bites do not result in disease, some do.
Ticks live in tall grass and wooded areas. They are easiest to spot on a person when they are actually sucking blood. Ticks burrow part way into the skin, bite, draw blood, and then drop off. The feeding tick's mouth will be under the skin, but the back parts will be sticking out. They will be full of blood and blue-grey in colour. This is called an "engorged" tick.
What should I do if I find a tick on my skin?
If you have found a tick on your skin, you will need to remove it as soon as possible. Check your whole body and clothing. Do not stop when you find one tick. There may be more. Make sure the lighting is good so that you will not miss seeing the ticks. Get someone to help with young children and hard-to-see areas.
If you cannot reach the tick or see it clearly to remove it yourself, get someone else to remove the tick for you, or get your family doctor to remove it.
When to get a doctor to remove the tick
You should go to your doctor to get the tick removed if it has buried itself deep into your skin. This happens if the tick has been on you for several hours, or even a day or two. When a tick has burrowed deep into your skin, it is very hard to remove the tick without leaving some mouth parts behind, which can cause an infection.
Removing a tick
If you can remove the tick yourself, follow these instructions.
Use tweezers to gently get a hold of the tick as close to its mouth as possible. The body of the tick will be above your skin. Don't touch the tick with your hands. Wear latex gloves if possible.
Steadily lift the tick straight off the skin. Do not squeeze the tick because this can force its stomach contents into the wound and increase the chance of an infection. Do not jerk, unscrew or twist the tick because this may separate the head from the body. It is very important to make sure that all of the tick, including the mouth parts that are buried in your skin, are removed.
Once the tick has been removed, clean the bite area with soap and water. You may also put a small amount of antibiotic ointment on the area. Wash your hands with soap and water.
You can not remove a tick by covering it with grease or gasoline, or by holding a match or cigarette against the tick. This does not work! This only increases the chance of you getting an infection.
How do I avoid getting bitten by a tick?
To protect yourself and your family against tick and insect bites:
Walk on cleared trails wherever possible when walking in tall grass or woods.
Wear light coloured clothing, tuck your top into your pants, and tuck your pants into your boots or socks.
Use an insect repellent containing DEET on your clothes and on all uncovered skin. Reapply as directed on the container.
Check clothing and scalp (covered or not) when leaving an area where ticks may live. Check in folds of skin. Have someone help you check young children and hard-to-see areas.
Regularly check household pets, which go into tall grass and wooded areas.
What diseases can be spread by ticks?
Several diseases can be passed to humans from tick bites. The most well-known is Lyme disease.
Not all ticks carry this bacterium, and there is only a very small chance of them giving it to you. However, because the resulting disease can be serious, it is worth taking steps to avoid being bitten.
Other diseases passed on by ticks include relapsing fever, tularemia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF), Q fever and anaplasmosis formerly known as Ehrlichiosis.
Certain ticks may release a toxin that can cause temporary paralysis. This is the reason it is important to remove the whole tick as soon as possible.
What are the symptoms of tick-related diseases?
If you have the following symptoms within days or weeks after being bitten by a tick, report them to your family doctor immediately. Tell your doctor when and where a tick bit you.
General symptoms of fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, fatigue or weakness of the muscles of the face.
Skin rash, especially one that looks like a bull's eye. It may or may not be where the bite was.
In some cases paralysis may occur. The paralysis usually starts in the feet and legs and works its way up to the upper body, arms and head. This paralysis usually starts within a few hours to a day or two of the bite.
This insect makes me cringe. Especially since our family experienced a tick related death. PLEASE check yourselves and your children during "tick season", your life and those you love depend on it!
This is the most common species of water bug found in Manitoba. Giant water bugs belong to the Family: Belostomatidae and fall within the Order: Hemiptera (the bugs), of the Class: Insecta (insects). There are perhaps 150 species of giant water bugs worldwide with the largest being up to 150 mm long (6 inches)!
They fly mainly at night and use light sources to orient their flight. Unfortunately, with the advent of artificial light (as opposed to the stars and moon); they often become disoriented and fly till they tire and can be found dead in streets.
In late spring or early summer the adult bugs mate and the female glues her eggs on the stems of emergent vegetation or other structures just above the water's surface. The male remains nearby to protect them and to keep them moist by periodically crawling out of the water and over top of the eggs. The young are called nymphs and hatch in about 2 weeks.
