Eclectic Homeschool Online Newsletter
April 15, 2008
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I hate April 15...or should I say, I hate taxes. All the forms, figures, and complications get to me although I use tax software. You can almost tell when Mom's been working on taxes because I get very grumpy. The article Let's Not Be Fooled sort of flowed out of that frustration. We're focusing on finishing up with this update, but primarily about finishing the school year for those homeschoolers who keep a more traditional calendar. For some, that means figuring out what to do with all the stuff you've accumulated over the year. For others it's figuring out a way to keep track of things accomplished and things yet to accomplish. For others, it may be ending their homeschooling career as their youngest graduates. Wherever you are in this homeschooling spectrum, we have articles and resources that should give you help and encouragement to wade through finishing your school year.
May is looming and with it the end of the school year. If you're not a year-round-schooler, you may be looking forward to tossing everything in a box and locking it away for the summer before collapsing into a chair and heaving a huge sigh of relief. Don't. Not yet.
Getting a tax refund this year? Makes that tax bite seem not quite so bad, but have you really thought about how much money you paid in income tax? Do you know exactly how long you unofficially work for the government to pay your annual tax payments before you begin putting money in your own pocket? April 23, 2008 is the official Tax Freedom Day calculated by the Tax Foundation. Americans spend nearly one-third of the year working to pay their taxes. I guess how you think of taxes depends on which numbers you look at and how you crunch them into pertinent statistics. Statistics can fool you. We've listed resources to help you learn how to deal with the many statistics bandied about in the news to increase yours and your children's knowledge.
May Day Resources
Good Stories for Great Holidays: May Day
* The Snowdrop
* The Stream that Ran Away
* The Three Little Butterfly Brothers
* The Water-Drop
Good Stories for Great Holidays: Mother's Day
* Cornelia's Jewels
* The Lark and Its Young Ones
* The Revenge of Coriolanus
Springtime Gift Giving
It is spring, and the annual gift giving panic sets in. As the wedding season approaches, you realize that you will also need to consider graduation and teacher gifts. And let's not forget Mother's Day! These occasions combined with the usual birthdays, anniversaries, and baby showers, can be overwhelming financially. By gathering supplies and planning, you will be able to make beautiful gifts for all these occasions.
Mother's Day Crafts in A Year in Crafts: May Crafts
Several ideas perfect making gifts for mom or grandma.
Racing to the Finish
What's a Mom to do when that finish line is approaching and she's getting tired of the struggle to coax, encourage, prod, and push her kids towards it?
Preparing a Transcript
Most colleges require a high school transcript from applicants. If you are like many eclectic homeschoolers, your child may have what seems like a crazy quilt education. How can you put all that he has into the structured format of a typical transcript?
To Organize or Not to Organize...Do I Really Have To? Colored Storage Bins and Other Tales for the Organizationally Challenged
Part of being better organized is the way you organize.
Lasting Memories
Can you see yourself in this picture? Your family just completed the unit study of your dreams. You're at the end, and you're thinking there must be more. What can you do with all of the fabulous projects, the stack of photos, and your memories of the fun?
Looking to the Future
My youngest son graduates in May.
These words, when I began homeschooling, were the farthest things from my mind. Teaching two boys to read seemed accomplishment enough; graduating them was a goal for the distant future. Now the future is here.
by Cafi Cohen
With more than 1.5 million children being homeschooled nationwide, the number of college applicants coming from a homeschooling environment continues to grow. In Homeschoolers' College Admissions Annual, 2001, you will find the essential information you need to help your child through this transition. From finding the right college, to organizing the correct college introductory work, to helping their child emotionally through this important change, Cafi Cohen offers invaluable information to the homeschooling parent readying his or her child for higher education, including record-keeping and organization of transcripts, details about the admissions process and financial aid, and special requirements colleges request of homeschoolers.
Creating Portfolios: A Teacher's Guide to Creating Portfolios
by Martin Kimeldorf
A portfolio is a powerful tool for learning, assessment, and self-discovery. In some school districts, portfolios are being mandated into the curriculum. This companion guide suggests ways to implement and evaluate portfolios at various grade levels and adapt them for students with special needs. Includes reproducibles.
