Homeschool Nations - Michigan

Feb. 1, 2008

Free Pretzel Day at Auntie Anne's - Sat. Feb. 2

Auntie Anne's® celebrates its 20th Birthday with Free Pretzel Day -- February 2nd!

Auntie Anne's is turning 20! To kick-off its 20th birthday celebration, Auntie Anne's is hosting a Free Pretzel Day on February 2nd at stores nationwide! Stop by your local Auntie Anne's on February 2nd between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to try one complimentary Original or Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel -- no strings attached. That's right; enjoy a free delicious, mouth-watering, freshly baked Auntie Anne's Pretzel.

http://www.auntieannes.com/

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Jan. 29, 2008

Free day at the Waterpark & end up in a commercial!

Posted in FREE stuff

Update:

ATTENTION HOME SCHOOLERS AND FRIENDS...

DUE TO AN OVERWHELMING RESPONSE, WE ARE CLOSING OFF THE FREE ADMISSIONS FOR FEBRUARY 5TH AS OF TODAY, TUESDAY JANUARY 29TH.....

THANKS TO YOUR AMAZING NETWORKING "SKILLS" WE HAVE CLOSE TO 300 GUESTS SIGNED UP!

PLEASE INFORM THOSE IN YOUR NETWORK, AND TELL EVERYONE WE APPRECIATE THEIR SUPPORT...

AND REMEMBER THAT WE HOST HOME SCHOOLER DAYS ON THE 2ND MONDAY OF EACH MONTH

(except in May will be on May 19th)

Attention Home Schoolers, and others who have school aged children
that can come to the waterpark during the daytime hours of 10am-3pm...

On Tuesday February 5th, we are in need of LOTS of school age kids to
be in the waterpark from 10am-3pm or so, as we are shooting a new TV commercial.. ...
so, as a bonus, your kids could end up on TV!

We are inviting YOU and your children to come to the Waterpark for FREE...
as long as you arrive by 11am, and sign a model release form.....thats
the only requirement!

Please let me know by responding to this email, so we can be sure we
are going to have enough kids in the waterpark that day. We appreciate your past patronage, and
hope you will join us on this fun day!

Thanks,

Bill Knopp, CHME
bknopp@splashuniver se.com
Director of Sales
Holiday Inn Express & Splash Universe
100 Whitetail Dr
Dundee, MI 48131
Direct Line: 734-828-5008

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Aug. 29, 2007

Homeschool Free Stuff

Posted in FREE stuff

Check this out!

http://www.homeschoolfreestuff.com/

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Aug. 29, 2007

More Great Freebies 2

Posted in FREE stuff

Thank you to Julie from Virginia and Marie Duval-Igarta from Washington State for sharing this assortment of freebies!

American History Curriculum (from a Homeschool Group)

This free American history curriculum, originally designed for third
graders (but adaptable for second through sixth graders) is a hefty
82-page printable. We appreciate our fellow homeschoolers who shared
this work!

www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/ history/american historyindex. html

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OnePlace Kids - Free Christian Audio Resources Online

On this website, your kids may enjoy the classic Christian radio
programs such as Down Gilead Lane, Adventures in Odyssey, and more.
OnePlace has many audio programs archived for adults, too. If your
busy schedule makes it hard to hear your favorite Christian radio
programs when they air, this may be one answer.

www.oneplace.org/kids

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Huge Lesson Plan Search Engine

This search engine lets you look for lesson plans and student
materials (including some great interactives) by grade level and
subject. Your editor was particularly impressed with the quality and
variety here. They also have a free e-newsletter (on hiatus while they
redesign it) with extensive archives of back issues.

www.marcopolosearch org/mpsearch/ basic_search. asp

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Bible Lesson Book to Read and Color

This 36-page booklet is a free printable from World Missionary Press,
a ministry that prints the Word for missionary use. Print one for your
youngster to color while you read and one for a friend.

www.wmpress. org/kidskorner/ Eng%20HIR- web-lowres. pdf

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The Revolution Against Evolution: Books (and More) Online

