Over the last few days I have been checking out some of the online advent calendars.  Many I've seen have just been advertising yet more stuff to buy, but here are a few you may find useful:

This one is from Activity Village and every day has a variety of activities suggested and games to play.  There is a fun 'Reindeer Keyboard' game on Day 2.

This is from a school in Kent and has a daily country and its customs to learn about.

The BBC have a couple of interesting pieces about advent, the first here.  They also have a Bach Christmas calendar with loads of information about Bach and some of his music each day.  Beautiful!

And finally, one that's mainly for fun, though we started to learn about time zones through this one last year:  Norad tracks Santa 

I cannot vouch for all the content on these sites, not least because most of the 'doors' are not open yet, but what I've seen so far seems to be okay.

If you have found a 'gem' please do share it with us by leaving a comment.  Thank you!

Enjoy!

Sarah 

The National Trust has many special events on at this time of year.  There are craft fairs, a chance to take part in a Dickensian Christmas, lantern lit walks, carol singing and of course, the opportunity to visit Father Christmas.  Have a look here to see if there's anything local to you.

Enjoy!

Sarah

   This one if from a company called Timberdoodle who sell loads of really amazing resources. They have so many educational toys it is unreal! You can find some really cool things here and with the reduced prices it may make the shipping from the states worthwhile. - Deedee

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   This is the best one! Don't miss this one whatever you do!!! This is a HUGE ebook giveaway that they do every year. There are TONS of great ebooks for FREE!!! (really, free, no strings, I promise!)

   Two hints on this one are check through the list first and make a note of which ones you think you want. There are usually so many that it gets confusing after awhile. LOL! The second hint is to do this one first thing in the morning. This is a MUST! Every year this site seizes up and crashes due to the massive volume of downloads that day. We get the advantage of being able to do our downloads before most of the states has woken up. (See, sometimes the distance is an advantage!)

   So mark your calendars to hit this site first thing on Saturday morning and get a load of free resources before the site gets busy - and best of all they are all FREE!!!!  -Deedee

PS-10AM CST is 4pm our time in the UK. So this sale is running from 4pm Friday till 4pm on Saturday.

You simply can't afford to miss CurrClick's biggest event of the year, BLACK FRIDAY! HUNDREDS of TOTALLY FREE education resources! No Traffic, No Crowds, No Cost!
10:00 am CST Friday, Nov 27th through 10:00 am CST Saturday, Nov 28th.

Plus, get up to 50% off next semester's curriculum during our STOCKING UP YOUR SHELVES SALE!
Nov 27th at 10:00am CST through Tuesday, Dec 15th.

   Another Black Friday deal for you guys that lasts until the first of December. - Deedee

November 24, 2009

Dear Reader,

It's Thanksgiving week. So in the spirit of the holiday, I'd like to give thanks to our Sampler Subscribers: you can save $20 on an online order of $40 or more. Our Secret Sale is the very best savings we've ever offered, and it's only available through this email—you won't hear about this outstanding opportunity anywhere else. But this money-saving special ends on December 1, 2009. Read on for more details or use this link to start saving now— http://www.doverpublications.com/hlp2

Save $20 on More Than 9,000 Books! The Secret Sale is good on every book on our website so it's a great time to get started with your holiday shopping. You'll find great gifts for book lovers of all ages and interests in dozens of different categories. Here's all you need to do:   Start saving now— http://www.doverpublications.com/hlp2 Add a minimum of $40 in merchandise to your shopping cart Use Coupon Code HLP2 during checkout $20 discount is good on all the books on our website, including new releases and bestsellers This special offer ends on December 1, 2009

Not only is the Secret Sale our best offer ever, you can also save with Free Shipping when your order total after your coupon deduction is $50 or more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Best Regards, Mary Davis Dover Publications P.S. Please remember to use Coupon Code HLP2 during checkout when ordering. Use this link for complete information— http://www.doverpublications.com/hlp2

I have just heard about this project on a home ed yahoo group which has been operational for at least a couple of years.  It is called Potatoes for Schools. Although the material goes on about schools, several home educating families have been involved in the last few years.  I have just registered with no problem.  The registration deadline is Friday 5th Feb 2010.