As larvae, giant water bugs obtain oxygen through their cuticle (skin), but the adults must breath air directly. They do this, and remain under water, by means of a snorkel-like appendage at the base of their abdomens. This tube allows for the exchange of air from the atmosphere to a bubble of air trapped under the wings. Air enters the insect's body through holes, called spiracles, in the abdomen.
Giant water bugs, and their nymphs, are fierce predators feeding on small fish, tadpoles, salamanders, even small frogs. They usually hunt by lying-in-ambush clutching a submerged plant or rock with only their breathing tube sticking above the surface. Any passing motion can trigger a rapid "lunge and grab" with the hook-tipped front legs.
Be sure to check out this link should you be lucky enough to catch one (do so CAREFULLY) and wish to keep it in captivity for a time:
I just had to share a powerful word from Beth Moore I read today:
How careful we need to be – as parents, teachers, relatives, leaders, or observers – about telling gifted children how great they are going to be. It is a trap and a forecast Fraser claims rarely pans out. She points out the monumental difference between talent and having a clue what to do with it and (again paraphrasing) how genius rarely exempts people from having to work hard just like everybody else who wants to make it. I’m a big believer in encouraging young people and imitating the Apostle Paul with Timothy by telling them that they are extraordinarily gifted. BUT, as we learned this weekend in Boise, every gift is a trust placed in human hands by a holy God and it is up to each individual to develop the integrity, humility, and work-ethic to know what on earth to do with it. A gift never guarantees success. In the long run as well as the routine day-in and day-out, those with the grit to just keep doing the hard thing will often prove more effective. Gift without grit is a dang waste.
How profoundly wise God’s way is. If we’re willing to follow His paradoxical path on the winding roadmap of Scripture, we have the joy of side-stepping this ankle-breaking trap. So will a few children we’re privileged to train. Living just to be great will prove at least empty and at most unbearable. Spending ourselves for something infinitely greater, however, still fans our parched souls with the God-given need to matter, but relieves us of the relentless pain of being the “It” Person at the center of it. To live for the greatness of God IS to live the great life. Oh, I know we’ve heard it before but what if something in us clicked all the sudden? What if we all at once awakened to what a dream-killer perfectionism is? And to how pitifully small and unworthy a goal personal greatness is? We were meant for so much more. Every one of us who embraces the glory of God as our lofty purpose for living will end up doing great things precisely because we end up doing God-things. His holy hand rested on the least act renders the ordinary extraordinary. Far from the least but sadly uncelebrated, spooning soup into the mouth of the weak and bed-bound or manning the church nursery so a tired mom can go to Sunday School are acts of highest worship when offered in the Name of Christ. Though the arrogant and ignorant minimize and miss it, Christ beholds the sight like a breathtaking work of art, tilting His head and squinting His eyes to study each subtle detail. “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6).
Christ, the very One who called us to abundant, effective life and commanded us to splash in the cool springs of joy while living it, announced the secret to the great life without a hint of contradiction:
Pour it out lavishly, sacrificially for the glory of God and the good of man. Those with presence of mind and semblance of health are called to pour out the drink offering of their lives until the cup is turned completely over and every last drop of energy slips - perhaps unnoticed, uncelebrated – into the vast ocean of earthly need. The last imperceptible drop of your well-lived life will sound like a tidal wave hitting the floor of the Grand Canyon to the hosts of Heaven.
To all of you in the deep with me, pour it out! Faint not! May our life`s testimony be a tidal wave of passion!
Don't miss out on a visit to Oak Hammock Marsh during any nature study. This facility is wonderful:
This 36 km2 Wildlife Management Area features a restored prairie marsh, aspen-oak bluff, waterfowl lure crops, artesian springs, some of Manitoba's last remaining patches of tall-grass prairie and 30 kilometers of trails for you to explore.
Oak Hammock Marsh is home to 25 species of mammals, 300 species of birds, numerous amphibians, reptiles, and fish, and countless invertebrates. During migration season, the number of waterfowl using the marsh during migration can exceed 400,000 daily!
Admission:
Adults - $5
Youth (3 to 17) - $4
Seniors (55+) - $4
Family (2 adults and their children) $18
May 31-June 1 Event List - Sounds of Wildlife Weekend
for wonderful resources on wetlands, wildlife and adventure (Do you know any youth age 13 to 17 who care about wetlands, love spending time outdoors and want to take part in the eco-adventure of a lifetime? Have them apply to be a part of the 2008 Greenwing Adventure.)
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