There are several complete books, as well as many articles, available
for free on this creation-science website. Click on "online books" in
the left margin.

http://rae.org

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Weather Wiz Kids

Whatever section you choose has fairly simple information on the
subject, plus lesson plans at the bottom of the page. The optical
illusions are neat. Check the section on temperature to learn about
the heat index!

www.weatherwizkids.com

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Virtual Keyboard

This fun, short-range keyboard lets you select the instrument sound
(piano, organ, saxophone, pan pipes, and more) and play a little tune.
It could be a fun break for the youngsters if your household doesn't
include a real keyboard.

www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_FTP/client_FTP/ks2/music/piano/pan_pipes.htm

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Lil' Fingers Pre-School Site

Read a storybook, play a game, or color a picture on this preschool site.

www.lil-fingers.com/index.html

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Aug. 29, 2007

.More great freebies!

Posted in FREE stuff

We bloggers share information on some great resources. Here is one I received in my e-mail not too long ago.

I hear that this is a great social science link. An educational, multigenerational project, it offers free online activities and guides, books, essay contests, workshops, exhibits, community programs, and more. It's called the Legacy Project @ http://www.tcpnow. com !

Also, for everyone who doesn't know about Homeschool Tracker, a free record tracking software @ http://www.homescho oltracker. com/! It's fantastic.

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Aug. 29, 2007

Five In A Row (FIAR) FREE podcast!

Posted in FREE stuff

Steve Lambert (husband and father to the two authors) is a wonderful speaker. They are starting a new pod-cast (free!) in the next month or so. Typically Steve's talks
are REALLY encouraging no matter what curriculum you use.

http://www.fiarhq. com/~gbprnhrz/ forum/showthread .php?t=16717

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Nov. 2, 2006

Free Geography Sites and Resources!!!

Posted in FREE stuff

Excerpts from Knowledge Quest Newsletter
by:

Terri Johnson

Knowledge Quest, Inc.

www.knowledgequestmaps.com

877.697.8611

Knowledge Quest, Inc., 4210 Misty Glade, San Antonio, TX 78247, USA

Best Online Geography Sites (and they're all free!!)

ONLINE GAMES AND QUIZZES

1.Sheppard Software has provided many free and fun to play geography games at their website - http://www.sheppard software. com/Geography. htm. There are various levels of play so that your beginners and advanced students alike can find something to hold their interest. You do need to have Flash Player 6 or higher on your computer to be able to play these games, but no other downloading is necessary. The instructions are minimal, so it takes a few minutes to get the hang of the games in some instances (or at least it did for me!). Also, they do have other games across the curriculum, so feel free to check out their science and vocabulary games as well - plus many others!

2.If you or your children like puzzles, then you will love this website! At this website - http://www.yourchil dlearns.com/ geography. htm - you can either play with the on-line puzzle maps, or you can download them to your own computer. If you would rather not download them, here is the direct link to the online map puzzles - http://www.yourchil dlearns.com/ map-puzzles. htm. These are a lot of fun and a great learning tool for kids of all ages (yes, even adults!).

3. Take National Geographic's Geography Bee quiz! These questions can be fairly tough, but you get a second and even third chance to get them right (there are only 3 choices per question) thereby allowing you to KNOW the answer, which you are unlikely to forget. Also, the questions are new every day, so you can play every day and get new questions to answer. Very fun! Here's the website - http://www.national geographic. com/geobee

4. Test your knowledge of world or regional geography with this fun quiz at http://www.lizardpo int.com/fun/ geoquiz/. A great aspect of this game is that children can see improvement quickly, even by their second round at the same quiz. Builds confidence and knowledge!

5.This quiz site - http://www.ilike2le arn.com/ilike2le arn/geography. asp - allows you to not only learn about the countries and capitals of the world, but also the mountains and bodies of water. If you need a hint, or the answer, it comes in the form of a pop-up, so you may need to disable your pop-up blocker. This site seems to add new games frequently. Great learning tool!