The site says:

Potatoes for Schools offers a valuable learning experience where you can find out where potatoes come from, how they grow, what you can do with them and how they can make primary learning an exciting experience.

 Here are the details of TOS's Schoolhouse Store's Black Friday Sale!

   For those of you who have followed this blog for a year or more you will be aware of 'Black Friday Sales' in the past. For those of you who are newer to the blog - I will explain briefly!

   'Black Friday' is an American term for the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is always the forth Thursday in November. On the next day most people have the day off work and the Christmas sales start in earnest that day! It is about the same as the Boxing day sales here in England.

   Alot of our favourite Homeschooling companies also have great Black Friday sales on that day or the week around Thanksgiving. So we tend to post up the details of those sales as we find notification of them to give you all a heads up.

   It is a day when alot of websites crash from the volume of traffic, so I would suggest if there is a sale you want to take advantage of to do so early in the morning here before the States begin to awake! Once you get to lunchtime here it can be very difficult to manage any downloads.

   So, here are the details of the first sale we have been notified of - the Hands of a Child sale. Remember that alot of these companies have ebook products which we can enjoy without any shipping costs. Enjoy your shopping and watch this space over the next two weeks for notification of all the other great bargains available. - Deedee

   Have you seen the Christmas decorations up in town? Have you been stocking up on special holiday foods and gift wrap yet? Well, here is one more holiday sale - but this time for your homeschool!

   Currclick do instantly downloadable ebooks of Home ed curriculum and resources. If you do pop over to take a look please consider clicking on the Currclick box in the sidebar as that is our affiliate link and we get a small commision on your order if you do. Thanks - Deedee

Hey everyone! The Learning A-Z website is doing their FREE 7 day trial membership to their sites again. Here are the details below. It is a great time to check out the sites and see if you want to subscribe or even just to get a few downloads while they are FREE! Enjoy! - Deedee

Today’s best teachers meet the unique needs of every student. That’s where LearningA-Z.com comes in. Through six integrated websites, LearningA-Z.com provides a wealth of downloadable, printable, projectable, and online resources for every K-6 classroom. But don’t take our word for it — sign up for a free 7-day trial by November 13, 2009 and experience the sites for yourself! Filled with thousands of readers at 27 levels of difficulty, ReadingA-Z.com provides resources for differentiated instruction and improving comprehension. Also contains assessments, worksheets, lesson plan templates, and many other teacher resources! Raz-Kids.com is an interactive reading site where kids can read or listen to 27 levels of animated books online — anytime, anywhere! ScienceA-Z.com delivers science curriculum resources, organized by unit themes and grouped into grade spans, for elementary teachers to teach a concept at each student’s appropriate reading level. WritingA–Z.com provides teachers with all the resources necessary to teach the common process writing genres, including expository, narrative, persuasive, procedural, and transactional. Contains thousands of words placed in content-area, functional, and resource-correlated categories. Teachers can also build their own vocabulary lists and lessons!

I have just been in touch with this lady who is hoping to get this message out to all home edders...

-

Sarah

Message:

I am launching a competition open to home-educated children and young people only. To enter the competition, you need to produce a story about bullying.
Your story may be told in any one of the following 3 formats:
a) a written story
b) a film
c) a comic strip
Whichever format you choose, you must be able to send it to me in digital form, either by e-mail (writing and comic strips) or on a DVD rom (films).

All work submitted will be made public on a website in Anti-Bullying Week (November 16 to 20), unless you wish your work not to be shown, which is fine.
I am in the process of finding judges and prizes, so will let people know more about those when I have arranged them!
If you are interested, contact me as soon as possible for an application form and more details.
Ali    ali@yggdrasil.org.uk    

The Royal Opera House is looking for a young person aged 11-14 to write a fanfare.  You can find out more here http://www.roh.org.uk/education/schoolsandteachers/fanfare.aspx?utm medium=fanfare& emailsource= 4270&utm_ campaign=education& utm_source= fanfare
 or here http://www.numu.org.uk/fanfare/.

The closing date is 12 February 2010.