The Organized Home Schooler
by Vicki Caruana
A veteran educator has compiled her most-requested homeschooling workshop material so that families can become more proficient in educating their kids. Covering issues like time management, space usage, and materials, Vicki Caruana addresses a variety of organizational needs to help families structure not only their work areas, but also their thinking, their paperwork--and each other! By the book's end, she inspires readers to re-evaluate, reorganize, and form new habits, leaving behind the stress and inefficiency of a cluttered life.
A Year in Crafts: May
NEW: Bath Bombs, Flower Pen & Holder, A Sweet Bouquet for Mother's Day MORE: Key Chain For Mom, Activ-Clay Coil Pot, Learn to Knit, Easy Knit Headbands, Easy Stitch Knit Baby Blanket, Knit Purse, Stained Glass Book Marks, Vase with Cascading Flowers, Safari Animal Projects
Science Spot
Better Understanding Hurricane Trajectories Learned from Patterns on Soap Bubbles
Soap bubbles are helping scientists get a better understanding of cyclones and hurricanes.
If you haven't stopped by our weblinks index lately, we've added seven new links and will add more with each update. These non-commercial educational sites offer information on everything from ballet to dissecting a cow's eye.
New Reviews
* The Complete Zoo Adventure: A Field Trip in a Book
* The Drawing Breakthrough Book: A Shortcut to Artistic Excellence
* Family Driven Faith
* The Imperfect Homeschoolers' Guide to Homeschooling
* Journey into the Unknown (DVD)
* Our Island Story, Volumes 3 and 4 (audiobook)
* Roll It Tic-Tac-Toe
* Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story (DVD)
* This Country of Ours, Part 4: Stories of the Middle and Southern Colonies (audiobook)
EHO Resource Center
by Michael Leppert, Mary Leppert
$16.47 – 34% Off
The Homeschooling Book of Lists is a comprehensive, authoritative, and user-friendly resource for homeschoolers or anyone considering teaching their child at home. Written by Michael and Mary Leppert, two experts in the field of homeschooling, this easy-to-use book is filled with information, tips, and resources that will help you give your child an outstanding education.
The book covers a wide variety of topics—including what to consider before homeschooling, state-by-state guidelines for homeschoolers, curriculum resources by subject area, and getting your homeschooled student into college.
Available May 9. Pre-orders receive an additional 5% discount.
New Resources
Little Women by DVDBookshelf
$11.99 – 7% Off
Little Women, a literary classic based on the childhood experiences of author Louisa May Alcott, explores the joy and hardships of four sisters growing up during the Civil War. Through the experiences of each sister, tomboy and writer Jo, vain and beautiful Meg, frail Beth, and spoiled Amy, Alcott slips in little life lessons that are as important today as they were back when the novel was published in 1868. Little Women includes dramatized narration by award winning narrator Laural Merlington, with on screen displays of the text so your children, friends and family can read along, or simply listen. Over 150 Illustrations from Frank Thayer Merrill enhance the visual presentation.
Complete Unabridged Narration on DVD. Also contains entire novel as an MP3 Audiobook. Total Running Time = 18.5 Hours
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (8th Edition)
by Neil Browne, Stuart Keeley
$37.60
This highly popular text helps students to bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. It teaches them to respond to alternative points of view and develop a solid foundation for making personal choices about what to accept and what to reject. While the structure of this new edition remains the same, for the sake of currency and relevance about two-thirds of the practice passages are new, as well as many of the longer illustrations and the final critical thinking case. Also, this eighth edition has been revised to emphasize the positive value of critical thinking as a means to autonomy, curiosity, reasonableness, openness, and better decisions.
A Visual Dictionary of Architecture
by Francis D. K. Ching
$29.70 – 34% Off
A Visual Dictionary of Architecture is a remarkable, on-of-a-kind compendium which uses a combination of textual definitions and hundreds of superb line drawings to illuminate a comprehensive body of essential terms in architecture, including important interrelationships between building components. Grouped by themes, such as history, systems, structures, forms, construction, environmental issues, and behavior, all terms have their visual complement and can be readily accessed in a number of different ways. A Visual Dictionary of Architecture is an authoritative source of information for anyone tracking down an elusive word, and a delight for simple armchair browsing!