6.Another great quiz site - http://www.actionqu iz.com/quiz. php?trivia= geography. Here you can play against other kids and teachers and see if you can win. You do not have to use your real name (no reason to, so don't!) and the game uses a pop-up window. So, if your computer blocks pop-ups, you either have to disable that feature to play, or if you get a message that allows you to open the pop-up, you can go about it that way. Warning: this is a fun game to play and rather addicting. After playing five times against some strong opponents, I finally won!

7.This website - http://www.geosense .net - also allows you to play alone of against another player. You are asked to not only identify countries of the world but cities as well. It is quite challenging and also very addicting. I played six rounds against my opponent and only won twice (and I thought I knew my geography like the back of my hand - reality check!). If you do not mind that your scores are not recorded in their log, you can play as a guest. Or create a login ID to keep track of your scores and establish an identity at this site.

8.This quiz site - http://www.garyradl ey.com/games - has both "find" games and "quiz" games giving your students a well-rounded familiarity with the countries of the world. My only trouble with these particular games was that it was sometimes difficult to click on the correct country because the hand spread over more than one country area. But overall, this is a great site to round out your online geography games.

GREAT REPORT SITES

Atlapedia and CountryReports are two great sites for general information. If your child or student needs to find some facts on a given country or view/print some maps for a particular region of the world, Atlapedia is a great all purpose website for gathering information for research papers, etc. - The website is http://www.atlapedi a.com/index. html. Full color physical and political maps are available. Also, CountryReports lets you drill down on a world map to the country you are interested in and gives you some great facts and information and maps of that area. The website is http://www.countryr eports.org/.

JUST MAPS - BUT REALLY COOL MAPS!

Do your kids like all kinds of maps - satellite, physical, political, even weather? Then they will enjoy creating their own maps at this site - http://plasma. nationalgeograph ic.com/mapmachin e/index.html.

Would you like to see what the earth looks like a night as seen from space. This view of the world was taken from photos of the earth at night from a satellite. The earth is lit only from the city lights of civilization. Spectacular! - http://antwrp. gsfc.nasa. gov/apod/ ap001127. html

Okay, everyone knows about Google Earth, right? This is an incredible piece of software that is taken from actual photographs of the earth. In fact you can zoom right down into your own backyard. Mind-boggling! The software needs to be downloaded onto your computer. It is located here - http://earth. google.com/

FUN VIDEO SITES

Yes, this is one of my favorites! At this website - http://www.animated atlas.com - you can watch a five or ten minute video about the growth of our nation. Superb and educational!

TEACHER RESOURCES

Are you in need of some worksheets to print out that will reinforce the geography you are teaching to your students. Here is a great site with lots of printables (my computer tells me that is not a word, but I think you know what I mean) - http://www.tlsbooks .com/geographywo rksheets. htm.

This site gives you contact information of places where you can receive free geography materials - http://www.ed. gov/pubs/ parents/Geograph y/free.html

This has been so exciting researching these free sites for you. If these games are played often and these resources tapped into and used, your students will gain tremendous knowledge and retention in the realm of geography (SO WILL YOU!). And it will be painless! That is the part I love! Have fun!

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Nov. 2, 2006

Educational Freeware!!

Posted in FREE stuff

From the site's Home page:

"Welcome to www.educational-freeware.com! This site is dedicated to listings, descriptions and reviews of the best free educational software for kids and adults.

Some of the software is web based (see the online section), and some is Windows software that you can download (see the downloadable section)."

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Nov. 1, 2006

Free Audio Book - Runt The Brave

Posted in FREE stuff

Free award-winning audio book - Runt the Brave (Our Sponsor)

This unique animal fantasy won critical acclaim and the 2005 Ben
Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Children's Literature.

"Schwabauer combines the best of Narnia, Middle Earth, and his own
talent in this unforgettable retelling of David & Goliath." - Church
Libraries

"Set in the land of Tira-Nor, one little mouse is the world's only
hope against an invading army of terrible rats. A thrilling adventure
of putting one's courage to the test in dire situations" - Midwest
Book Review

Download a new chapter every week by subscribing to the free mp3
podcast at:

http://www.clearwaterpress.com/CWP/Podcast/Podcast.html

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Homeschool happenings in Michigan.