-

Sarah

Road Safety Week 2009 takes place 23-29 November.

If you go to www.roadsafetyweek.org you will find plenty of information about the week and how you can be involved.  There is an educators section where it is possible to order a free poster pack and to find detailed ideas on teaching about road safety.

-

Sarah

The National Literacy Trust are launching an online survey which will look at attitudes towards reading, attitudes towards writing and the extent to which pupils engage in literacy activities at home with their families.  (Can you tell they were only thinking of asking children in school?) They are looking for 9-16 year old boys and girls from a variety of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds to participate in the study.

They say, "Anyone participating will need to provide children with access to the online survey and will receive a report that will outline some of the findings.  The survey will be running from 16th November to 4th December and can be accessed here  http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/research/attitudes2009.html?dm_i=73S,21DL,OVJAI,6I4S,1

Those wishing to take part need to register their interest before 23rd October."

I wrote to enquire if there would be opportunities for home educated children to participate in the study.  The reply was favourable with the only comment being that, "The only requirement is access to a computer with an internet connection."  So, if you are interested please contact Christina Clark (PhD), Head of Research on christina.clark@literacytrust.org.uk
and she will send you a link to the survey. 

I think it would be fascinating to see how different the attitudes are between home and school educated children, if at all.  Mine are too young to join in at the moment.
 
-

Sarah

Here are a couple of opportunities to have some fun (educational too!) and Help the Aged.

The first is the Great Sunday Lunch which you can find out about here.  It is all about family, friends and neighbours getting together to enjoy lunch and raising money for Age Concern and Help the Aged.  The idea is to invite some guests to a Great Sunday Lunch and ask them to show their appreciation by making a donation.

The second is the Big Knit and links with innocent smoothies and Sainsburys.  The details are all here.  The basic idea is that people are encouraged to knit 'hats' for Smoothie drinks.  For every behatted smoothie sold, innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 35p to Age Concern and Help the Aged. 

They say, "It’s time to get knitting to help older people stay healthy this winter. It’s a sad fact that in the UK, 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 are malnourished. So when it’s nippy outside, it’s even more important for older people to look after themselves and make sure their bodies are in tip top shape.

The monies raised will then be used to fund projects and advice centres offering information on healthy eating as well as cooking clubs and get-togethers where older people can sit down and enjoy a meal in each other’s company. Hot Christmas dinners all round."

-

Sarah

Home educators are entitled to free entry to all CADW properties in Wales, I discovered today (hope I'm not the last to know!)  There is a pass available in the form of a letter, valid for 12 months, which you just show to the custodian on arrival, that is if you don't have to ring beforehand to request an individual permit for a visit.

All you need to do is email your name and address, the name of any othe adult residing at the same address who also home educates, and the number of children to  david.jones5@wales.gsi.gov.uk  and they will send you an annual pass and lots of interesting guides to historic buildings.  

-

Sarah

There is a Family Learning Festival from 17-31 October organised by the campaign for learning (part of the government).  This year’s theme is “Get Together - Discover More!’

There have been grants made available and various home ed groups have applied to do various things, eg. in Manchester there will be a home-ed science lecture.

If you would like to know what is on near you you can call 0800 100 900 and quote 'family fun' or visit http://www.welovelearning.co.uk/ 

There is also a film competition:  "Whatever you enjoy learning... tell us or teach us in a short film and be in with a chance to win £500 in the TLP competition."  Closing date for entries is 30th November.  It would be great if it was won by a home-edder!

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Sarah

Did you need an excuse to learn about, cook with and eat chocolate?  Well, here it is:

Chocolate week October 12-18, 2009 

You can find out all about it here.  If you look around the site you will find that there are chocolate tasting sessions booked for all over the country - yummmmmm! (Though I noticed nothing too close to me - sigh!)

Enjoy!

-

Sarah

Oh, here I am again telling you about something else food related!

This does sound good:  National Baking Week - can't you just imagine the smell and taste?

It runs from 19-25 October and you can find out more here.

There is a 'teacher's section' here.  You will need to register to access their downloads.  Under 'school' I simply typed 'Home educator' and there was no problem with that.

-

Sarah