Haba Pyramid Set – block set
by Haba
$24.56 – 39% Off
Recreate one of the famous pyramids of Egypt – complete with meandering passageways and mysterious chambers. 49 wooden blocks in 20 shapes includes sphinx and palm tree pieces.
Stories From The Silk Road
by Cherry Gilchrist, Nilesh Mistry
$11.94 – 15% Off
The Spirit of the Silk Road is your guide as you journey through this book from Chang-an to Samarkand, following one of the arterial caravan routes of the silk traders. As you travel across treacherous deserts and through lonely mountain passes, you will learn about the importance of silk as a commodity, see some of the distinctive customs of the Central Asia people, and join in many storytelling sessions at starlit oases and campfires.
Building Big: Domes
David Macaulay
$17.99 – 10% Off
Where gods meet and players play–discover the domed wonders of the world. What holds up the Astrodome? Why did the Romans leave a hole in the roof of the Pantheon? Tour the world and trace the 2000-year history of domes with award-winning author-illustrator—and captivating storyteller—David Macaulay (The Way Things Work). From Houston's Astrodome to Rome's St. Peter's Cathedral, to the geodesic domes of Buckminster Fuller, Domes introduces ingenious designers, recounts rarely told heroic stories, and reveals amazing triumphs through spectacular film footage, fascinating facts, and dramatic recreations.
* DVDBookshelf
* Statistics
* Architecture and Art
* Architecture Videos
* Careers in Architecture
* Famous Architects
* General Architecture Books
* Hands-On Architecture Resources
* History of Architecture
If you receive benefit from the articles and resources at the Eclectic Homeschool Online, we heartily request that you let us know by using our Eclectic Homeschool Resource Center to purchase books, videos, toys, games, crafts and more. We get a small percentage of the total sale price of the items you purchase, whether you clicked on them from an EHO Resource Center page or not. Just the decision to enter Amazon via EHO will allow us to receive earnings from your purchases. So, if you've ever wished you could donate money to EHO but never have the extra funds to do so (we understand tight budgets!), you can do so just by shopping and getting great deals on homeschool and other purchases through the Eclectic Homeschool Resource Center. We thank all those that have chosen to do so. During the first half of April, your purchases have garnered $54.55 for EHO. Thank you!
Look for our Shop Amazon - Fund EHO Link posted throughout the EHO website or visit the EHO Resource Center main page at http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/
Eclectic Homeschool Resource Directory
We've added 6 new listings to the EHO Resource Directory. The Directory is a great place to find small companies that focus on the many aspects of homeschooling. If you're looking for something new or a little different, try browsing our Directory. We currently have 588 listings in 88 categories.
New Listings
If you're interested in listing your business in the directory, please visit the following page to submit a commercial or non-commercial website. http://eclectichomeschool.org/info/submit_listing.asp
Our latest advertisers
PammyJ Fashions
Fun girls clothing, 12M-6X,100% cotton, comfortable.
Educational Toys, Games and Puzzles
Busy Bee Toys specializes in educational toys, games and puzzles. All homeschoolers receive a 10% discount with coupon code HOMESCHOOL.
http://www.busybeetoystore.com/
OnlineHome-School.net This informational site includes listings of online and correspondence schools as well as a custom search engine designed to find online homeschool programs. http://onlinehome-school.net/
Stop by CJPress.net for the latest offerings from CJ Press. CJ Press specializes in books on homeschooling and Christian living. They also offer reprints of antique and vintage books, lovingly reproduced from the originals. Currently, CJ Press is featuring the eBook See, I Told Me So!: Homeschool Veterans Declare You Can Stop Worrying and the eWorkshop Cherry Pie: Recipe for a Successful Christian Homeschool.
Visit CJ Press at http://cjpress.net
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The Lord bless and keep you,
Beverly Krueger
Eclectic Homeschool Online
http://eclectichomeschool.org
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The Eclectic Homeschool Online is a homeschool magazine and community for creative homeschoolers offering information, resources and encouragement by and for homeschoolers. http://eclectichomeschool.org We also offer resource for beginners at EHO Lite. http://eho.org/Yahoo! Groups Links
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